Monday, February 7, 2011

Count 1..2..3..

2.20 am. situation song for baby…"volume kam kar. papa jag jaayega"


How do you put your baby to sleep? Wish there was a fool proof (rather baby proof) formula for this. Vrishti is 4 months old now and she has had many varying sleeping patterns so far. From the beginning all our efforts were focussed at making her sleep by herself in her crib. Sometimes we made it and most times we didn't. I soon realized that mothers needed to co-sleep more than the babies did. It was difficult for me to leave her on her own to fall asleep. One out of a 100 times she would get exhausted enough to not care if I was around or not but I would suddenly want to be looked for. There have been times when I have pulled her too close and woken her up :/ I think after a point it is we who are looking for comfort from cuddling our babies. 
I remember the initial days when Hari was so particular about her sleeping in the crib. I used to wake up at every small noise to check her, to pat her back to sleep when she got disturbed, and this was besides the number of timesI had to get up to feed her, check her diapers… it was really too difficult to wake up every half hour and walk to the crib. Soon enough she was sleeping in between hari and me on our bed. She was so tiny, we both were scared we could crush her or hurt her. We would sleep hanging on the edges of the bed on our sides. And woke up with horrible body aches because of the weird sleeping positions. Hari was at great loss of sleep (I could take a nap in the afternoons but he had to go to work) but nothing would deter him from sleeping next to his daughter. After lot of pestering he started sleeping in the living room after about one month.
When it came to V's sleeping habits I had only one rule - If I had the energy to handle things, then put her to sleep in my arms and then slowly put her in the crib/bed and move away . ("Hug and roll" as Ross says in FRIENDS). So if she woke up and cried, then I would pacify her and put her to sleep again. 
If I had no energy and was in need of sleep myself, then simply pacify, cuddle, put her to sleep, put her in the bed next to me and give the gift of deep sleep to myself and my daughter.
It was best to go downstream when it came to sleep needs. 
From sleeping for only half hour between meals to sleeping 5-6 hrs in the night time, we have a long way now. Its 2.28 am and even as I am typing this, she is making soft sounds and playing around waiting for me to help her fall asleep. Gotto go. 


Pic of the day - ZZZZZzzzzzz 

Now, this wont work silly. I cant count yet.

P.S. And also, I realized while singing to her that the nursery rhymes - A.B.C.D, Twinkle Twinkle and Baa Baa black sheep sound the same. And same goes to Mary had a little lamb and London Bridge is Falling down. 


Pic taken on Dec 12 2010

1 comment:

Rini said...

"I think after a point it is we who are looking for comfort from cuddling our babies. "

Universal fact! :-)