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.