Another one bites the dust...
Another wasted day that is.
Jake hasn't been sleeping well lately, but it has gotten worse since his surgery - he wakes up several times night and cries for what feels like hours. Jess has been to work early several days this week because we both ended up getting up to care for Jake in the wee hours and instead of going back to bed he just stays up.
I think I have figured out the problem - Jake is spoiled and it is totally our fault. I feel rotten about spoiling him and I know that breaking him of this waking up and wanting to be "walked" to sleep thing is going to be really painful for all parties, but when I have just gotten to bed an hour or two earlier and then Jake wakes up for an hour or more - that puts me going back at bed at around 5, which makes an exhausted and worthless Mommy. Not to mention a cranky kid all the next day.
The first step in the repairing the damage we have done is we are both going to try to wear him totally out during the day and cut out any late afternoon napping. I'm hoping this works so we don't have to do step 2 - letting him cry it out. :(
Any suggestions?
I've totally been there, except I didn't have a full-time job. Josiah woke up every 2-3 hours until he was 18 months old! I am a firm believer that sleeping through the night is a developmental skill that is learned when they are ready... NOT through sleep training like letting them cry-it-out. I have done research on it because everyone and their momma told me to let him cry but in my gut it felt so wrong. What if he was just scared and I let him sit in there for hours until he fell asleep from crying. I wouldn't want to be left alone in the dark, scared, and crying. So, I researched and found some good info on why CIO is not a good idea for kids. If you'd like to read the info I'd be more than happy to send it to you. Also, I don't believe you can spoil kids by loving them and holding them and being their comfort. He is still so young! We want our kids to develop independence by sleeping all night in their own rooms at such young ages... when they can't feed themselves, dress themselves, communicate with words, or anything. Anyway, that's just my 2 cents. Once Josiah got his last set of molars in his sleep has drastically improved. He sleeps all night most nights now!! And all on his own, when he was ready without any trauma of crying. There is a good book out there called The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers by Elizabeth Pantely. She has gentle techniques for helping kids sleep better at night.
ReplyDeleteI know it's not easy! Hang in there. During those rough weeks many times Josiah just slept in bed with us, it was the only way we'd get sleep. He sleeps just great in his own big boy bed now! Message me on facebook if you want anymore info! :)
Thanks Jennifer. I feel the same way about just letting him cry, it just feels so wrong to me, but the sleepless nights are wearing me down. I'm going to look up that book for sure, maybe there is something else we can try. He doesn't sleep well in our bed either - in fact when he wakes up in the night he doesn't want anything but for us to pace the floor with him - he screams bloody murder if you even sit down. It wasn't bad until he started cutting molars, but I can't handle months more of this!
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