Sleep...

Sarah has woken up during the night nearly every. single. night. That is about 2,069 nights of me waking up with her. She is almost five years and eight months old. My parenting style was to ensure that she knew I would respond to her no matter what. Communication for her can be hard and I never wanted her to think I wouldn't come and help her.

For about the past couple weeks now, she has not woken up to sleep in my bed. I decided shortly after my birthday, that I would (again) try to see if she could learn to stay asleep all night. In the beginning, she still woke up because either a) she lost her soother or b) had a nightmare. She'd come to me, with a teary face and the ease of popping her into bed beside me was tempting. I knew she would quickly go back to sleep and we'd continue on with our night. But, I stuck with it... I would snuggle her in my arms and carry her back to her own bed and re-tuck her in. I would lay on the other bed for a bit so she knew I was still close by and then I'd go back to my bed. This only lasted 3-5 nights and now, she goes down at 7:30 and sleeps straight on until morning. What a big difference this has been!

Another frustrating factor that has been a big issue in my sleep quality is that Doug snores (or used to). I know many many people snore but, it was a huge problem due to volume and the fact that the snoring lasted all night long. For a while Doug would even sleep in the other room so I could get rest. This was (at the time) the best solution for everyone to get the most sleep possible. A few weeks ago, Doug went to a sleep clinic and took a sleep test to see if he has sleep apnea. The results were unbelievable! Something like 125 respiratory distress episodes and over 7,000 'snores' in a seven hour period. It's no wonder he always looked tired! The sleep clinic gave him a loaner C-Pap (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine and I noticed a change the very first night! For the first time in a long while, we actually went to bed together and woke up in the same bed. Thinking it might have been a fluke, we went to bed the next night and... no snoring. I was shocked and amazed that this breathing machine made such a big difference. We are currently in the process of applying for the insurance company to cover a portion of the cost of it. (They are not cheap.)

So, with Sarah sleeping (mostly) all night in her own bed and Doug's snoring issues being fixed, I'm finding that we are all at last, sleeping well!