There are some things only parents understand and there are some things only New Yorkers understand. And occasionally there are times when those two levels of understanding collide. Such is the case recently with our Manhattan apartment and my 7-month old baby who does not sleep through the night.
At my son’s 4-month well visit the doctor laughed out loud when my husband asked when we could start putting him to sleep in the same room as his toddler brother. She went on to advise that we not even bother trying to sleep training our baby until he was 6-months old since he was so small (less than 3 percentile on the growth chart). At that point the twice weekly 6 or 8 hour nighttime stretches disappeared. My body experienced new levels of exhaustion as I longed for a simple 4 hour stretch each night. I consulted with friends. I read the chapters on sleep in our baby books again and again. I reviewed the sleep books on our shelf. But there are no chapters or plans for families living in a two bedroom apartment with a toddler in one room and the baby in the parents’ room. Not to mention the neighbors upstairs who don’t want be up in the middle of the night listening to a crying baby anymore than we do.







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