A sleep mystery
A more timely e-mail has never been received. “It’s 3 a.m., and you’re sound asleep,” the weekly note from BabyCenter.com read. “Suddenly, you feel a poke, a tap, then another poke. Try as you might to ignore it, the nocturnal assault continues. Eventually, you have no choice but to open your eyes. Before you stands your forlorn-looking child, uttering those all-too-familiar words: ‘Mommy, I need you…'”
The e-mail arrived in my In-box following a few very rough nights in our house. On Wed., Zoe showed up at our bedside at 1:30 AM and had a difficult time getting back to sleep (poor Q was up with her most of the night); the next night, she refused to go to bed at all – crying and screaming and not settling down for a good two hours after her normal bedtime. I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out what was going on – Zoe has always been a great sleeper; why the problems now? – but this e-mail, directed towards parents of 27-month-olds, shed real insight. “Not even the most competent snoozers are immune to sleep disturbances,” it read, going on to explain that this is the age that kids, thanks to nightmares and common preschool fears, have the occasional sleepless night. And now that they’re mobile (i.e. not in a crib), children are likely to come straight to their parents’ room for some TLC.
Zoe slept through the night last night, thank goodness, but that didn’t stop me from waking up with a jolt in the middle of the night. (I was expecting to see Zoe’s little face next to mine, I guess.) I got back to sleep eventually, but I suspect we’ve got more long, “Mommy/Daddy-I need-you” nights ahead of us…
-M