The Importance of Sleep

It is funny that until you have a baby, most people tend to take sleep for granted. I definitely did not think too much about the importance of sleep during my pregnancy. Then of course, it hit me like a ton of bricks following Jory's birth. Thankfully, Jory did not have colic and could generally be seen as a happy baby so the amount of time that he slept has gradually become longer. To date, he has not slept more than 6.5 hours, however, this amount of time seemed pretty good to me considering the horror stories I have heard from parents who have older children that still continue to have night wakings.

A couple of days ago, I was on Facebook and a status update from a high school acquaintance caused me to reevaluate everything regarding our sleep schedule. Her baby had slept 10 hours and he was a month younger than Jory! I had to investigate. She soon led me to a book called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. I was definitely intrigued. She explained to me the importance of a sleep schedule and watching for babies' sleepy cues. Essentially, the goal is to put him down during a time that the baby can naturally fall asleep without fussing or crying which is when the baby is over-tired.

I bought the book a couple of days ago and while I know that it cannot be instantaneous, I am hopeful that I will be able to implement a schedule that works. I am definitely aiming at the goal of a 10-hour sleep night.