Who Needs Sleep?

There is an old Barenaked Ladies song that goes: “Who needs sleep? Well, you’re never gonna get it!” When my kids were babies, and I was up every 90 minutes with one or another child, I sang that song to myself on repeat in some bizarre masochistic ritual. My uncle would sing it to me as a silly way to comment on the sheer exhaustion of those first few years. Even now, being awoken in the middle of the night triggers my husband in a way that only makes sense if you are a parent to kids who can struggle with sleep.

It seems like sleep is the holy grail of parenting young children. As a pediatric psychologist with two decades of experience I have had plenty of referrals from desperate parents wanting help to get their child to sleep on their own for the whole damn night! I also know firsthand the exquisite torture that is a child who struggles with sleep. Each of my girls has had their difficulties with sleep, and I have definitely twisted myself into physical pretzels to ensure they would find their way to the land of nod. I vividly remember spending the last six weeks of my pregnancy, laying on the floor with my hand through the crib rails to help soothe an agitated baby because of how much trouble she had with self-soothing.

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