Most Dearest-est Baby Skyler,
Every time you go a stretch and don’t sleep much for a number of nights, Papa and Mama will feel SO tired and exhausted. Hours and even days will go by in a blur for us.
We’ll also feel like the only parents in the world who have not “trained” or succeeded in coaxing their little baby to sleep through the night. So many “baby experts” have expounded on the benefits and importance of training babies to sleep through the night, but Papa and I are reluctant to impose any kind of schedule on you before you’re ready, and we also can’t bear to let you “cry it out”, as recommended by these “experts”. It always breaks our heart when you have trouble sleeping and cry or scream in frustration, so we’d much rather carry you in our arms and soothe you to sleep rather than do as others advise and let you “cry it out”.
It’s always comforting, though, to know we’re not alone in our sleeplessness. Apparently, this lack of continued, uninterrupted, long stretches of sleep is a common characteristic of parents of babies below the age of 2!
In the foreword to the first anthology of the strip “James”, a strip about a feisty little 2-year-old boy, Mark Tonra, the creator of the strip, said:
“I used to sleep. I have very distant memories of an uninterrupted horizontal posture that was as restoring as it was unconscious. I may even have done it for hours at a stretch. With my eyes closed.”
In “Baby Blues: Ten Years and Still in Diapers”, Kirkman, a co-creator of the “Baby Blues” comic strip, made a dedication to Sukey, his “partner in sleep deprivation for a decade and a half”.
So while it doesn’t help that other Papas and Mamas have forgotten what sleep used to be as well, it is at least assuring to know we’re not alone, that millions of loving parents before us have survived years of sleep deprivation and somehow managed to keep their sanity and sense of humour intact.
Well, it’s been more than 3 months now and Papa and Mama have more or less gotten used to the idea of sleeplessness. Of course, there are long stretches of days too when you sleep very well and, sometimes, for many hours at a go. =)
We love you, Baby Skyler, and we love all the things we can do together with you when you’re awake.
So while it doesn’t help that other Papas and Mamas have forgotten what sleep used to be as well, it is at least assuring to know we’re not alone, that millions of loving parents before us have survived years of sleep deprivation and somehow managed to keep their sanity and sense of humour intact.
Well, it’s been more than 3 months now and Papa and Mama have more or less gotten used to the idea of sleeplessness. Of course, there are long stretches of days too when you sleep very well and, sometimes, for many hours at a go. =)
We love you, Baby Skyler, and we love all the things we can do together with you when you’re awake.
Your loving parents who, like Mark Tonra, also used to sleep,
Papa & Mama
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