Why did she sleep for 8 hours straight, 3 days in a row? Why? It's like being in the desert for 3 months and someone handing you a big glass of water and then yanking it away after one sip. It tasted so sweet and you got enough to want more and to have hope you wouldn't dehydrate and die. It's crueler than no water at all.
This week has gone progressively downhill. Last night was the pinnacle. Of course it helps that by the time you hit Friday, you've already accumulated 4 sleep deprived nights to make it more miserable, but she hit new behavioral lows.
She went down at 9 (after several tries) and woke up at midnight. I did make the brilliant decision this time not to offer her food, but to just put the pacifier in. Which actually worked. She sucked frantically and went back to sleep. I had to get up a couple times to make sure it stayed in or to put it back in, but that kept her asleep until 2:00 am. (And of course my fear in giving her the paci is that she won't be able to sleep w/o it, which will mean wake up calls every time it falls out for us to put it back in. That would be a nice cherry on top of this sleepless sundae.)
I had finally fallen back asleep at 1:45 am in the nursery bed, waiting for her to wake up, when my not-so-much-a-night-person husband wandered in to the room looking for his watch. He scared me awake, and then disappeared like a ghost. I tried not to be insanely mad that right when I fell asleep he decided it was a good time to come in.
4am rolled around and awake again. This time James got up to get her. I suggested the pacifier approach, but he decided she was inconsolable and so she got another bottle at 5am. Because she NEVER went back to sleep. Until 7am.
Today she is a wreck. And when I got up all I wanted to do was lay back down and die again. And I remembered it was just one short week ago that I thought my world had changed and that we were going to enter a new phase of happy, sleeping baby.
I'm on page 117 of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child as recommended by many of you on FB. I will try to continue reading it during all of her wake up calls throughout the night. Then I can contemplate how nice his advice is and how I wish my baby was adhering to my failed attempts as I read.
This week has gone progressively downhill. Last night was the pinnacle. Of course it helps that by the time you hit Friday, you've already accumulated 4 sleep deprived nights to make it more miserable, but she hit new behavioral lows.
She went down at 9 (after several tries) and woke up at midnight. I did make the brilliant decision this time not to offer her food, but to just put the pacifier in. Which actually worked. She sucked frantically and went back to sleep. I had to get up a couple times to make sure it stayed in or to put it back in, but that kept her asleep until 2:00 am. (And of course my fear in giving her the paci is that she won't be able to sleep w/o it, which will mean wake up calls every time it falls out for us to put it back in. That would be a nice cherry on top of this sleepless sundae.)
I had finally fallen back asleep at 1:45 am in the nursery bed, waiting for her to wake up, when my not-so-much-a-night-person husband wandered in to the room looking for his watch. He scared me awake, and then disappeared like a ghost. I tried not to be insanely mad that right when I fell asleep he decided it was a good time to come in.
4am rolled around and awake again. This time James got up to get her. I suggested the pacifier approach, but he decided she was inconsolable and so she got another bottle at 5am. Because she NEVER went back to sleep. Until 7am.
Today she is a wreck. And when I got up all I wanted to do was lay back down and die again. And I remembered it was just one short week ago that I thought my world had changed and that we were going to enter a new phase of happy, sleeping baby.
I'm on page 117 of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child as recommended by many of you on FB. I will try to continue reading it during all of her wake up calls throughout the night. Then I can contemplate how nice his advice is and how I wish my baby was adhering to my failed attempts as I read.
Sounds really tough. All of your effort will pay off.... I am sure of it. And I bet if your little Corazon could, she would thank you for loving her and apologize for making your life so difficult!
ReplyDeleteWeissbluth also has one called Your Fussy Baby about...fussy babies/ colicky babies. They are their own special breed.
ReplyDeleteI read Healthy Sleep Habits too, and I think it has a lot of great principles. we still enforce an early bedtime, which is glorious. It's 6;42 here and my house is quiet. My first just wasn't a napper. So we would run errands and she would sleep in the car. She's been the only one to sleep in the car. Luckily, my second one was a huge sleeper I would lay her in her crib and she would magically nap for 2 to 3 hours morning and afternoon and sleep at night. My first was harder. My babies don't really sleep through the night until 9 plus months -- realistically closer to a year. Eventually around 6 or 7 months it would only be once a night around 3:30. Good luck! I love your honestly--all Moms have been where you are, and it's nice to see someone openly talk about it. One more thing with my oldest, after reading the HSHHC book, I let her cry it out one night. Then I found her with both legs --wedged at the thigh--in between her crib slats in the morning. I felt awful and good at the same time, because i had slept so well. I think the idea of a video monitor is a good one. then you know when the cries are I'm crying myself to sleep tears or I can't feel my toes tears.
ReplyDeleteKeep writing!!