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| He should be in his bed, but we'll take what we can get when it comes to sleep! |
And ironically, I should have been sleeping instead of watching a show about sleep.
See, Isla was finally sleeping, which I pretty much thought would never happen last night. After a smiley day, she started sniffling... hey, a little cold, no big deal. But on top of that, she started showing signs of having a sore tummy.
Fast forward to 7pm and the cluster feeding commenced... by 10pm, she was all-out screaming bloody murder. This went on until 4am, with only about an hour and a half break for a nap (I'm totally not calling it sleep... it was a nap - for both of us).
At 4am, although she was a little fussy off and on, for the most part, at that point she slept until about 8am. Which raises the question, why wasn't I sleeping until 8am? Why was I up at 6am watching The Mom Show about sleep, cursing at the mom who apologetically shared that by 4 weeks, her baby was sleeping for 8 hours straight.
Have I shared with you that I never believe parents who claim this? 'Cause I totally don't. Don't refute me on this. It helps me not kill myself. Seriously (no, not seriously...).
But still, Isla was giving me a good stretch and here I was not sleeping along with her. I was not sleeping because I was looking for some nuggets in The Mom Show about how I could start making this sleep thing work because so far, there's no sign of this working -- and with one toddler who *just started sleeping through the night at about 2 1/2, I just can't imagine going this long again without sleep... I mean, really people... no good sleep again until I'm 43?? Really?
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| She is in her crib...will her eyes close? Only time will tell. Either way, she's super cute, right? |
And you'd think I'd know better this being the second time around but these days I feel like I know nothing. Like all my parenting skills have disappeared. So I rely on what? Television. Judge if you will.
So what nuggets did I get from The Mom Show? There were lots, but none that seemingly applied to a family with 2 little ones. Let me demonstrate:
1. Early in the evening start a routine whereby you dim the lights, you give baby a quiet bath, play some lullabies -- well, you can't do that with a 2 1/2 year old unless you completely parent separately and one parent does all of this with the baby alone in a separate part of the house, away from the playing, the Treehouse, the occasional tantrum of the toddler.
2. At around 6 weeks, establish having the baby sleep in the crib in their own room -- well, Isla's room is next to the loud toddler room where he's awake a playing until like 9 and then after he's asleep, you're so darn tired from it all that the thought of walking ALL THE WAY to the other side of the floor is just too much to take.
3. Let baby learn how to settle themselves so don't go into their room at the first peep -- this is the slippery slope to "crying it out" which I could never do with Archer and I can't imagine this changing for Isla - although maybe I'll just be so darned tired from everything that I will.
So tonight as the end of the evening starts again... I'm looking at Isla in front of me in her bouncy chair... and wondering what to do. I *think that although Archer is doing his best Mickey Mouse Hot Dog Dance beside her, completely unaware that babies should be asleep by now, and he should help keep a quiet environment for her, I will *try nursing and *try putting her in her room in her room, in her crib. I will *try for the hour that I have until we have to get Archer to bed.
If it doesn't work, I'm totally giving up on setting a sleep routine for her. Not forever. Just for tonight.
That's all we can do, right?
Sleep, and lack thereof, is the toughest part of being a parent! I tried everything to avoid the "crying it out" method, and ironically THAT is what led to the MOST crying! Once my mom finally convinced me to let my son "cry it out" he only cried for 3 nights, never more than an hour each. He also went from sleeping max 2-3 hours straight to 9 and eventually up to 13 hours straight + multi-hour naps. I am not making this sh_t up! If sleeping were an Olympic sport, he would be a gold medalist!
ReplyDeleteAs I like to think of it now, the "no cry sleep solution" = TONS of crying. The "crying it out" sleep solution" = 3 nights of a bit of crying, followed by years of no crying. But I would say I doubt I would have survived the first 3 nights of "crying it out" had my mom not been there to physically restrain me from going into the room. I think you almost need someone else to help train you how to... Maybe Cesar Millan's theory of "I train humans, and rehabilitate dogs" applies to child rearing!
Tammy