Wednesday, August 02, 2006
One of those nights
Well, I had it. I'm pretty sure that it's also a part of new mom initiation, because everyone warned me that it would come. Yep, I had the night where both Emily and I were crying in the middle of the night, and neither of us would stop. Emily continued her routine of only wanting to sleep while being held, but I must point out that yesterday morning all of her naps were in her bed or carseat, and as I write this she's in bed. But I digress. So most of the afternoon & evening she did this, but got a few naps in. We fed her and tried to put her to bed around 9:30pm. Just after 1am is when I had my breakdown--I'd put her in bed at least half a dozen times, but she kept waking up. And while I think she's too young to cry it out (I may be wrong), I tried it once for about 10 mintues. I gave her Mylicon in case she had gas, I fed her more, I swaddled her, I un-swaddled her, nothing made her happy except being with me. So at about 1:30 I raised the white flag, grabbed a pillow from my room, and spent the rest of the night (4 whole hours) sleeping on the couch with a baby on my chest. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated--Larisa suggested putting one of Jon or I's t-shirts in bed with her in case she liked the smell, which could explain why she's sleeping just fine in my bed right now.
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6 comments:
i tended to be incredibly overtired for the first few months of my babies so you may not want my advice - but i say sleep of any kind counts. i did whatever they needed to sleep in the beginning and then tried to wean them off when they got a little older and i felt like they could cry it out a bit. i read somewhere (i have no idea where so i may have made it up) that they're not capable of comforting themselves at this stage so they'll just keep getting worked up worked up. that's my logic anyway. (the shirt idea sounds worth a try)
You may not want to hear this, but I agree with Sarah. When Jack was this age he just wouldn't sleep without being held. So I would just sleep with him on top of me. When I finally just let him do it, we got a lot of sleep. In fact, he would sometimes sleep for 6 hours at a time. And I would sleep too. At this point, you are hyper sensitive, so you don't need to worry about smooshing her, or dropping her. Just relax, and sleep. She'll be able to pick up on your cues, and relax too. Plus, no matter what anyone says, it doesn't ruin them. Jack now not only sleeps in his own bed, but sleeps from 8:00pm to 6:00am every night. Plus we put him down before he's asleep, and he sings himself to sleep at night. She will grow out of this, sooner than you think. Until then it is okay to give in.
What an adventure, being a mom. I am so proud of you Chris! I regret that I'm not there to see it (and with your stready stream of visitors, I'm sure you're ok with that), but from everything I have heard and read, you are doing an amazing job, and that girl sure does love her mom!! :)
Here I thought we had spoiled her because we all held her all the time but hey I would take the above advice from and sleep with her in your bed. Man I agree whatever works course I would have said to let her cry it out but Dez makes a lot of sense and she is a newer mom than I :)
love you Chris and would love to be there helping you.
How about that bag thing you showed us. Could you use that in the daytime?
All of my nighttime parenting tips are conveniently located right here: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070100.asp
My answer is to do what works, but you know that. It's better to have some sleep on her terms than no sleep on your terms.
Oh, and taking 10 minutes to recover yourself and get to where you can safely function around your baby is very different than letting her "cry it out." If you need to leave her alone for a few minutes to breathe and regroup, then do it :-)!
Hugs,
Charlotte
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