Some background context: Hazel sleeps in a crib in another room.
For the first month after Hazel was born, when she would cry in the night I would semi-wake up in a state of panic “WHERE’S MY BABY?!?!?” and feel around the bed. This would happen every time she cried, so every two hours for the first while! Sometimes I would go so far as to get up and pull the duvet off the bed (poor Paul), convinced that she was buried under the blankets and was suffocating. Other times I would find myself clutching a pillow or towel to my chest (yes, sleeping on a towel, that’s a whole other breastfeeding story), totally bewildered at how my baby was here yet still crying from another room. Eventually I would fully wake up and realize where she was and/or that the baby in my arms was actually a balled up towel.
At 6 weeks, this whole middle of the night confusion has passed and now makes me laugh. What is up with that? Some kind of instinct about wanting one’s baby to be safely by one’s side in the night?
I’m afraid to ask if this has happened to anyone else out there, as I’m sure the answer is “no, you are one crazy lady.”
I’ve read somewhere that basically we’re one of the only cultures who DON’T typically sleep with our babies.
I’m in the middle. I fully support it, and instinctively I think that babies should sleep with us but there are so many societal cons (ie. co-sleeping with a 7 year old, trying to break habits, etc). I dunno.
My recent crazy thing is waking up to one of the kids crying and trying to recognize who it is by the cry. In the middle of the night. During the day it seems so illogical since I eventually have to haul myself out of bed regardless, but at night it’s like I have this executive decision to make based on whether or not it’s a one-year-old-cry or a three-year-old-cry.
You should write these little stories down because someday you’ll want to laugh about them again. Take my advice, because I sure don’t!
By: Shannon on August 14, 2007
at 11:26 pm