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Two nights in

So, unswaddling my little one is not going well.

AT ALL.

Yes, He has been unswaddled since Wednesday night( if you don’t count a brief, desperate attempt at sleep yesterday for a nap).  I didn’t swaddle him last night either.

Now, the first night, he went right down to sleep.  For about two hours.  Then he was awake, and wouldn’t go back for about 2 hours.  And this went on all night.  But he slept in two and three hour stretches.  It was a good start.

Yesterday, no matter what I did, he refused to sleep unswaddled.  Finally, after much frustration and crying on both our parts, he got loosely swaddled.  And slept for 2 1/2 hours.    But last night……

Gawd last night.

He went down with no problem after taking a bottle.  He slept for an hour.

And the night went something like this:

10 pm: awake, rocked back to sleep

1015: attempted to place pookah in his crib, he wakes up, screams like all hell has broken loose.

1030: I attempt to put him down “drowsy” like all the books say.  But that was a no go.  He either cried or thought it was play time.  Like I said before, I don’t do the crying thing well.

1030-1115: put him down and picked him up at least 5 times.  finally, he fell asleep in my arms and I eased him down in the crib.  And escaped his room like a thief

1200-200 : he woke  up, I feel asleep nursing him, so I have no idea how long this took.  I woke up and eased him down in the crib

245: back up.

400: He’s asleep

510: awake.  By now, I’m in tears.  C-Dub finally wakes up and just brings him in our room.  I nurse him,and he falls asleep.  Amazingly when I decide to just lay Pookah in the bed beside me, he stays asleep no problem.

810: Pookah wakes up after sleeping beside me for the longest stretch of the night.

And now, I attempted a daytime nap about an hour ago.  Same problem as last night, except, he doesn’t go to sleep at all.

I am beyond sleep deprived, and I feel like I did when Pookah was about 3 weeks old.  I have to work tonight.

But watch, he’ll sleep wonderfully for C-Dub.

I joined Natalie’s  Body after baby Challenge( see the button on the side!).

We will update every Monday.  I have to decide how exactly I am going to go about this, but I don’t have time or energy right now.  But I will be participating.

As soon as I can get myself together over here.

Quiet Dreams

Saturday 19th of June 2010

I hope this gets better really soon. Hugs.

Nina

Saturday 19th of June 2010

Don't give up! I really had to talk myself into this! I reminded myself that Dammit! I was the parent, here, we were doing this my way! It worked for my resolve, if not my technique! I also had to remind myself that crying was the only way he could communicate, so I imagined a little kid: I need a drink! I need the potty! Read me a book! etc. These kids don't really need those things, they just don't want to go to bed, right? And that was Fletcher's problem too. Once he figured out he couldn't manipulate me, he quit. I do go in to check his diaper, just cause I don't want to deal with Booty Bubonic Plague, but I change him, give him one kiss on his head, and lay him back down. I don't smile or play with him, cause he'll start all over again thinking it's playtime instead of naptime. (This helped me the most with the "I'm ignoring my child and he could need something" feelings.) I also don't feed him during the night anymore. That seemed to help the most, as he wasn't waking up with a wet diaper every couple of hours. Pookah can do it!! So can you! Oh, I hope everything starts getting better soon. I know you're exhausted.