All mothers feel responsible when their children have problems sleeping, but only a select few of us actually are responsible.
Talia had been napping terribly for months. Sure, she'd had brief spells here and there when she would take a 60-90 minute nap and I'd think, "Wow, her sleep is finally consolidating. How fabulous for her brain growth and my mental health." Then the next day she'd be back to her 30-45 minute tricks.
I'd known she sleeps lightly (I have no idea whose child she is) so finally gave into Benjamin's suggestion to work on the first floor while Talia naps. Lo and behold - if the typing, walking, dog pacing, and telephone ringing don't wake her, the child can sleep for 120-140 minutes at a time. Holy cr-p! I have tested it to make sure it wasn't just her age or something - if I work upstairs one day, short naps. Downstairs the next day - long naps. All that nap time, fussy awake time when she clearly hadn't slept enough, all of it - my fault.
Son of a b-tch. If only I had listened to my husband sooner: the story of my life.
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This is something I certainly started doing - closing doors so Natti wouldn't hear us when he was sleeping, turned down all the phone ringers, got rid of our door bell, walked on tipee toes.... I now think to myself, did I train him to be too observant to all the noises because I tried so hard to make sure the house was as quiet as possible? I don't know. I'm glad to say that at 3 years old, though we are still considerate around the time he's falling asleep, he's much more tolerant to noises afterwards. I can enter his room, cover him up, put clothes away in his room, watch TV in our room.... When he was young, he'd wake up the minute we walked into the house, no matter how quietly we'd enter...
So this yet one more of the dilemas we have to deal with. Should we be quiet, so they get good sleep? Or are we teaching them to need quiet in order to sleep?
I have no idea! No clue what'll happen in terms of this with baby 2.
I was wondering about this too...Should I stay quiet so he sleeps longer? (Heavenly) or should I let him get used to noises so he can sleep through anything? (Not so great when he's grumpy from waking up too early.)
If anyone has an answer to this, please post it.
I think I worry too much about these things. :)
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