Tuesday, June 20, 2006

How the kids sleep


Parents are forever obsessed with how kids eat, sleep and poop. Here is the sleeping part to bore, I mean excite you with. I took these pictures when I arrived home late from Seattle and had go to see them sleeping. It is the best part of being a parent, to see your children sleeping, where they are perfect angels and cannot get into any trouble. Actually, it was extremely risky to enter Dova's room because she is a light sleeper and once she realizes that you've snuck out of her room, she insists that you lay down and sleep with her. Adam is completely different. You can go into his room after he is asleep, give him great big hugs, move him around in his bed, fix his covers and he sleeps right through it. Sometimes he will even wake up slightly and say a few words to you, but have no recollection of it in the morning. Actually, he sleeps much like his mom, a known "sleep talker". 

Dova, on the other hand, sleeps like her dad. Very lightly and if you wake her, extremely grumpy. When Adam was little, we insisted that he go to sleep by himself every night and had to deal with him coming out of his room every 10 minutes for hours until he was exhausted and finally fell asleep on the floor. With Dova, we simply gave up and didn't even try. I lie down with her in her bed every night until she falls asleep. At least I am still productive knitting her sweater when she isn't stealing the needles and the row counter. After she is asleep, I have to quietly sneak out of her room. Sometimes the sound of the bed creaking or the doorknob turning is enough to wake her up and she will insist that I stay with her. In that case, I have to bring her downstairs, take out my contacts and brush my teeth while she watches, bring her back to her room and sleep with her for the night. All night, she will press her feet against me, swing her arm in my face, lie on top of me and push all the covers off. Not very good sleep for the mom. And only mom will do, no substitutions. Someday I will have to get her to sleep by herself, but even though it can be quite a hassle, I love every minute of it. These days won't last forever.

1 comment :

Anonymous said...

Yes, kids are so precious, and we are wise to enjoy the young days before they are only a memory.

I think I once posted about my daughters sleeping...but here is a small snippet.

Both are also different....and my oldest daughters was very difficult to get to sleep. I or my wife would have to hold her on a shoulder and snuggler and rock her to sleep..often for hours.

Then one night I discovered the secret of the dishwasher and running water. It turned out that she was somehow calmed by the dishwasher....and by running water.

She would go to sleep in a minute or two tops! My wife didn't believe me when I disclosed the secret, but she was a believer quick enough.

It was always a mystery to us why this worked, but it worked for quite a few years after...perhaps all the way to 1st grade. (not on our shoulder, but perhaps on the couch in the next room)

Kids are great...