We've had a couple of rough nights here at the Casa de la Nelson (I don't know Spanish very well, but that has to be close, right? Abby?) with Wyatt, he's had trouble going to bed for the night. He's fighting it. Last night it was definitely because he was overly tired, I think in the end he was up for 3 or 4 hours total before he gave in.
"Gave in" isn't exactly the correct term though, more like finally fell asleep from exhaustion. From crying.
After several attempts at trying to get him to sleep, many trips to pop the binki back in, rock him, nurse him a bit, swing him, anythingtoproducethesleepies, we let him cry. Mostly, at first, because he was refusing to take his binki, preferred to cry unless he was held, and I've found that if I let him cry for a minute he'll eagerly take his binki and usually fall asleep.
But, last night wasn't anywhere near "usual".
Weary, at the end of our ropes, not knowing what else to do, we decided to let him cry for a minute to see if he'd wear himself out enough to sleep. Caleb and I laid there on the couch in silence, both hating it. I think we lasted 5 minutes or so before I got up, not able to listen to him cough and choke anymore. After I soothed him, wiped away his tears, maybe a few of my own, he fell into an exhausted sleep, around 10:45. Caleb and I weren't far behind him, we were both in bed ten minutes later.
Thankfully he slept fairly well after that, instead of repeating the previous night where he woke up every hour or so.
I'm at my wits end, I can't figure out why he's fighting it so much, he does really well napping during the day. At night though, he literally fights it. He'll fall asleep, but a minute or two later he wakes up and is awake. Eyes wide open. Or sometimes he fights falling asleep, and the second he feels himself giving in he riles himself up again.
I'm trying to figure out where my good, easy baby went. Why the sudden problem?
I've been reading Dr. Weissbluth's book, but lucky for me, his take on the matter is that there is no real schedule until they reach about four months. We're close, but it seems so far off. I know this will pass, I know he's not going to wake up for the rest of his life. For some reason though, when you're in the thick of it, that's all you can see.
I'm sure someday we'll look back on this and laugh. Ha! Remember the time when he wouldn't sleep?!
For now though, we're prisoners. Prisoners to sleep. Prisoners who are frantically looking up any sort of help online. In books.
Help, or, at the very least, some commiserating.
You think I'm cute now? Wait until I shoot my poop halfway up my back...
Ugh, that suuuucks. I know, my baby regressed a few times, but this sounds pretty bad (unless maybe it's just a few days' fluke). Did you read what Darcie said on my "sleep" post? Her kid had some major issues. She recommended the Ferber book/method, but I dunno. You've probably already looked into it. What's with these kids? Don't they know how great it is to be able to sleep ALL THE TIME? Youth is wasted on the young.
Posted by: turleybenson | February 22, 2009 at 02:05 PM