An all nighter

One night last week I put Flynn to sleep AWAKE in his cot and he slept 12 hours straight without waking up and calling out to me and crying for "up Mum" which is for me to go in and pick him up and put him in bed with us. (see how he has me wrapped around his finger)

He has by far been my worst sleeper yet. My dream babies were Oliver and Jonty and they still are amazing sleepers. Jonty in particular was exceptional. He has never woken up in his whole four and a half years after sleeping through from about three weeks of age. No ear aches, teething, night terrors or anything else. When he has been sick he has done the vomit in bed but has gone straight back to sleep after I have cleaned him all up.

Jonty at 2 months old (Chelsea Parsons Photography)

Now Flynn.

I have decided that I have made a rod for my own back. You see he comes into our bed every night and I don't get much sleep because he likes to sleep in my arms with his cheek practically pressed up against mine. None of the other kids ever did this, staying in their own beds from newborn age. Oliver did go through a phase when he was about 2.5yrs where he would just get up and come and hop into our bed without making a sound.

And as much as I hate having broken sleep these past two years and feeling like a walking zombie alot of the time, I can't help feel that all too soon he will be too big to want to climb into bed with me and those precious cuddles that you have with babies, where you are the centre of their world will soon be a far distant memory.

I think that's why I fed him for so long, all of 2 years and 1 month. (I caved under pressure and yes a little judgment as to why I was still feeding a now 2 year old. I wish I hadn't caved. I would have stopped soon then anyway but I wish I had of stopped for my reasons and not for other people.) I think though I fed him for so long because I wanted to keep that bond going forever and not accept that my little baby was now growing up.

Flynn has been probably the first baby that I have really wanted to stay small. With all the other kids, I was wanting to hurry them through the newborn stage because I knew things got a little easier as they got a little more independent but the more kids I had, the more I started to realise that time seemed to go faster and my little babes didn't stay little for very long.

Lately too, Flynn has been hopping into bed with Hallie (they share a room) at bed time and she reads him her library book and he goes off to sleep and then I transfer him to his cot until he wakes sometime in the night. A few times he has slept with Hallie all night but if he has woken in the night he has still wanted to come into my bed. At least now he can put himself off to sleep at bed time so that is an improvement. He knows I am not going to cave at bed time and let him back up so within about 3-5 minutes, he is usually asleep... until sometime between 2 and 5 in the morning. It's good too that Hallie and Flynn share a room because when I give them their 11.30pm meds, I can just keep the meds in the one room.

So for now I think I will keep enjoying Flynn coming into our bed most nights and be grateful for the time I have curled up with him snug in bed while he continually face plants me in his sleep to try and get closer and tickles my nose with his hair.