About a week ago I was feeling all smug about sleep training Emiline in about 36 hours. We moved her into her sisters room at about 4 months ??? (I'd have to check) but because we were so worried about them waking each other up, anytime one of them started to fuss, I'd run in there. That got old quick and Emiline didn't have the greatest self-soothing skills. So I decided to help her learn. We had Jane sleep on the loveseat in our room for a few nights and I was strict with Emiline and just let her figure it out. It worked really fast. But someone didn't knock on wood/got punished for her smugness.
Four days later we had the 6 month appointment and shots. She wanted to be held more and definitely didn't want to sleep in her bed. So I caved, I gave her the binky a time or two and then Wednesday, after she woke up screaming and inconsolable, I let her sleep in my bed with me. She thrashed every 45 minutes as she came out of a REM cycle and then would reach up for my face then settle back down. It was actually pretty sweet, but also very tiring.
So it took 36 hours to untrain her, too. Now she's much worse than before. And she's just so mad whenever we put her in the crib, it's not a heartbroken cry but an indignant one! Last night this meant she slept in the kitchen in the port a crib next to the running dishwasher so she wouldn't wake up her sister (which is ironic because tonight I let her wail in her crib for 10 minutes for going to get her and Jane was snoring when I went in... she sleeps through it!) She cried for an hour, exhausted but fighting so hard.
I hate sleep training. Hate, hate, hate it. It's been extra frustrating because Eric is finals and he definitely doesn't handle her crying well so I'll go get her for his sake.
Anywho. I'm tired. And I think it's funny that Jane is incapable of sleeping in my bed and Emiline seems irate that she doesn't get to every night.
Blah, blah, blah, go to bed.
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3 comments:
I second the sleep training Hate. I know what you are going through! Cate stopped sleeping through the night at about 7 months old. At 12 months I couldn't take it, I was completely exhausted and cranky and so was Cate. I checked out a bunch of books about sleep from the library to try and find one that would work for Cate. Cry it out didn't work because she just got more and more hysterical (plus I just don't have the heart to do it). So we settled on a modified version. I (or Joe) would stay in the room with her while she cried in her crib. We would give her a hug or a pat every few minutes, but we didn't take her out. She didn't cry nearly as hard if we stayed with her. Eventually the first night she lay down by herself and went to sleep. It got faster after that, but we always made sure to stay with her until she fell asleep. I don't know how this method would work for you, having 2 little ones, but it worked for us. *Disclaimer - this method dose not work anymore. At 15 months I guess she has us figured out and will continue to cry until we pick her up. Sigh. The move really messed up her sleep and she ends up sleeping with us a lot now. I'll let you know if it gets any better from here. from one tired mom to another - Good luck!
I hear ya with the sleep training. I had a night just last week when Christopher was up crying AGAIN and Jeff just had a pillow over his head and I was exhausted and irrational and felt convinced that I didn't want ANY more kids EVER and I was also convinced that Christopher would NEVER sleep through the night and would probably be nursing the rest of his life. It's hard, but I guess all of the hard work just ties us even more to them.
Hang in there!
Sleep training is the worst. We actually went cold turkey (and I mean cold turkey, she hasn't had one since) with Katie's binky when she was 5 months old because she was waking up every hour for it in the night when it fell out of her mouth (I mean, every hour). So for the three days/nights it took her to get used to not having it, she took forever to fall asleep and never slept for more than 45 minutes at a time. Definitely up there as some of the hardest days of my life. We continued to struggle with sleep until I weaned her at 14.5 months . . . now she sleeps 11-12 hours a night every night after a short but sweet bedtime routine. Like that first 14.5 months of her life never happened . . . I hope things are getting better!
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