Humility.....

Yes, its true. Before I had a child of mine own I would often find myself passing judgement on parents whose children didn't sleep well. Yes, I would think things like, "When we have a baby I'm going to do X so that my baby will sleep!" or "I won't have a 12 month old who doesn't sleep!" I didn't say these things out loud, but I definitely thought them.

And then, then I had Ryan. And while Ryan is many amazing and wonderful things, and awesome sleeper he is not! But early on, even before it became painfully obvious that he was a challenging sleeper (the boy didn't truly sleep through the night until he was 14 months old!) I realized a few key things. Namely, some parents are lucky and they are given the gift of a naturally awesome sleeper. Other parents, well, they're not so lucky and their kids are not and may never be great sleepers. Ryan seems to fall somewhere in the middle as he is now a pretty consistent and solid sleeper (unless he is sick, as he is now). But regardless of how Ryan sleeps I can say that I will never again pass judgement on a parent for how their child sleeps and I feel that I learned this very early on in my parenting experience. Giving birth to a not so great sleeper is a humbling experience indeed!

Recently, someone in my life had a child. We'll call the person Maggie and the child Bob. Well, Maggie has not yet learned the quality of humility. She is one of "the lucky ones" as Bob seems to have come out a good sleeper. At least he is so far (he's only 3 months old!). And let me tell you, Maggie will be sure to tell me that Bob is a GREAT sleeper and Ryan is not. THIS DRIVES ME UP A WALL! Can we all agree that at barely 3 months we can say a few things: 1) Bob could easily change his sleeping patterns and become a crappy sleeper. 2) At such a young age it is highly likely that Bob's propensity for sleep does not have a darn thing to do with anything that Maggie or her husband have done or not done, and that rather, Bob just likes to sleep.

Until Maggie made it a point to openly berate Ryan's sleeping pattern and applaud Bob's I can say that I was happy for her that she has a "sleeper." Now, yes, I am spiteful. I hope he stops sleeping through the night very soon and never does it again until he's 2. Am I wrong? ;)