Poor Liam has really been having trouble sleeping this week. And he is tired, tired during the days, often wanting to fall asleep in the late morning before lunch. I'm experiencing an unexpected big slug of work as clients try to get things wrapped up before January. So, tonight is the second or third night this week I'm working from Liam's room. He has been waking up crying every 45 minutes; this is the only reliable way to help him sleep. I cozy up with my lap top in "dim" mode and he snuggles up and sleeps away. So far, so good.
I get a fair amount of talking-to from other parents about how Liam should learn to sleep on his own in his crib, and as much as I agree that it would be nice, I can no more imagine leaving him to cry at night than I can imagine not comforting him after a fall outside. He is 18 months old; still such a small person. Everything in human evolution wires him to understand that being with the group is good and safe and being alone is not normal. He doesn't see me at all during the day. If he needs his mommy to be with him at night to help him sleep -- so be it. I think our modern practice of putting babies in cribs and tucking them in separate rooms is weird, at best, anyway.
I am thoughtful tonight about how blessed and lucky we are to have Liam. I've had occasion to email with another woman who has been trying to conceive a child through IVF (her husband has cystic fibrosis) and it is looking like after initial encouraging results, at 7 weeks or so, she has been advised that she most likely will miscarry. So devastating; my heart breaks for her.
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