It's no secret that my sweet little girl is a raging insomniac. This child NEVER SLEEPS. The first three months, she slept like it was her job. Then, something shifted, and she wanted absolutely nothing to do with that anymore. Naptimes were just as bad, if not worse than nighttime. She would need to sleep in my Mei Tei babyhawk wrap, or I would hold her. the whole time. The second I would put her down and gracefully try to set her in her crib, she would scream bloody murder. So I rocked. a lot. And I co-slept with her for 6 months. Part of that was my working mama guilty conscious, I wanted to snuggle a bit after being away from her all day.
Yes I know what you are thinking. But you have done this BEFORE! You KNOW what you are not supposed to do! Babies need to learn to fall asleep on their own, it is a skill that must be mastered. Most babies wake a few times a night, some babies (you lucky mamas!) actually sleep through the night. Since Sophia turned 3 months, things have progressively gotten much worse, waking a few times a night, to 5 or 6 times a night, and then to this past week where she was up every 15 minutes and absolutely nothing would console her or put her to sleep. I tried EVERYTHING, and then I lost it a little.
Sleep deprivation makes you feel like a walking zombie, and as a therapist, spending my days listening to horror stories and stories about trauma and "bad parenting", I began to realize that I was not present, nor was I making good judgements, both at work and at home. And Sophia was feeling it too, she was absolutely miserable. She always looked exhausted and was inconsolable.
I have always been anti-Cry it out, after some research in grad school and a practicum that focused on mama-infant attachment, I thought there was no way in hell that that would ever be me. Rewind to Kaden at 10 months, and we were at our wits end. We ended up using The SleepEasy Solution with him, and after two nights, he slept through the night.
Sleep training is rough. It goes against every mama instinct that I have. I am not sure I would have went through with it if it had not been for Sophia's pedi who looked me in the eye and said "It is your JOB to jelp her with this".
So we did it. The first night hurt my heart, we did the 5,10, 15 increments of time like the book says, and finally she was asleep. And then she SLEPT. For like 5 hours. AM-A-ZING!!!
The second part of the night was a wee bit rought and she work up 3-4 times, but in the morning, she was her smiley self again. It has been 4 nights since we started, and each one has gotten better and better. And tonite, I put her in her crib, kissed her good night, she smiled at me, turned over and went to sleep. WHAT?????!!!!!!
Slowly, with each night of more and more sleep, I am starting to find me again. Sleep is one ridiculously wonderful thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes I know what you are thinking. But you have done this BEFORE! You KNOW what you are not supposed to do! Babies need to learn to fall asleep on their own, it is a skill that must be mastered. Most babies wake a few times a night, some babies (you lucky mamas!) actually sleep through the night. Since Sophia turned 3 months, things have progressively gotten much worse, waking a few times a night, to 5 or 6 times a night, and then to this past week where she was up every 15 minutes and absolutely nothing would console her or put her to sleep. I tried EVERYTHING, and then I lost it a little.
Sleep deprivation makes you feel like a walking zombie, and as a therapist, spending my days listening to horror stories and stories about trauma and "bad parenting", I began to realize that I was not present, nor was I making good judgements, both at work and at home. And Sophia was feeling it too, she was absolutely miserable. She always looked exhausted and was inconsolable.
I have always been anti-Cry it out, after some research in grad school and a practicum that focused on mama-infant attachment, I thought there was no way in hell that that would ever be me. Rewind to Kaden at 10 months, and we were at our wits end. We ended up using The SleepEasy Solution with him, and after two nights, he slept through the night.
Sleep training is rough. It goes against every mama instinct that I have. I am not sure I would have went through with it if it had not been for Sophia's pedi who looked me in the eye and said "It is your JOB to jelp her with this".
So we did it. The first night hurt my heart, we did the 5,10, 15 increments of time like the book says, and finally she was asleep. And then she SLEPT. For like 5 hours. AM-A-ZING!!!
The second part of the night was a wee bit rought and she work up 3-4 times, but in the morning, she was her smiley self again. It has been 4 nights since we started, and each one has gotten better and better. And tonite, I put her in her crib, kissed her good night, she smiled at me, turned over and went to sleep. WHAT?????!!!!!!
Slowly, with each night of more and more sleep, I am starting to find me again. Sleep is one ridiculously wonderful thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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