Let Sleeping Babies Lie

Most of our conversation after 2000 usually ends with, "... and don't wake the baby."  As any parent will tell you, especially parents of young children, you do most anything to not wake the baby.  Want to watch me perform more acrobatic moves than the Olympic gymnastics team?  Watch me try to move from a lounging position on the couch with baby sleeping on my chest to angling baby into her crib without waking her.  Niles and I transfer the baby more carefully than some explosive ordnance teams disarm IEDs.  Television volumes are adjusted accordingly.  We tiptoe around the hallway.  In short, we do everything to let sleeping babies lie.

Recently, we have moved Anduin to sleep in the nursery with her big brother, Owen.  The problem is that Anduin is a great little sleeper (usually averages 6 hours of continuous sleep at a go) while her big brother is not.  When Owen wakes up screaming or crying from a night terror, Niles and/or I swoop into the nursery to try to quiet him down to make sure he doesn't wake up his sister.  If there's anything worse than one baby waking up crying in the middle of the night, it's two.  And trust me, any parent woken up from a sound sleep to a crying baby will do most anything to get the baby to go back to sleep.  That rule about not letting baby sleep in your bed?  Broken as soon as you realize it might buy you another hour of uninterrupted sleep.  That rule about not giving the baby a bottle of milk because it could cause cavities?  Broken because it's easier to use the bottle than to listen to him cry for half an hour.  That rule that you won't rock him back to sleep because you're creating sleep crutches?  Broken because you would just like to spend the night in your own bed, thank you very much.  I have at one point contemplated giving Owen a nip of beer if it would get him to sleep for more than three hours.  I didn't since milk's cheaper, but the thought crossed my sleep-deprived mind.

The craziest part of it all is when you finally get that baby back to sleep, and you stare down at him, noticing how his arms are flung in all directions, the little smile tugging at his lips while he breathes deeply, you think, (if you are still capable of coherent thought), "He's just so gosh darn cute and peaceful."  The entire process of putting the baby to sleep and keeping him asleep is completely forgotten.  People begin to want to see more sleeping babies, which is really how some of us got in this situation in the first place.

And that's the insidious truth.  Sleeping babies lead to more babies.  Don't do it.  At least not yet.  Babies will wake up.