Dane is my third kid. I KNOW in my heart of hearts that he will one day sleep. I mean, it's happened twice before, right? Yet, I am a misery of a mom, breaking into tears of exhaustion at a moment's notice and threatening to run away forever. Or at least to the local hotel for the night just so I can sleep. The kid has been beating us over the head for the past several days, really giving it to us this weekend when I wanted to look my most rested and lovely for my class reunion. But that's a whole other story and not nearly as important as the one about the rest I'm (okay fine, WE'RE) not getting.
You may not know this but I am an emotional exhausted woman. Just as there are emotional drunks, I become weepy, irrational, and bizarre when not given adequate rest. That might explain me huddled on the couch last night, arms wrapped around a pillow, sobbing to my poor husband, "I'm just so exhausted! We are never having another kid! Do you hear me?!?!? I can't do this again! I think I'm dying! Now, get me a Slurpee!"
Thus commenced "time for Dane to cry it out". While we were in Yakima he took to being up for 2 hours in the middle of the night, all smiles and joviality, and waking up multiple more times each night. This had to stop. I was obviously going crazy and Greg and I were dreading night time. So last night, around 10 p.m., Dane woke up and started in. And we dug in our heels. Every 5-10 minutes or so we'd go in, pat him, roll him back onto his tummy (he can do this easily but when screaming seems to only concentrate on lying on his back and kicking frantically), give him his binky, and leave again. Then we'd go back to our air mattress in the living room (since Dane was doing his screaming in our bedroom) and lie there, feeling awful. This lasted for one hour and 5 minutes. And I was counting the whole time. At 11:15ish the wailing stopped and we found him sound asleep, binky in mouth, hands on his blankie, looking beat up. We felt awful. BUT THEN he slept until 6:30 this morning, I fed him, and he went back to sleep until 9 a.m.! And I stopped feeling awful. He was his usual happy self today and the mere hope of sleep has given me strength for another day. I'll let you know how tonight goes. It is no wonder sleep deprivation of a form of torture. It will make you do just about anything.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Cry Baby Cry
Posted by Sara Jones at 10:22 PM
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3 comments:
Oh my goodness Sara, I'm so sorry. We've let Anna cry it out using your same method and she kept it up for only 25 minutes before falling asleep...I can't imagine over an hour. It was the longest 25 minutes of my life. I'm sure it was heartbreaking. You're right, it is for your own good, because it sounds like you are at your breaking point. Sleep is essential for spending the entire day with three kids under four! Hang in there...I'm praying for you guys that it will only take another day or so before he just doesn't wake up for his midnight "playdate". How did he do last night? I'm sending you lots of good sleep vibes!
Sara, I KNOW you know this but it does NOT hurt a baby to cry, even doctors recommend it and I doubt they'd risk giving dangerous advice that would require the immediate revoking of their license. I'd wake up numerous times a night if I was greeted by somebody picking me up and cuddling me back to sleep. But if all there is to look forward to is crying till my throat hurts what's the incentive. Keep going with this and one of these days you'll actually feel rested, I promise. And I AM buying you chocolate covered peanuts tonight. Does that help?
If you just get too tired you can always demand that KayLynn & I come babysit your awesome spawn whilst you nap. You should be taking advantage of my extremely lax summer schedule right now. In 3-ish weeks I'll be juggling baby, work, school, and ... golf.
I'm really sorry that the Dane is so fuss-tastic every night. I will copy Jenny and send him sleep vibes!
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