Today's For Better or For Worse strip (found at fborfw.com) is all too familiar a scene around our house. Seems like almost every day, I will *finally* manage to get the baby down for a nap, only to have my 3-year-old yell for my attention. And since we live in a two-bedroom apartment, when my kid yells, it is heard throughout the house, even if the door is shut. Open pop the baby's eyes, and we are back to ground one.
When we first brought Zac home from the hospital, I was determined to not make a big deal out of my older son making noise and bothering my sleeping baby. I figured, if the baby just learned to sleep through that stuff, then he wouldn't require quiet to sleep. Well, it did work out that way for the first few months; and sometimes, he still is good about sleeping through noise. But somewhere along the way, the strategy stopped working so well. My baby became a curious being. An awareness came to him. He became interested in what was going on around him, particularly in what his big brother might be saying or doing.
Simply put, if Zac is aware that his big brother is anywhere near or thinks he might be doing anything remotely interesting, he WILL NOT SLEEP. This is a big challenge.
It poses a challenge at bedtime, because our boys share a room. So Nick and I are required to "divide and conquer," me taking the baby and Nick taking our oldest. Nick will pray with Gabe and read to him in bed, and then put on some music until Gabe falls asleep. I will get Zac ready for bed in our room and nurse him down in the bed. Once he's fast asleep, and Gabe is asleep, we will transfer the baby to his bed. Sometimes, Zac will join Gabe and Daddy for storytime while I get myself ready for bed; but eventually I still have to take him out, because Gabe also has a hard time getting to sleep if his baby brother is in the room.
Sometimes Zac just ends up sleeping all night in our bed.
Naptime poses a challenge, too. Gabe hardly ever takes naps anymore, and the afternoon seems to be the time when he wants the most attention from me and is least inclined to entertain himself. Many days, I just don't even stres about Zac's naptime, figuring he'll just eventually crash if he needs to.
Other days, though, I can tell he really needs to sleep or he will get overtired and cranky. These are the days I will take him in to my room and lay down with him and nurse him to sleep. Sometimes this takes over a half-hour; it makes me sleepy, too. Oftentimes, Zac will be almost asleep, and then Gabe will walk into the room and start talking to me and the baby will wake up again. Argh. Sometimes I will put Gabe in front of the television to keep him away; but since I have been trying to "wean" him off the TV, I don't like to do this very often.
Sometimes Gabe asks to lay down with me and the baby; but if I try doing this, he will lay down for all of five seconds, before going crazy and trying to jump on the bed, or head-bang his little brother. This is not good.
Yet we manage somehow. Even though our boys are both night-owls and like to stay up later than most kids, they also sleep in much later than most kids. Gabe especially will sleep in until 9 or later most mornings. So this is when I encourage Zac to take advantage of the quiet time and get some more sleep himself (usually in my bed), and typically he obliges.
Now, all I have to dread is the occasional morning when both boys wake up at exactly the same time, both crying for my attention. But really, that happens only seldomly.
Life is an adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment