Sleep!!!

Sleep is important y'all. For Sawyer. For Drew. For me. I mean, seriously, we need sleep. But ever since we brought our sweet sweet boy home from the hospital, sleep has been an adventure. 10 months of hoping and praying for better sleep. I know, sleep is always going to be rough as a parent, one way or another. But I'm talking about sleeping for more then two or three hour chunks. That is the goal. Not having hour long (or longer!) parties in the middle of the night would be a blessing. On the bright side, Sawyer had never been a big crier. No colic. No crying into the wee hours. Not even lots of tears when it's bedtime. Sure, he gets fussy, but he's a baby. Besides when he is fighting strep throat from hell, has been sick practically since Thanksgiving, had tubes put in, and is combating a fever - that brought on tears last night. Other then that, Sawyer is the happiest baby I know. For reals. And for that I'm thankful beyond words. But decent sleep - we need it!!

 When Sawyer came home he was on a strict "eat every two hours" plan. Which made sense, he was barely over 4 lbs when we left the hospital. We were waking him up every two hours to eat. Really though, you measure from when a feeding starts. So, he starts eating at 1:00, the next feeding should be at 3:00. Yea. Minimal sleep. Then we got good reports on his weight gain and started being able to spread out feedings, aka not force him awake. Then he turned 6 months and everyone said this is the golden age. He'll start sleeping longer/better. Then he started day care. Again, all we heard was this was the start of better sleep. Then we had tubes put in his ears because fluid was not draining. And we prayed that this would help. Prayed, hoped, held our breath. And it almost got better; a couple of nights that included 6 hour stretches of sleep.

Then strep hit. And we reverted. Currently amoxicillin is not clearing the strep up, and hopefully a trip to the dr will equal a new prescription that will put Sawyer on the mend. Because these two or three stretches of sleep at a time is getting old. And besides COI (which I can't even) we've done it all - cosleeping, no bedtime routine, strict bedtime routine, late bedtime, early bedtime - and same results. Sawyer is a joy in the mornings. Smiles. Laughs. Excited to see us, excited to start the day. And we are bleary eyed. How can he wake up so happy on such a tough night's sleep? Especially Drew. He's bares the brunt being alone 5 nights a week while I work third shift. So pray us that after another round of antibiotics our boy turns the corner. Gets better and stays better. And sleeps! I'm not asking all night. But consistently getting two long stretches with the awake time in between being under 30 minutes would be heaven. Heaven!

As an aside, this is something that's been in my mind to write for awhile. But I didn't. I didn't want to sound like a complainer. Because I know we are beyond blessed with Sawyer. But maybe there are other parents out there sick of hearing "my baby's been sleeping through the night since 6 weeks/3 months/etc." and need the affirmation that you are not the only one.