My life is currently sponsored by extra strong coffee and anything containing sugar. Being the parent of a newborn was obviously going to mean less sleep but believe it or not Baby Girl actually sleeps well (fingers crossed, touch wood, stroke the rabbit foot!). It is in fact the almost 2 year old Baby Boy who is having nocturnal issues. He has never been a great sleeper I have to admit. I can probably count on one hand the number of times he has slept through the night and at some point, every night, without fail he ends up in bed with myself and Mr K. ‘Any chance of a lie in?’ I hear you ask. The answer to that would be no! At around 6am every morning, my warm, snuggly alarm clock goes off – usually involving jumping up and down or hitting me on the head. The day begins!

Now he is obviously an early bird, which is fine, but the fact that he doesn’t sleep well at night means that by roughly 10am he needs a nap. Morning activities are therefore limited. Pushing this nap back to the afternoon causes more problems though as then we have a nightmare bedtime. 

I appreciate that walking around in a state of permanant exhaustion is just part of the parenting experience. It’s what I signed up for and I have it far easier than some people but what I worry about is the long term effects of poor sleep. When do these sleep habits become a problem for his future?

I have been pondering this for a while and it just so happens that a few weeks ago I was sent this interesting infographic about sleep.

Source: AffordableSchools.net

Can anyone relate? I am certainly a night owl out of the two (although to be honest I like to go to bed early and wake up late). I want my children to have a healthy sleep pattern and Baby Girl certainly seems to be heading that way but will Baby Boy’s current sleep pattern start to affect his daily life if we don’t sort it out soon? It is something that I am certainly going to discuss with the Health Visitor at his next review.
Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Image Credit – http://www.pinterest.com; http://affordableschools.net/sleep-early-bird