because we are not.
Sigh.
I mean, it could be worse. I am very aware that it could be worse. Amelia does not wake up and stay awake. She is not waking up every hour, like another Book Baby we know, whose poor mother looks worse than I do. But. She. Is. Still. Waking. Up. Every. Night! At least twice, usually around 2 and 4 am. But last night it was 10:30 and 4.
Now. I know several people with brand new babies, and I am aware that to them it sounds super luxurious to have a baby who only wakes up twice. But Amelia is 11 months old and I am losing my ability to persevere. And my ability to even remember words like persevere.
It's not the waking up so much as the fact that I cannot go back to sleep after waking up--although it's getting very old being wrenched out of all my deep sleep cycles too. We had that stretch, that beautiful stretch, of Amelia sleeping till around 4 or 5, then going back to sleep till 6 or 6:30. I can do once. It's fine. But then 10:30 or (and sometimes AND) 2:00 AND 4 or 5 is getting me down.
I don't know why the stretch ended. What she was doing was crying out--VERY briefly--just a few wahs--and then going back to sleep. Since I knew she was in the pattern of going back to sleep, the wahs didn't really wake me up enough to stay awake. I think one night she didn't go right back to sleep, so I nursed her, and now we are back in the bad pattern.
I have read all the sleep books. I hate all the sleep books. Happy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child is like the baby sleep gestapo. At the other end of the spectrum we have The No-Cry Sleep Solution--seriously? I don't think it's possible to get a baby to sleep with NO crying. The Ferber idea of intermittent checking sounded good--except Amelia gets much angrier if you check on her and then exit her room than if you just leave her alone in there.
Last night we tried crying it out and she cried for 45 minutes, getting angrier and angrier. I am probably not committed enough to the crying it out for it to work. I don't know. I might really need to night wean, like A's pediatrician told me.
Do you have ideas? Will this magically get better when she turns one? I am trying to hang in there another month.
I am discouraged. I am losing hope. I am relying on frozen cookie dough to get by.
2 comments:
Frozen cookie dough is GOOD STUFF -- but does not replace sleep. Weaning, if that what she suggests, might be a good idea. She for sure doesn't NEED to feed at night, so maybe she just needs cut off. I can't imagine going through this, though. I'll just send my best wishes since I have no advice to dispense!
Make Dean go and comfort her. We did that for a couple of days and it worked. Granted with three weeks of travel and lots of early morning co-sleeping, she is back to waking once a night.
If you can start weaning now, I suggest it. I waited because of the food allergies. But nothing was conclusive. And it is getting harder to wean her. I accidentally learned there is a window from 12-15 months, which is easier to wean. After that it is two, when you can reason with them. That sounds like a bad idea. Unfortunately we are almost to 16 months. Old habits die hard.
Still not sure how to get there but my patience is wearing thin.
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