Genie Power Lift
Henry is a great napper.
At 8 in the morning, he’ll take a 2-hour snooze. At noon, another. And at 3:30, he’ll have a shorter one (usually around an hour). Other parents would kill for such a nap-friendly baby.
Night, however, is another story.
After sleeping through the night for a good chunk of time when he was four and five months old, he has of late gone back to his old ways of getting up at 11 and 2 and waking up ready for the day at the excruciatingly early hour of 5.
This is not good. You see, with his naps, Henry sleeps about 16 hours a day, a nice amount of time and more than enough for a baby of his age. So even if he’s not getting a solid 10-11 hours in a row at night, he’s fine. But Kristen and I have no such nap luxury at work (although who doesn’t want to build a Murphy bed into their cubicle wall?), and we’ve been running on fumes for some time. Add to that I’ve been traveling the past three weekends with Kristen solo at home, and it’s bad new all around.
Sleep deprivation has made us quite cranky, and we had a “fun” argument this morning when Kristen proclaimed that she hated the garage door. My mind close to mush, I defended the door. What did it ever do to deserve such hate?
Yes, people, it’s come to this. Arguing over garage doors.
I don’t know what to do with the lack of sleep. I’m loathe to let him cry it out (one author refers to it as the Extinction Method — could that sound any more horrible?), because I don’t want Henry to be so unhappy for 45 minutes and, selfishly, I don’t want to have to hear it. But something has to change.
All of this is compounded by the fact that Henry is now in full-bore teething mode, with one fang ready to pop out at any moment.
I’ll keep you posted, of course. And I’m going to try and have Kristen apologize to the garage door.
April 7th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I can totally relate! Our little guy (7 months) hasn’t been sleeping well since the time change and getting an ear infection. No teeth yet though. He has been getting up between 4 and 5am. My Husband and I recently argued over our cars- with him saying my rear defroster was a joke and me saying that his wind shield wipers sucked! He promptly responded that the ONLY reason my car is around is because it is paid for. When you lack sleep it is amazing what you will argue about or mistakenly grab at the store – that’s another story. Hang in there!
April 7th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I am not above drugging with tylenol to get some sleep. Baby tylenol of course . . . but still.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:16 am
I find infant Motrin helpful when the teething is severe. Otherwise, I have no words of wisdom, only sympathy – also, Cazz and I argued in Target the other day b/c we were trying to buy a frozen pizza and couldn’t decide what to get. He compared me to Anthony Bourdain (whom I loathe). We left angry and with no pizza. It happens. Good luck.