The Sleep Chronicles

In December, David suddenly stopped being the excellent sleeper he has always been. He would cry and cry when we put him down,  and if he awoke in the middle of the night it was very hard for him to go back to sleep. Add the factor of the flu  in the middle of the month, and it was very hard for me to know when he was crying with a need and when he just needed to go back to sleep. Of course that falling back to sleep part was a struggle, even when he was exhausted in the middle of the night.

I was clueless as to why the sleep pattern had changed.

Then it dawned on me. At the beginning of December, we had a fast cold spell. We had a balmy November, which immediately changed to an extremely cold December. The fast change gave all of us chapped hands. David's hands got chapped too--including his beloved thumb. His thumb developed sores between the cold weather, dry air and his sucking on it. Because of the pain, David dropped his thumb sucking habit. All on his own; just like that.

Enter his ability to soothe himself to sleep. I finally put it together that with David's dropped thumb sucking, he also lost his way to put himself to sleep. Or to calm himself back to sleep when he stirred in the night.

I am happy to report that after a month of trying everything we knew, we finally have a boy that goes to sleep well. And the thumb sucking looks like it is gone for good.

Good riddance to that thumb! Welcome back, good sleeper.