Adventures in baby sleep
July 29, 2007
It happened again, fortunately to Elf this time. So I have witnesses.
We wrap Cory for bed in a special swaddling blanket that makes it easy for us first-time, impatient, sleepy parents to make a good secure swaddle. It calms him down almost immediately, but sometimes he’ll just lay there and fuss quietly until the next feeding time. A few nights ago I was sitting with him, swaddled, trying to get him to go to sleep. He was drifting… drifting… and then he exploded into a crying fit. I immediately stood up with him in my arms…
Baby narcolepsy?
and before I could straighten up completely, he was out. Like a freaking light. Head back, mouth agape, approaching deepest of Cory sleeps. I tiptoed him into the bassinet and stayed up another hour waiting for him to finish that scream he started. I told Elf the next morning. She thought it was weird.
It just happened to her now. She picked him up to bring him to me in the living room and zonk — stone cold sleepin’. Wild.
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July 29th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
L will do something similar. She fights sleep every single night — and I mean fights. She screams, pushes away from me, kicks, carries on like it’s the end of the world. Then she’ll often pass out in mid-scream. Sometimes, she’ll thunk her head against my collarbone and wake herself back up, but usually, she’s out for good.
July 30th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I’ve heard about that happening; I recommend bourbon.
July 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am
The “instant sleep” event is even more amazing when it happens to a toddler. In the movie “Monsters Inc.,” there’s a scene where the little girl is laughing and babbling away and then suddenly tips over, sound asleep. Many people who saw the film probably thought that was made up — but it’s absolutely based on reality. We have pictures of our kids in the strangest positions where they were sitting and playing near one of us when boom! they were sound asleep . I wish I could go to sleep that easily!
July 30th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Do you think it’s a startle response or something like that drop off feeling people feel just as they start to drop off to sleep? Our kids both would just fall asleep in mid-action…crawling or eating or whatever. We always laughed…but we’re demented like that.