Elusive sleep

I would not classify Soren as a bad sleeper, but gosh I wish he were sleeping through the night by now. Earlier this month I thought we were making progress because he was only getting up once or twice a night. But then once or twice became always twice and before I knew it, I couldn't keep track of how much I was up at night with him.  We were a long ways away from those tiring nights during weeks two through six of Soren's life when he was up every one to two hours and I often didn't fall asleep between feedings.  It hadn't been bad like that, but when his multiple waking started developing a schedule, (when has yet to have a daytime nap schedule) I had visions of Soren being eight, nine, ten months old and still waking up multiple times a night.  The parents of those kids want to pull their hair out. 

A few weeks ago I told Chris, "Soren has until President's Day weekend to start sleeping through the night, or..."

Before I could finish, Chris jumped in. "Or you're gonna give him back?" he asked.

"Of course not!" I cried.

No, I meant it'd be time for an intervention.  Presidents' Day weekend seemed logical because there was an extra night to the weekend and seasoned parents always recommend staging interventions that are going to cause loss of sleep on weekends when you have less to loose with sleep-deprivation.  Two days later, it was in the middle of the week and 1:50 a.m., and my impatience had peaked.  The intervention was starting right then.  I was already sleep-deprived, so it couldn't get that much worse, I reasoned.  Besides, I didn't think I'd make it to Presidents' Day. 

Although I strongly believe that kids need to learn to soothe themselves, I'm honest that it's not easy. Soren cried a lot that first night, and then even more the third night, (he only woke up once that second night and I naively thought we were past the worst) and I think being so tired was all that kept me from leaping out of bed as I lay there thinking I was a bad mother and wondering whether Soren was going to grow up hating me.  (Sleep deprivation does crazy things to the mind.)

Despite the restless nights, Soren woke up smiling each morning and excited to see me.  And I was happy we'd staged the intervention, because other than a two-night set-back a week later, Soren's been consistenly going to bed between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. and sleeping until around 4:30 a.m.  I feed him and then we both go back to sleep.

I still long for the time when I'll really get to sleep through the night, but for now, at least we've got a maneagable routine going.  Now I've just gotta brace myself for whatever the next sleep transition is.