Sleep Deprivation

My little Maks is good at a lot of things.  He grows and gains weight like a child months older than him.  He can already roll over like a pro and in the works of crawling.  You can add charmer to his bag of tricks, too.  Oh, and he can soak a cloth diaper like nobody's business.

Maksim also used to sleep at least 8-9 hours in a row, uninterrupted.  Key words: used to.  Is he a good sleeper anymore?  NOT SO MUCH.  I initially thought that this was just a short phase that he'd outgrow.  A couple of days to maybe a week or two.  Unfortunately, I've now concluded that I need to remove "sleeper" from the list of Maks' strengths and officially relocate this quality to his list of weaknesses.  It's a sad day.

We've been back from our road trip for almost a month now.  Throughout our trip, I was so concerned with maintaining Maks' sleep schedule because I didn't want to ruin the good thing I had.  Fortunately, the trip was a success in terms of Maksim and his sleeping habits.  Unfortunately, we arrived back home: bad sleeper night #1.

Yes, I realize that waking up once or twice a night is nothing to complain about.  Technically, "sleeping through the night" for a baby is 5 hours of consecutive sleep.  So, I suppose, Maks was still sleeping "through the night," twice in a row, almost every night.  But, when you've had a taste of something so good, it's difficult to continue to appreciate it with even the slightest decline in performance.

I've stuck it out for weeks now, but it's continuing to get worse and worse.  This week has been riddled with the absolute worst sleeping patterns Maks has ever tried to pull off.  Who am I kidding?  He's not trying to pull this off; he is pulling it off with flying colors.  But could you deny this (I told you he's a charmer.):

Daytime naps have been on the decline, too.  I believe that yesterday he napped for a total of 2 hours, scattered between 2 naps.  I was convinced that he was being overstimulated by visitors (we've had guests for a week now) and constant activity, and that was what was to blame for keeping him up all day long.  We all believed that come sunset, he was going to sleep like a rock.  Boy, were we wrong.  Last night Maks went to bed at 8:30pm.  Then we woke up at 10:15.  And at 12:00.  And at 2:30, 4, 5:30 and 6:15.  He woke up for the day at 7:15AM.  Sometimes he wakes up hungry, but last night half of his time awake was simply spent making noises and looking around.  At 2:30am I looked over to see my little boy propped up on his elbows (yes, he is a tummy sleeper) looking at me, as if he was just waiting to engage in a late night conversation.  And, by the way, doesn't everybody want to play at 4AM?   

I'm restless.  My head is fuzzy.  I've been convinced that today is Thursday all morning.  In fact, I've been an entire day off all week despite being corrected by 3 different people.  I'd like to simply blame Labor Day for throwing my week off, but I'm quite certain the culprit is a 4 month old boy named Maksim.

If only soy-milk steamers helped keep this mama awake!

This is more than the usual new parent scatter-brain.  Sure, I forget where I place things and almost always am missing at least one essential ingredient for whatever is on the menu for dinner.  But, there is a real problem when I calmly ask Bryon to check Matt's diaper because I believe it's dirty and needs to be changed.  Maks and Matt can sound quite similar when you're speaking a thousand words a minute, but there's no denying that people take notice when you suggest a man in his mid-twenties check the diaper of his peer.  True, my sister and her fiance function a bit off the beaten path.  But, I'm fairly certain diaper wearing is beyond even them.  (Thank goodness.)  And, even if it was their chosen practice...I like to believe that they would change them themselves.

The extra help around the house is quite nice, but I've been operating under the false idea that I'll be able to catch up on rest while my house guests play with my son.  Yes, they've been great at entertaining my boy.  But I seem to be attempting to tackle all of the other items on my to-do list that out-prioritize sleep at the given moment - eat a bowl of cereal, take a shower, cycle the laundry.  As soon as sleep is on deck, it's time for Maks to eat...And it gets really weird when I announce that I need to nurse Matt.  Come on people, we do have boundaries!

So, I apologize for the lag in my posts.  With an extra 2 people, 2 cats and 1 dog in my house right now, my plate is momentarily full.  I have a plethora of snapshots and stories to post from the past week, as well as a handful of more detailed "natural mama" topics to discuss.  For now, visiting with family that I get the pleasure of spending time with only once or twice a year is taking priority.  Hang in there, I'll be back next week!