You seemed listless and tired the whole day (probably because of the dim lighting) and mostly slept fitfully. But when your actual bed time rolled around, I guess you were so bored from a day of under-stimulation, you started screaming like a banshee.
You refused to be comforted by the ergo or by nursing (or walking, bouncing, and anything else we tried), but you finally quieted when we took you outside in the rain (with me as your PUH--personal umbrella holder). Of course we couldn't be out in the cold rainy night for too long, so we went back in the house eventually, where you proceeded to continue screaming!
And then I thought, if you want stimulation, maybe we can play you some music. I played some Red Mountain Church songs for you (on full volume) and you quieted down instantly! You even started to sing along! We did that for an hour or so until you started screaming again--this time, probably because you were over-stimulated and wanted to go to sleep finally.
I tried to nurse you to sleep as usual, but you would have none of it. Instead, your dad had to ergo you into the wee hours of the night. When he finally put you down at around 11:30pm, you popped back up at midnight, 2am, 3am, and finally 5am.
Your nighttime wakings are clearly increasing and becoming untenable. This is NOT acceptable buddy. After another horrible night, and talking to Mandi about her sleep training experience, I am fully on board, 100% committed to starting to ferberize you Sunday night.
We need to nip this in the bud before it gets even worse!
I know that in the middle of the night, when you're screaming at the top of your lungs for over an hour, I'm going to want to cave in and stop the sleep training. So here are some things I can tell myself to steel my resolve:
(1) Thousands of parents have sleep trained their babies and they are all fine. Some have started the training at just 8 weeks old or younger.
(2) You won't suffer any permanent damage for an occasional night or 2 (or 3 or 4) of heavy crying.
(3) If we don't train you now, your sleeping habits will just continue to deteriorate until you're waking us every hour!
(4) It'll be harder to train you when you get older. The younger you are, the easier for you to break your associations.
(5) Learning to put yourself to sleep at night will translate into better napping skills too. Soon, perhaps I won't have to ergo or swing you for all your naps! That in turn means, no more shoulder and back aches for your poor parents--especially as you're approaching 20lbs.
(6) No one wants to ergo you all night long. And if we don't, you scream anyway.
(7) And finally, the kicker, I'm tired of not sleeping more than 1-2 hours at a time!
Here's a pic of you in your crib--before it's drenched with your wailing sleep-training tears!
4 comments:
Gird your loins. It's not fun, but it's necessary. We hated sleep training, but we always reminded ourselves of this truth: we are giving him the gift of sleep and self soothing. Once we realized that he was crying roughly the same amount or maybe even less during sleep training than he did when he was dependent on us holding him or nursing him, then it became much easier to stick with the training. Stick with it for a week or so and see how it goes. It's not like you can't change your mind later without ruining him.
-Marcus
Aww, I know it's going to be hard but you know what? I bet it will be so good for Judah. I'm convinced that a lot of people who have problems sleeping as kids, teens, adults, etc. have those problems because they were too coddled by their parents. If a child associates perfect conditions as necessary to falling sleep, then it's hard to sleep when those conditions aren't there. My parents let me scream it out and for all my pre-law school life I could fall asleep *like that*. It was such a blessing. Anyway, good luck with it Christina! Be strong!
Thanks Marcus--mine loins shalt be girdethed. God have mercy.
Tam--gosh, how awful was your law-days that it ruined your life-long ability to self-soothe yourself to sleep!?
Law school was awful Christina. The stuff of nightmares!
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