Sleep - Eight (Twelve?) Years In

Anyone who had read any part of either of my blogs for any amount of time know that I’ve spent more time and words complaining about sleep than any person really has a right to do.

To be blunt, I’ve been sleep deprived for, oh about twelve years. I know! And yes, it sucks.

But it’s probably my fault that my children weren’t better sleepers as babies and toddlers. I’ll admit that I never ‘sleep trained’ them. I never made them cry it out. I never put them to bed awake and walked away. I never ignored them in the middle of the night.

And yes, gasp, I co-slept with both of them.

But in the past, oh six months or so, something has shifted and everyone is finally, FINALLY, sleeping in their own beds. And most of the time, everyone is sleeping all night long.

Sure, a couple of times a week, Olivia will either call to me from her bed or come find me because she woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep without a kiss and perhaps a back scratch at three a.m. But the majority of nights find us all going to our own beds, falling asleep all by ourselves and waking up the next morning with nary a peep in the night.

And let me tell you…it is a beautiful thing.

Another beautiful thing? Olivia ASKS to go to bed these days. When she’s tired she doesn’t just want to sit on the couch with her head in my lap and my hand scratching her back/arm/thumb web, instead she wants to go up to her room, get into her bed and go to sleep with no help from me whatsoever.

Can you even imagine?

I am here to assure those who are in the throes of sleep struggles that it gets better. Sure, it might take over eight years but it does get better.

What do you mean, that doesn’t make you feel better? I just said that it gets better. Maybe not tomorrow, or next month or even in two or three years but someday everyone will sleep all night long in their own beds.

And get this, if you’re a lazy parent like I am? These things will happen all by themselves with not intervention needed from you. Just be patient and know that at some point, perhaps when your kids are twelve and eight, they won’t be waking you up two or three times a night every night.

Yeah, I don’t think I’m helping anyone, am I?