Dear Universe,
Please conspire to make my child sleep at night. Please.
Thanks.
-Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
*********
For real, bloggy friends, God must be trying to teach us just heinous amounts of patience because we haven't had a decent nights sleep in a week and it's a good thing our house is so clean which requires me to actually DO very little around here during the day because my ability to produce anything more constructive than a run-on sentence right now is nil. Nil!
Also, feel free to judge the depths of my exhaustion by that previous, grammatical terror of a paragraph.
We can't even figure out when this started....maybe it's because Mr. J. has been working a lot of doubles lately and hasn't been home at bedtime. Our Little Goat will go down to sleep reasonably well at her regular bedtime which is anywhere from 7:30-8, right after bathtime, but will wake up 2-3 hours later and will NOT go back to sleep. I nurse her, then try to put her down when she seems really sleepy, but she wakes up pretty much right away and just starts screaming. (Clean diaper, not teething....) Argh! So I lay her back down and rub her back and she seems pretty relaxed. As long as I'm rubbing her back or at the very least, standing where she can see me, she's fine, but the second I step out the door - WAHHHHHHHHHHH! WAHHHHHH! MAHHHHHHHHHHH! Etc.
The other night we thought we'd let her cry herself to sleep, but (beware: possible bad parenting moment ahead!) after 25 minutes of crying, we couldn't take it anymore and Mr. J. went in there. I want to do the whole 'cry it out' thing because I don't see what else will work right now, but I don't know if I'm really 'ready' for it. But then, will I ever be? Do I really just need to bite the bullet and get over it?
We're just so tired. Help!
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...musings and mis(?)adventures of a loosely-transplanted foreigner in America...and now back in Canada...where things still feel a little foreign sometimes...
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About Me
- bren j.
- Getting settled back on the snowy prairie with LJ, the Little Goat, and Squawky (who made her big debut eighteen months ago). I have a college degree which I utilize every day as a stay-at-home-mom....or not.
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9 comments:
Hi Brenda
I know your mom and dad and read your blog faithfully! Great job on the blog by the way.
Yes - do the cry it out thing - it is hard, but worth it. but do it in stages. Put her down and if she cries, let her cry for about 5 min, then go in (do not pick her up!!) and lay her back down if she is standing in her crib and tell her it is night time and she needs to sleep. Kind of like reassuring her. Then leave. She will cry - that you can be sure of. So do the same thing again but extend the time from 5 min to 10 min. Go in again and reassure her that you are still there. Leave. Now keep doing this extending the time each time. It won't be perfect the first night - that I will tell you. It is hard, but it is worth it. It took us 3 nights to get this to work with our child. Good Luck and hopefully it will work.
Christina
Sometimes my Anja fusses herself to sleep a little bit, but if she gets out of control and needs help soothing herself I'll give her a pacifier (I take it away once she's asleep, though). Does LG take one?
Yeah, I'm with Christina. This too shall pass.
Well, I'm hoping it passes before I pass out... :-)
I am personally not a fan of crying it out. Call me lazy but my kids eventually learn to put themselves to sleep and sleep through the night when they're two. Yeah it's a long two years but they're only young once! I loved cuddling them to sleep. Anyhow, I really like the book "The No Cry Sleep Solution". There are some great gentle ideas for getting your child to sleep.
I am wary of crying it out although I was almost there a few nights ago. It wasmostly because I couldn't deal with Maggie anymore and not be angry at/towards her so I was trying to keep my distance from her.
Your baby may do well with CIO but if you have never done it before, she may be confused and more upset at the realization that mommy keeps coming in here but won't "take" me or nurse me. I was going to suggest teething, especially molars cuz those bad boys are tough. But it it's not that, has her diet changed any, or yours? Something could be upsetting her tummy. Also, how are her naps? I notice if maggie has a super busy day and is exhausted at bedtime, she falls asleep quickly and then wakes soon after. It's like she's too keyed up to sleep.
One more thing, cry it out may not work. And nothing has been accomplished except more frustration for you and baby and then baby is even harder to settle. Plus they are doing that snotty heaving cry by then. :)
Check out the No Cry Sleep Solution co authored by Dr. Sears.
If all else fails, give her some Nyqil:) J/k
Wishing you lots of shuteye!
We've never let her cry it out. And seriously, at 13 months she started sleeping 12 hours/night in her own crib. LG is getting pretty close to that, right? Maybe it'll happen for her too :)
If she does happen to wake up now at night (very occasionally) I'll go in there and see what she needs. Sometimes she's pooped, sometimes she REALLY wants to nurse, sometimes she just wants to rock for a few minutes. Then I say, It's time for night night. And she goes back down.
I do remember the feeling of NO SLEEP. Seriously, right when I thought I could NOT TAKE one more night, she started sleeping 12 hours. I feel like a new woman :)
Awwww. That sucks. How old is Anja, exactly? We use a certain sleep program with our kids when they're about 11 months old and without crying, they're falling asleep ON THEIR OWN at a decent time within about 2 weeks. Email me and I can send you the details, if you'd like.
what are little sweet pea crying, in her crib, oh, if only Grama was there. we'd just cry together. hang in there sweet pea., love you.
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