In response to Karen Wolberger's questions:

My husband and I are both 52 years old and we NEVER can sleep through the
night anymore. Our bodies don't permit it.  I am up to go to the bathroom, or
because of night sweats, or because of insomnia, etc. If we are up very late
at night, we are unable to sleep in late the next morning. Instead, we wake
at the usual time.

Like most parents of young children we struggled with our "need" to get a
full night's sleep and our unmet expectations of children who are "supposed"
to be sleeping all night.

It seems so unfair, or even senseless, that uninterrupted sleep is so
difficult to attain during the years that our children are young (and our
bodies are able adjust to sleeping in late when we go to bed late etc.) and
yet we are incapable of sleeping all night when we no longer have the demands
of young children to keep us up. Perhaps someday I will understand the logic
behind it all.

Night waking become tolerable, acceptable and no longer a "problem" only when
 I stopped fighting it and gave up on the preconcieved notions of how my
babies would behave. Our culture expects our babies (who are younger, weaker
and more immature than their parents) to adjust their expectations of
parental behavior rather than the other way around.

AFter many years of talking with other women, three things have surfaced that
seem to help mothers best cope with night waking:
1. an accepting mental attitude
2. nursing the baby in bed--cosleeping
3. CATNAPS for mom during the day.  Five minutes can change the world.

Mothers come to terms with these three conditions at their own time. Some are
never able to meet all three and do fine with only two of the three. Some
mothers live with anger and resentment until the baby is weaned. Yet the
mothers who are able to accomplish all three early on are better equiped to
handle comments by saying "My baby sleeps fine, thank you" as suggested in a
previous posting.

Much is being "discovered" in the literature about the need for babies to
wake and check in with their mothers at night. Our babies are so  smart; they
frequently know what they need better than we do.

It sounds like you are doing fine.  Your children are very lucky. We all
waver and get insecure once in a while.  When that happens E-mail me
separately so I can give you more encouragement.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Abour hydrogen peroxide:

I first heard about it's use about fifteen years ago when some practitioners
were recommending hydrogen peroxide be dribbled into open nipple fissures.
The bubbling that occurred was the splitting of the extra oxygen from the
water.  (Somebody who is a chemist: please explain this better.) It was
suggested to be used at full strength.

Karen Koss
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