Sleep Regression

Last time I posted, I was marvelling about Severin's sleep habits. Since then, everything has changed. He usually wakes up around 1 am, again at 2.45--both times ready to get up and play, and frustrated/angry with a mummy who won't let him have his way. He will then wake sometime around 5.30-6 am, ready to go. Some nights, I manage to get back to sleep, other times, I lay awake, roused at the wrong time in my sleep schedule. For the last few days, I've been running on four or so hours of sleep--five or six if I'm really lucky. Work has been heavy and I've just about managed to keep up with everything except some grading and email.

Sleep regressions occur with some regularity in a baby/toddler's first years of life, coinciding with periods of rapid development (crawling, walking, language acquisition). I'd noticed how Severin had really come on of late, interacting with us so much more, beginning to use language--no is his favourite word, one often used to comic effect and drawn out so that it has several more syllables and vowels, mama a close runner up. He frequently asks "what is this?" and boasts "I did it!" It's not surprising that a sleep regression is happening right now, except I always forget they exist and each time they recur, I'm stunned. I remember so much else but sleep problems are so difficult, you want to forget them. He went through one last year at this very time (crawling and pulling himself up to cruise around the furniture). With the clocks moving forward, it's going to be tough--as it was last year. I'm just hoping this passes as quickly as it has every other time. Maybe I'll even remember that sleep regressions occur next time his brain synapse development goes into overdrive.

Turning a Corner?

On Saturday morning, Severin woke earlier than usual--5.17 am to be exact. I'm used to 6, resigned to the occasional 5.30 wakening and generally hope for 6.30, so this wasn't great but within the realm of normal. As I had a rare late night planned (a trip to the NYC Ballet to see their fashion programme), I decided to give him his bottle, leave him in his cot and see what happened. I'm usually in bed around 10-10:30 now so staying up till midnight was going to be a stretch even with a 6:30 am wake up call.

To my surprise, he went back to sleep until 7.40 am! I got home even later than planned on Saturday, fully expecting a brutal early morning. When I woke at 6.30, I only heard his faint snores--he woke at 8! I snoozed on and off--months of rising before daybreak are difficult to shake off. Today he woke at 7.30 (I stirred at 6.41).

I'm not expecting this to last but even if it lessens the chance of 4.45 am wakings after the clocks go forward, I'll be happy. And while I would really miss our early morning snuggles, I wouldn't mind having just a little more time in bed. It's way too early to adjust my routine (and I'd still happily go to bed with him at 8.30 on the nights I'm not in class), but these three mornings signify the changes that may be on the horizon.

That said, parenthood is about gains and losses. I love this increasingly independent, funny, joyous soul who is now able to communicate more, despite his boyish lateness with words. I'm having more fun with him than ever before. But I miss my little baby and regret that memories of his infancy are beginning to recede, despite those videos of his early days and weeks. I so want to experience all of this again, replete with knowledge that will help me savour it all with a better sense of how quickly it will all pass.