Gen Leung Piano Studio, Oakville Ontario

Ok, I know I've gone on and on about Ellis' sleep and his ability to sleep, but this blog is different. It's not about Ellis' sleep I'm writing about. 

First of all, Ellis' sleep has become my obsession and has basically taken over every aspect of my life!  If he doesn't nap well, I obsess about it. If he wakes up too late, I obsess about it. If he rolls onto his belly to sleep (which he LOVES doing now) I obsess about it. But I would like to say that I have a little boy who sleeps and is generally very well rested. There are days of course where he doesn't sleep as well as I'd like him to, but since he is a baby who is well rested, he recovers quickly and is always a happy little boy.

Lately I've been thinking about babies whose parents do "sleep training" but think that it only applies to night time sleep rather than their sleep overall. I've heard of babies whose parents keep them up all day in hopes of getting them to sleep at night. Then these parents are baffled when that poor baby wakes up in the middle of the night. I actually met a little two year old recently who does not nap at all. He was so upset and grumpy, and his mom was giving him anything he wanted to keep him happy. And the funny thing to me was that a simple afternoon nap would make him happy and it would probably make his mom very happy. 

Then I got thinking about babies whose parents are fortunate enough to be able to take their babies on trips with them. I think that's great, but what about the baby's sleep? If I could take Ellis on a trip to see the world... I don't know if I would. He wouldn't remember it and I would be so stressed out by the fact of travelling with an infant. Ellis loves his bed... he doesn't even like napping in another crib that's exactly like his own (at Grandma's house). I can't even begin to imagine how his sleep would be during a trip!! My parents are talking about a family trip next summer to England to see my brother; and I'm already worried about Ellis' sleep. I don't even want to think about the time difference!

I also know another little baby who has never slept well, and I don't have the heart to tell the parents that my little boy has been sleeping straight through the night since he was four months old. And when I say through the night, I mean from usually 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. I could only imagine what this little baby would be like if they was sleeping.

I must say this: I made a lot of mistakes with Ellis' naps. My timing was off for a long time and it wasn't until recently that I got the timing down perfectly. He now takes two long naps a day, and still needs a third short cat-nap. But I've learned to watch Ellis and recognize his "I'm getting sleepy" signs. This all results in a baby boy who willingly goes down for a nap without crying or protesting. That all results in a baby boy who falls asleep quickly at night and stays asleep until the next morning.

So I am definitely not an expert on sleep, but rather a mother who obsesses about it on a daily basis.