This admission is going to make me sound very naive...
...but I did not realize just how much kittens (or at least ragdoll kittens) were like babies. To put it bluntly: Franklin doesn't want to sleep and he won’t shut up. Every second that he is not distracted by food or playtime, Franklin is letting out a constant string of “MEOWS!” which is usually very cute, but not at 12am, 2am, and 4am— when my alarm is set for 5:30am.
Go easy on me, this is my first kitten! I had an inkling it would be a little similar to puppies in the sense that Franklin would probably wake up a few times in the night to go to the bathroom, as he is so small and tries to eat and drink so much. But every time he wakes up for food, it also requires playtime to tire him back out, which means in total John and I are spending a good 45min-60min trying to get Franklin to go back to sleep.
It does not help our sanity at all that Franklin is meowing through all of this at the top of his lungs. You may wonder, Why don't Miranda and John just try to ignore it? That is a great question. In theory we would love to ignore Franklin's cries for attention in order to teach him that crying won't get him what he wants. The real problem is that Franklin will run all over us (including jump on my face) in order to get said attention when we are lying in bed ignoring him.
So, like any new parents, John and I have been trying to take turns when Franklin wakes up in the middle of the night, but that is easier said than done. John is a heavy sleeper. I am not. Franklin running on top of me wakes me up. It does not wake up John. Franklin meowing at the top of his lungs wakes me up. It does not wake up John. Franklin jumping on my neck and/or face wakes me up. Jumping on John's face simply makes John roll over, still fast asleep.
Unfortunately, I am easy prey to Franklin. Which means that I am targeted more and I get less sleep- and I barely get a decent night’s sleep as it is. I’ve been an insomniac all my life, and I usually only get about 2-3 hours of sleep in a row before I wake up needing to pee and to stretch my neck (I’ve got chronic pain too, which could be the subject of it’s own blog lol). So being woken up even more throughout the night by Franklin has really shortened my temper.
For the first two nights, John and I tried the formula of feed, play, and go back to sleep with Franklin in our bedroom. By night three, if feeding and playing didn’t tire him back out within a half hour, we decided the best option for the whole family would be to put Franklin and his toys in John’s office, leaving Franklin to cry himself to sleep by himself. I feel awful every time we have to do that, but it is as much for his sake as ours.
We can’t be good cat parents if we are tired and angry all the time. And thankfully, Franklin tires himself out crying pretty quickly now, so everyone is getting better sleep.
At the time of writing this article, we've had Franklin about two months, and it's still about 50/50 whether he sleeps with us or not. About half the nights we still have to put Franklin in the office if he refuses to go back to sleep after being fed and played with, while the other half he's getting better about sleeping through most of the night. I don't mind if he wakes up once or twice, but when it's more than that, in the office he goes.
The most helpful thing that happened was Kap bonding with Franklin within that first month of adopting Franklin, because Franklin LOVES his big brother and wants to do whatever big brother is doing. If Kap is eating, Franklin wants to eat. If Kap walks from one room to the other, Franklin wants to walk too. Which means, if Kap is sleeping, Franklin wants to sleep too. Thank goodness for Kap and his love of sleeping!
Comments