Not a coincidence
I thought Dutch was a bad sleeper (night-time waking, very short naps, no naps at all at home after age 2, only sleeping the whole night in her very own bed since age 4) because of her personality. It had NOTHING to do with me. Now that Skipper is also a bad sleeper (infrequent naps usually around 20 minutes long, no longer than 40 minutes), I'm beginning to suspect that I am actually just really bad at this particular aspect of parenting. What am I doing wrong, all you parents of sleeping babies? Was there a memo that I missed?
Rather than believe that I am a bad parent, I've decided to instead believe that both of my perfect children are just so very eager for life that they can't bear to miss anything, so they fight sleep with all the substantial stubbornness they can muster, scrabbling for just... one...more... minute...of... consciousness. That's it, right?*
Part of my problem is that we downsized from a king-sized bed to a full-sized bed, and the complaining, wiggling baby somehow looms much larger at 3 AM than she did before. Also, I'm really tired.
*This is the I'm-A-Bad-Mommy-Which-Actually-Makes-Me-A-Good-Mommy,-So-Ha! school of thought, in which kids benefit from benign neglect, and my kid (who eats nail parings and off the floor ) while I blog is going to be an independent, creative, well-balanced genius, while your kid (who is over-scheduled with all that soccer and music classes ) is going to end up being a stressed-out, unhappy investment banker (a horrible fate). So Ha!
Rather than believe that I am a bad parent, I've decided to instead believe that both of my perfect children are just so very eager for life that they can't bear to miss anything, so they fight sleep with all the substantial stubbornness they can muster, scrabbling for just... one...more... minute...of... consciousness. That's it, right?*
Part of my problem is that we downsized from a king-sized bed to a full-sized bed, and the complaining, wiggling baby somehow looms much larger at 3 AM than she did before. Also, I'm really tired.
*This is the I'm-A-Bad-Mommy-Which-Actually-Makes-Me-A-Good-Mommy,-So-Ha! school of thought, in which kids benefit from benign neglect, and my kid (who eats nail parings and off the floor ) while I blog is going to be an independent, creative, well-balanced genius, while your kid (who is over-scheduled with all that soccer and music classes ) is going to end up being a stressed-out, unhappy investment banker (a horrible fate). So Ha!
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