I'm back. Sleepy, but back.
So we moved Ian back into his room and he has been very happy with that. Poor kid, now I feel bad that I ever thought it was a good idea to move him out- but all is well! He won't remember it, and now he is in his new bunkbed. Lower bunk, obviously. The bunkbed arrived Tuesday. Rob put it together and Ian was thrilled. He had no problems with leaving the crib for his big boy bed. I told him that there was only one rule with sleeping in the bunkbed and that was that he had to stay in his bed once we tucked him in, and in the morning when he woke up, he could call for Mommy or Daddy to see if it was time to get up. I thought for sure, my strong willed child will never cooperate with this rule....I secretly wanted to keep him contained in a crib until he was 5. I watched him as I closed his door to just a crack, and he instantly got out from under the covers and crawled all over his bottom bunk....but the kid didn't get out of his bed.....THE ENTIRE NIGHT! And in the morning??? In the morning, he called for us to see if he could get out!!!!
Oh man....I was beside myself. I was completely giddy that he had obeyed this one directive!
Night Number 2 went the same way.
So, Ian is pleasantly transitioned to his new bed, which leaves the crib free for C, but she is such a screamer that I think we are still going to wait until she outgrows (?) this screaming stuff before she moves into the room with him.
As far as C goes, I started with the first commenter's idea to wait to nurse C when she starts her usually nightly scream instead of right before I put her to bed at 6:30pm.
Brilliant!
It worked on the first night. I fed her dinner, bathed her, got her ready for bed, put her in the pack and play and she cried for just 15 minutes. And then she didn't wake up for another 3 hours. There was no screamfest an hour into her sleep!!
Night Two, it started to work again. In fact, she was asleep within 9 minutes and I thought we were homefree. But she did wake up 45 minutes later screaming, so I nursed her then. And she went back to sleep.
But then she woke up an hour later, and then an hour after that....almost every hour or two. And she didn't want to just be held or shushed to go back to sleep. She wanted to nurse.
The next two nights were also like this. Tiring for me. Not so bad for hubby, since I just kept getting her up and nursing her.
Ugh.....I so thought maybe that was the solution!
But hey, I'm not done trying things. Last night I tried nursing her around 6:00pm, after her baby food, then I gave her a bath and put her to bed. Ummm.....that didn't work so well for the nightly scream. She still woke up at 7:17pm (after going down at 6:30) and screamed until 8:07....yes, 50 minutes with 3 interventions. But it does seem like she just gets more angry after we go in and pick her up. After the third time we went in there, you could hear her cries start to wind down....but still that is one persistent baby to scream that long! And why isn't she tired before an hour of screaming is up? I mean as an adult, it's exhausting to cry for that long! How does a little baby do it????
OH....but the good news about last night is that she did sleep for 3 hour stretches! More or less.... she woke up at 10 something and nursed, 12 something and nursed and 3 something and nursed. So that was actually a big improvement on the previous nights!
Thanks for the ideas.....I mean, she is doing small periods of CIO right now, but we may have to progress to just plain CIO since going in to comfort her seems to make it all worse!
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5 comments:
I'm not sure what is the best method as I look ahead to tackling the same issue with my now 5 week old, but I did find this article and the comments if interest! http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2013/04/parenting-and-the-theology-of-the-body-can-babies-self-soothe/
I think it all comes down to parenting style of the parent. :) With H I coddled her til it didn't feel right to me anymore and I gained my momma mubo-jumbo in what works for me. We let H eventually CIO after she was 1 and she has been good ever since. But there is a difference, I feel, in needing to be comforted and just not wanting to go to bed.
With 2nd she was just plain easy. But I did allow her to fuss starting at about 4 months. Obviously, there is a difference between come in I'm starving and get me and fed, burped changed and fussing it out. But I can put B to sleep in a dumpster and she would go to bed. LOL H not so much.
I have many gf with all different types of philosophies....My philosophy is when Momma puts you to bed, it's bedtime. God bless you baby, good night. :) LOL
Hope it gets better for you! I can't handle the stress of sleep times. I start to come undone in my mothering abilities after it's "bedtime" at my house! I kinda start going psycho. LOL So hubs had to step in and help me out! LOL
I will add that I am not an attachment parenting type of gal! It goes against every fiber in my being and I just can not get into it. For some people it works, but I'm the complete opposite. :)
I had a screamer-AJ. That child screamed every two hrs the first yr of life and I would nurse him. Guess what? He didn't need it. He is just a screamer. Lol. And once I stopped attending to him when I was sure he didn't need it, well he went to sleeping all night. Still when he wants/needs something he has quite the pair of lungs on him at two. We have done better knowing that when we do go in we make it worse. So that is what worked for us-knowing he didn't need to eat that often and not even going in to attend to it. Even now when he is mad he turns red and shakes. Its just his little way. 99% of the time he is great, but oh that 1%. lol. I feel your pain.
I have zero advice since C was the worst sleeper and I did everything wrong. But just wanted to say I can relate! And it is so hard! Hang in there mama!!!
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