And sleep goes right out the window

We have confronted a large stumbling block in our household - sleep. Owen doesn't like it. He screams and thrashes and makes himself pretty miserable for a couple hours every night. We are currently trying to determine every possible thing that could be causing such behavior, and how to confront it and still get enough sleep on our end. 

Our daycare teacher, Tara, said although Owen seemed a little young to be experiencing them, it was probably night terrors.  A little investigation does seem to point to them as the culprit. We have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday to go over this with our pediatrician, and hopefully we'll come to some kind of resolution or action-plan. 

Until then, please be nice to us. We are very, very tired. Last night after an hour of rocking an inconsolable, sobbing Owen, I finally wrapped him in his blanket as tight as possible, and he fell asleep for the rest of the night. 

Back to School/Work

Today was my first day back at school/work. I did pretty well - I only cried twice. It was definitely the longest time I'd been away from Owen, and even though he was with Dave all day, I worried and fretted and felt a bit lost wandering the halls of the SU Law School.

The Office of Student Life has provided me with a private room where I can pump milk during the day, so Owen will continue to be breast fed from afar.

When I came home this afternoon, everyone was exhausted from our first day apart, so the whole family took a group nap on the bed. It felt great.

"Sleep Like a Baby" vs. "Cat Nap"

The term, "sleep like a baby" doesn't make much sense to us. We use it to mean we slept really, really well. Conked out. Zzzz. But every baby we know sleeps through loud things like car alarms and construction vehicles, while starting awake when someone walks past his or her room. Shouldn't we use the term to mean we slept through an earthquake but woke up when someone sneezed?

We've encountered a very curious phenomenon in our house. Owen cat naps and our cats sleep like babies. Owen takes short 30 minutes naps throughout the day, and Purna sleeps under the bed for 5, 6, 7 hours at a time. Hmm.

A Snoozer

Whenever we meet up for play dates with Owen's friend, Myah, he is asleep. He has slept through almost every play date in three months, including the time Myah cried and fussed from a fever. Owen fell asleep to Myah wailing. The last time we saw Myah, her mother leaned over to pat Owen's head and remarked, "Nice to see you sleeping again, Owen." Because of course, there he was, passed out on my chest.

He has quite the reputation. I felt a little defense, like responding, "He doesn't sleep ALL the time." However, he has slept through a baby-naming ceremony, and dinner parties, and sports bars, and a Tom Petty concert...

And today, he slept through our trip to the pool. Ok, actually, he was awake at the beginning of the outing. It was after he'd been in the pool for 20 minutes that he fell fast asleep, mouth open, in my arms, half-submerged in chlorinated pool water. Owen had no problem sleeping through 50 summer camp kids splashing and screaming and doing cannonballs into the pool. This story makes it sound like Owen sleeps all the time, but let me be clear: he doesn't sleep all the time. Just during the important parts.

Dave and I had a next-door neighbor/friend in Colorado who claimed she had never seen a movie all the way through. Yeah, right, we thought, until we watched every movie for a year at her house because we didn't have a TV. She hardly got through the credits, and it didn't matter what kind of movie it was: action, comedy, silent, art... she slept through them all. I wonder if Owen will be the same kind of person, except sleeping through swim lessons?

Sleeping Through the Night

A big event last night - Owen slept through the night in his own crib! Ta-da! Like magic! Dave and I celebrated this evening by putting Owen to bed in the exact same way as last night, in the hope that we can repeat the magic. (This, of course, presumes that the baby ever does something the same twice)

Even with Owen's long night of sleep, Dave was so tired that he and Owen went to bed at the same time tonight. I'm left alone to watch TV and fold laundry. Parenthood presents a glamorous life, doesn't it?