Why do babies hate sleep

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Why do babies hate sleep?

Seriously?  Why do they fight that crap so much-- who ever said sleep like a baby clearly never had one.

I take back every single time I fought sleep.  Rocking, walking, nursing, singing.

Please note I am not a believer in cry it out- but damn if someone told me to go to sleep I'd be all over that.  Instead- it is a hard won fight to bed with at least one child in bed at the start of the night and by the morning several more have joined which makes bed tetris with kids, pets, and parents.  The kids of course wake up thrilled and excited and full of energy- where as my husband and I stagger out of bed looking at the sun wondering how Earth it could be morning already- yet my kids are charged and ready to go.

So why do babies (and kids) abhor sleep? And What in the heck can you do about it?

I end up just waiting them out- knowing at some point their little eyes will flutter shut after they become heavy.

Princess would go to sleep she just would go to sleep no questions know fuss.  Stinky would sing to keep himself awake.  Peas. What to say about Peas..... she thought (and thinks) that sleep is the end of the world. We tell her to listen to her body when it is tired (etc) and she says she 'can't hear her body' oh well. Pixie just needs to stop moving for 30 seconds to fall asleep.  She moves and moves and moves.....but a few minutes of cuddles now she now goes to sleep. She used to need to nurse herself to sleep while sticking her her feet under my back.  LittleDude snuggles and nurses to sleep while he places with his hair.  Overnight he will scoot next too me to keep close.

But the question remains why the hatred of sleep? 

3 comments:

MamaRabia said...

I wish I knew the answer! My boys were SO tired this weekend and wouldn't take a nap. We ended up with a too-tired-to-move-around-steadily head injury and a lot of screaming and crying (from the kids and the parents!)

Leslie said...

Yes. I have the same question! Last night was awful with the baby. She would look all sweet and asleep, but the moment she hit the crib sheet it was as if you were about to commit murder. This went on for two hours. And then again when she woke up at 3am. At 5am my alarms (yes, I need multiple) went off, and at 6:30am the toddler came downstairs looking for cuddles and breakfast. Like you asked…why do kids hate sleep?

Michelle said...

I wish I knew the answer to that. My oldest was a great sleeper...the middle one gave up her nap at 18 months. Although she's a teenager now, she's been a night owl forever it seems like. Last night she fell asleep sitting up in bed with her laptop in her lap...light was of course on too. Its like they have to push it to the limit of extreme tiredness instead of just going to bed. I'm happy to go to sleep!

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