Snooze-a-Palooza

Though we certainly still consider ourselves new parents, Penny has decisively moved from new baby to full on toddler. This past week we twice had the pleasure of coaxing her from emotional duress to a state of semi-happiness (note we didn’t use the “T” word). Both instances were born of lack of sleep, and both were triggered by seemingly mundane and insignificant circumstances.

All this is a lead up to the point of this post – sleep. New parents spend an embarrassingly substantial amount of time worrying over the sleeping habits of their young, coaxing them to sleep, and rearranging schedules so as to capitalize on those fleeting moments of blissful, napping peace.

The problem is that the kids are little versions of us – some like to sleep a lot, some like to sleep a little, and the rare child who fits perfectly into the profile you read about on pretty much any parenting website. Take us, for example – mom is a morning person who likes to get to sleep early, and dad is (definitely) not a morning person who enjoys late night reading. Where does Penny fall in this mix? She’s something of a night owl.

Recognizing that your child is not going to conform to the norm, that they fall outside the boundaries of what the experts tell us to expect is one of the hardest realizations for a new parent. In Penny’s case, another realization is that her bedtime (at least for now) is firmly in the 8:00-8:30 range. Is there anything wrong with that? Not unless she misses her naps.

So we hereby announce the formation of a new support group with this admission: Hello. We’re new parents, and our child loves the night life…she loves to boogie.

By the way, the photos are of Penny at daycare…that’s right, she’s gettin’down…she’s shakin’ to the beat.