So everybody else's baby has sleep problems too. Apparently letting them cry is the ticket. Everyone who talks about it says its rough but then three days later their baby is so easy to put to sleep.
I was against CIO (cry it out) for a number of reasons that I still believe in. But I'm also against getting so sleep deprived that I want to kill her when she's screaming in my ear. What to do?
If I only had the answer.
Friday, I tried getting her to sleep for 4 and a half hours. We started our bedtime routine at 6:00 when she seemed sleepy, but the bath seemed to give her a second wind. I finally called in the reinforcements (Nan and Grandpa) at 10:00 because I needed to go buy some feminine supplies and the thought of a trip to the store to buy maxi pads just sounded like heaven. Or at least a good break.
She finally went to sleep at 12:30 in the morning after the last basketball game. I mean, I know I said I wanted to teach her about March Madness, but girlfriend ....
Then she was awake every two hours or less. She's not waking to nurse anymore. She's just ... waking. And screaming.
Last night it was the same deal. If you catch her just waking up, you can pat her back to sleep. Otherwise you have to rock and shush and turn the sound up on the heartbeat bear and cross your fingers and toes and say the right prayer while singing in a hoarse voice, apparently.
I have probably spent something like 20 hours in the last three days trying to get this child to sleep.
So it was awesome to read Liz's post about her sleep issues. It was very empowering for a mother I admire to the gills admit that sleep was an issue.
But then when I read that a couple of nights of crying and she got 6 hours of sleep, I wanted to puke. A couple of nights of crying and I get ... more crying.
Which I'm doing now, so I'll end the pity party there. Hope you're all getting more than 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Sounds nice.
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1 comment:
Hey, I never comment anywhere much, so I just want to say 1) you're so not alone with the anxiety and wanting to puke over your kid's sleep and 2) try the NO Cry Sleep Solution, that worked for us, although in a nut shell we wound up doing sort of what you just mentioned; catching him just as he was waking up and patting him back to sleep. It took a few nights of being on Red Alert for the sign of a wakeup, and then gradually he started putting himself back to sleep without the patting and then not even waking up at all.
Hang in there; yes everyone goes through and yes it does suck but it does get better.
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