Over the past few days I have been at a loss. To be honest, I have been spoiled over the past 4 months with Petunia's sleeping patterns. So, when she recently began waking up in the middle of the night and not wanting to go back to sleep I was confused. The first time she sat back up in her crib and looked at me I wish I had a camera to capture the look on my face.
Huh?!
The next 2 nights I put her back into bed with me...which was a first. First night was a success...the next, not so much. I wondered what the problem could be.--Teething? She couldn't be hungry because I just fed her 4 oz. Tummy ache?
Well..my wise visiting teachers came by to see me yesterday. I really do love their visits. They both have infants/toddlers so I asked them what they do. I heard different responses...and I thought about them...and I thought about them.
So---last night, when Jiggs woke up at 3am I did feed her! (Shame on me I suppose) Next I rocked her for a few minutes...and she appeared to be asleep. I laid her in the crib....and BAM. Screaming.
What do I do now?
I decided to shut the boys' bedroom door (which is right across the hallway) and only leave a crack in her door...and stand outside the door.
In my head: "Is this too early to do this to her? Can you do this every stinkin' night for here on out? Man--you're going to be tired in the morning! I wonder if the boys are going to wake up. I wonder if big daddy down the hallway is gonna wake up. Should I just take her back to bed with me? I wonder if she is going to explode in her pants from all the screaming...and I just changed her diaper.
As I stood outside the door listening (and pondering the situation) I heard Luke get out of bed. Immediately I had in my head a scene from a sitcom we both LOVE, "Modern Family." In this scene there are domestic "partners" who adopted a baby named Lily from China and one partner, is trying to "Ferberize" her. The other partner can't take it. Well---let's say that Luke isn't ready to hear Petunia scream...and scream...and scream.
For 45minutes I listened to Petunia give it all she got. Every 5-7 minutes I would go back in, move her back away from the edge of the crib, cover her with her blanket, rub her head, put her pacifier back in, check her diaper quickly...and walk away... again. I would crawl back in bed while Luke would try to talk me into just bringing her back to our bed so he could snuggle with her. What a pansy! :)
I stood strong. (If you call it that)
Eventually..she gave up...she nestled into her blankets..and passed out.
Sweet relief.
A bonus for me, since I was am sleep deprived today, is she slept in an hour later than usual. Woo-hoo.
So, I made it through night one. Can I make it through night two?
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Around 9 months my little Carlin started doing that 1-3x/week for no apparent reasons. Always on teh worst nights possible too. Crying it out never worked and I approve of that method and have successfully used it. Sometimes nothing worked. I really hope this doesn't happen to you. On the bright side, she is doing better and especially on the nights Belen prays for her to sleep good so everyone else can. Maybe try that :)
P.S. The Aera picnic was awesome. What a great party for $10! It sounds like you were at wrestling...
Post a Comment