Jefflog

I remember with our first two children, I’d be reading a baby care book to come across the helpful fact that

Newborn babies typically get between 16-20 hours of sleep a day.

I’d scoff at this because my babies weren’t getting anywhere near that amount of sleep. My selective memory remembers they were only getting 12 hours of sleep a day. It was probably actually more than that, but I quite remember that it was less than what “the books” were telling me.

Naturally, I was fully prepared to accept the inevitable with Sophie. Given that, it’s perhaps amazing that she was brought into this world in the first place. What could we have been thinking? But apparently God has smiled upon us and granted us a child that knows how to sleep. She’s definitely closer to the 20-hour-a-day mark, and can sleep through anything, including two other kids who may be squealing or fighting nearby.

Sophie is already on a regular sleeping schedule at night, waking up once around 2am and again around 6am for feedings. She’s calm the whole time, and can be coaxed back to sleep with a little bit of rocking and cuddling. After dealing with colicky Oliver and his hour-long crying fits at night, Sophie has been simply amazing. She’s such an easy baby.

We used to justify our kids’ wakefulness as a testament to their alertness and intelligence. Depending on how smart Sophie turns out, we may have to change our reasoning to simply say our first two kids were just unusually difficult.