My kids are great sleepers. Little Bro has been known to fall asleep in his high chair in the middle of a vegemite sandwich. Big Sis will point at him with delight “Look, Little Bro is asleeeeep”, as his head touches the high chair tray! I can then usually take him from the high chair to bed, fishing the half eaten vegemite sandwich out of his mouth on the way, without rousing him!
So, you can imagine my surprise over the last 2 nights when Little Bro has decided to sleep for no longer than 1 hour in a row and wake up with piercing screams, apparently inconsolable! The first night I became quite alarmed and took him into the lounge-room for closer inspection. There was no rash or fever and as the only symptom appeared to be frantic ear pulling, DSO and I concluded that he had an ear infection, we dosed him with panadol and I gave him a breast-feed (much to his delight as the booby has been denied for all but one morning feed for a few weeks).
Anyway, after a hell night we were sitting on the doctors doorstep at opening time the next day. By this time Little Bro was in high spirits, with apparently little wrong with him. In fact, so little that the doctor gave him the all clear - no sign of the ear infection we were certain about the night before!
Last night he slept 2 hourly between screaming bouts but this time I didn’t reward the behavior with breast feeds and time playing around in the lounge-room with mum! Little Bro and I stayed in his room singing “Bah Bah Black-sheep”, and having cuddles, despite his frantic struggling. After a time I got him back to sleep, only to repeat the process a couple of hours later. Today, (as Edward Norton says in Fight Club) I feel like I’m walking through a facsimile of the world!
The big question is, what’s wrong? Is it nightmares, teeth, stomach pains, new routine…none of these really explain it! Quite often in parenting I find the “why” question absolutely unanswerable. DSO responds quite sensibly with “It is what it is”.
A boss I had once when working in the world of corporate lawyers used to say “In this job, you really have to dig deep inside yourself every day”. I think what he meant was that it took all you had to work in an environment with exploitative bosses, difficult and disreputable clients, hostile, competitive coworkers and a time costing system that meant you needed to be at your desk for more than 12 hours a day!
However, I wish I could speak to him today - I’d say, “You know what mate, that’s nothing, try holding a screaming and struggling toddler in your arms at 2am with no idea what is wrong and less than 2 hours sleep between you, singing nursery rhymes until you are hoarse and rocking him until your back is aching!”. Now that, my corporate legal eagle, is a job!
babies, Sleep
