Sleep, Elusive Sleep

My third baby slept well as a newborn, better than my other two. She “slept through the night” within weeks, if you count sleeping the requisite five hours in a row as “sleeping through the night” when it takes place from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.! I did not wake her to nurse as I knew she was getting enough milk by her wet and dirty diaper output, and her appropriate weight gain. I was not about to ruin a good thing!

Once the school year started in September though, my first grader and preschooler began bringing home every illness to make the school rounds, including The Cough That Won’t Go Away. Thanks to the immune-boosting powers of breast milk, Nicole fared the best of us, even avoiding influenza altogether in spite of her not getting a flu shot and in spite of her 4-year-old sister’s constant “loving” on her and coughing on her!

Unfortunately she could not avoid getting a stuffy nose eventually, and trouble breathing made it harder for her to fall asleep and stay asleep. It’s those times I am glad we are breastfeeding and co-sleeping and I do not have to get out of bed to tend to her needs. Even better, nursing acts as a soother, healer, nourisher, and hydrator (okay fine, those last two are not technically words, but you know what I mean).

After many nights of interrupted sleep, I finally got a good stretch of sleep two nights ago. When I woke it was still dark out, but I felt so good I thought it must be time to get up soon. I checked the clock. The time? 3 a.m. I guess 4-5 hours of sleep feels like heaven when you haven’t been getting that many hours in a row in a while! (For the record, lest you think I take such sleep for granted, my first daughter was about two and a half years old before I consistently got that much sleep. Each child is different and each child has different physical and emotional needs.)

Thank goodness I got that sleep under my belt, because last night was the worst night yet. I lost track of the number of night-wakings, not that I usually wake up enough to keep score (I just marvel at the number of diapers in the pail in the morning)!

The other day when we went camping (yes, we went camping in the travel trailer with a four-month-old, but that’s a story for another day), the man in the neighboring campsite inquired about how we slept and said that he “slept like a baby.” I laughed and told him he had obviously forgotten how poorly babies sleep!

So in this holiday season, my wish for all nursing mothers, Christian or not:

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace.