The Downside of My Baby Sleeping Through the Night

Every sleep deprived parent dreams of the day their child will sleep through the night. However, so far it's not exactly how I imagined it would be. Until recently, my wife was waking up every two hours during the night to feed our big, hungry, growing baby boy.  She hasn't slept through the night since labor pains first began.  Wondering when our son Clark would finally sleep through the night has been the subject of many conversations and internet searches.

A few days ago, I came across a copy of American Baby magazine from a couple of months ago (May) in the growing magazine pile on my coffee table.  I found gold on page 55, an article by Cara Birnbaum, titled Goodnight Nobody.  Unfortunately, the article isn't available on the magazine's website (or I'd share it with you).  What I learned from the article is that there is something called the "Drowsiness Window."  The article suggested that babies are programmed to fall asleep for the night within this window.  However, this window starts early, like before you get home from work early (5-7 PM) .  According to the article, if you miss the "Drowsiness Window" your baby will start to produce "stimulating chemicals" which will make it much more difficult for him to fall asleep later.

It was suggested that a 7 PM to 7 AM night of sleep was quite feasible for a 12 week old.  Well, it worked.  Mostly.  Clark isn't sleeping through the entire night. We put him to sleep at 7 PM. My wife tops him off before she goes to sleep (10:30).  He wakes up to eat at 2 AM and then my wife feeds him again at 6 AM before going to work.

We, and by we I mean my wife, now only have to wake up once during the night instead of 3-4 times.  This will probably be down to zero by the time he turns 4 months.  So, what's the problem?

The problem is two-fold: 1) I miss my son and 2) diaper rash.  I live in Vegas.  I'm up late most nights. So I would see and play with Clark at all hours of the day (when he was awake.)   Now, with him asleep by 7 PM (it's summer, the sun doesn't go down until 7:55), I don't get to see him at night.  I guess, I just kinda miss that time together.  My wife barely gets to see him after being at work all day.

I was completely caught off guard by the diaper rash.  You see, if your baby is sleeping through the night, she is probably gonna to be sitting in a diaper full of poo for several hours.  This leads to an irritation around her baby butt (nalgitas).  I spent a whole day wondering why Clark was fussy and crying all day (not like him at all) before I figured it out.  The diaper rash cleared up after a couple of days, but I have to be diligent about make Clark's baby butt is completely dry before putting on a new diaper.  Thus, there's a locked and loaded undiapered baby butt, which is always a potential poop covered disaster in the making.

The Birnbaum article also mentions how important it is for babies to get a good night sleep in a dark quiet space for proper infant brain development.  So, I know the pros out weigh the cons, and I'll just have to get used to it.  It's cliche, but be careful what you wish for and "enjoy what you got".

     - Clark's Dad