Re: [ozmidwifery] Infant Sleep

[suzi and brett]

Title: Infant Sleep

Megan you are an awesome woman - and to think of all the volunteer work you do for the birth community in adelaide to boot. thankyou.   to think i used to be jelous of you seeming to have the perfect child (your first) who played happily thru post natal yoga while mine cried every week and all night as well.  I guess it just shows the randomness of these little babies patterns, parents just can't know what they are going to get and each one is so different. and your right most of the time its all about surrendering - literally!  gving up and letting them be whoever it is they are...thankfully after about 10 months my baby sorted himself out and has been a fanstatic sleeper ever since. love suzi x ----- Original Message ----- From: Megan & Larry To: ozmidwifery Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 10:16 PM Subject: [ozmidwifery] Infant Sleep We started co-sleeping with our third child, he was demand fed and boy , that was exactly what we did, 24/7. He slept for 45 mins a few times a day, and about 9hrs a night waking every 1-2 hours and needing rocking or patting often through the night. With a 3yr and 1 1/2 yr old to look after as well, not much room for a day sleep. No wonder I was sooo TIRED. He didn't sleep through a whole night until he was over 2, by which I was pregnant again and going to do it all again. He still needs much less sleep than an average child. Not complaining or bragging, just sharing what is a variation of normal. What helped me at the time was having a couple of friends with similar philosophies who were also doing it much the same as me. Fortunately our next baby was a better sleeper, doesn't feed quite so much, but at 16 mths is still 99% breastfed and wakes at night anything from 1 feed for the night to every hour or so. Sleep deprivation is the cruellest of things, we should wear a big badge warning people of how much sleep we've had so they know in advance not to expect too much. I have come to the conclusion to not expect too much from your baby, then you can't be dissapointed and just let it be what it will be. Good luck with it, Megan (Mum to 4 little boys)