Sleep crawling - an unexpected milestone
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By Jane Han
Oh, how time flies.
When I first started writing this column almost eight months ago, I would easily type away while my infant twins would just lie still, content with simply staring at the ceiling, wiggling their tiny toes or just plain old sleeping.
Now, one is climbing my back in full force as I type this very word, while the other one is gnawing on my thigh. Yes, these are moments when I feel like a human jungle gym.
Being a first-time mom, I’m truly surprised at just how much and how fast babies develop physically in their first couple months of life. One moment, they’re barely rolling over. Next thing you know, they’re up on their two chubby little legs.
Rolling, sitting, crawling and standing ― these are all major milestones that I knew and expected. But I’m being completely thrown off by something else my Baby A is totally into these days ― sleep crawling.
Sleep walking, I’ve heard of, but sleep crawling? My goodness, even the name of it doesn’t sound too great.
So this is sleep crawling in action: Baby rolls over onto her tummy, gets on all fours, rocks back and forth a few times and finally begins to crawl, quickly and repeatedly changing directions. All this going on while eyes closed, consequently bumping into crib railings, falling and, ultimately, crying.
This course of action is repeated about four to five times every night.
For those following my column, you know that the twins had a major jetlag to overcome. After we finally put the jetlag mayhem behind us, things have been going pretty dandy for maybe about two days, and bam, now this. Ah, I love parenthood.
I always like to look on the bright side, so I’m trying to focus on the fact that Baby B hasn’t caught up to crawling like her sister yet. She’s still having too much fun just rolling over, and over and over.
I would’ve taken it easy and just let time take care of Baby A’s sleep-crawling phase, but when I started seeing her pull herself up to a stand in her sleep, I knew it was becoming too much. And so I contacted her pediatrician.
It turns out not all babies experience sleep crawling, but some -- more sensitive ones -- do as their body and brain get so excited from their new and developing physical skills. Simply put, these poor babies just can’t power off at the end of the day.
After hearing all this, my heart began to hurt for Baby A, whose under-eye dark circles from lack of sleep are sinking lower and lower. It’s like she’s already experiencing the tough and rigid reality of the real world, always having to be on the go.
To be honest, I lost my patience with her a few times when the number of sleepless nights began to add up again. But after hearing the doctor’s diagnosis, I just decided to go with it.
Here’s a lesson to future parents: If you entirely give up on sleep, everything is a lot more acceptable. A lot of times, we lose our patience because we’re holding onto that string of hope to catch a few hours of sleep. Just let go. Grab a cup of coffee, suck it up and make another sleepless night memory with your little one.
Before you know it, that phase will have passed by anyway. I can say this from my short, but intense eight months of experience of being a mom of twins.
Okay, am I beginning to sound all godly now? I’m just in one of my being-an-understanding-mom moments.
Baby A still has a few weeks left to sleep crawl, according to the doctor, and Baby B may decide to take that path, too, so we’ll see just how well I tough it out.