Fight, fight, fight!
I can almost hear Molli chanting to herself in that sleepy yet violently resistant stage.
Don’t give in, stay awake, cry, cry cry!
And just when she accidentally gives in, BAM, in the crib!
NOOOOOOOOO! Roll over, sit up, grab crib, stand. They can’t leave me here standing and looking so very sad. Look, I have tears and I’m not sleepy after all, I have no business being in here.
At this point I avoid eye contact, swipe her legs to the side and gently lean her back to a laying position, replacing the pacifier and telling her she is OK.
Lather, rinse and repeat.
Oy Vey. Woe is me.
We had two very successful naps in the crib yesterday. VERY successful! We regressed to better days when this girl could have won an “ideal sleeper” award. I could place her in the crib, turn on the music projector and walk away only to come back for her when I heard happy playing sounds coming from the monitor. They were good days!
I digress.
Yesterday she was sleepy, so I got her all good and drowsy, placed her in her crib and she fussed. I kept my hand on her until the fussing turned to crying. Then I picked her up, calmed her down and tried again. She squirmed a bit and succumbed into sleep. Beautiful! Nap number two, same thing! Again, beautiful! Then came bed time. I had high hopes as I watched her eyes roll around as she was eating her cereal bottle before bed. She went down just as gloriously limp as can be, then when her nap was over, she sprung up with rage. Try and try again, right? I picked up, put down, rocked, wrapped, talked to, sang to, shhhhed, and patted this child to no avail. After a couple hours Myles and I decided to focus our efforts on naps in the crib.
Which brings me to today…
Again the wretched fight! I think we lost our headway with the successful naps by forcing the crib so hard at night time. All failures aside, two hours later, she is sleeping and not in my arms. She is on the floor. It’s no crib, but at least it’s her room. I’m working to make sure this nap lasts longer than her preferred 15 minutes so I’m staying in the room to lull her back to sleep at first sign of waking. According to The No Cry Sleep Solution, getting a full sleep cycle during nap time is vital to continuing the sleep cycle at night time. So that’s my goal for now. Get substantial naps. Even if it means I have to sit on the floor and wait.
Sleeping, or not sleeping, is a big part of our lives these days so stay tuned for more posts regarding the topic. We have a couple tricks up our sleeves and one in the mail…here’s hoping for something that works!
We read that book!! It was a good book in theory...just didn't really work for us. Love you. You are doing a great job MaMa!! Keep up the good work! This will pass. It has only been 9 months of little man sleeping in his crib. I can remember thinking 5 months ago that it felt like FOREVER ago that he didn't sleep in his crib...and it was only 4 months. haha! It is amazing what a little time and sleep can do to a girl! :) Love you. praying that the "arms" work!!
ReplyDeleteOh you poor dears...I hate the sleep wars. I found this crazy thing online called a crib rocker. It attached to the crib slats and literally rocked the whole thing, or rather shook it. It had settings of intensity and could be set to turn on after a few seconds of crying. It wasn't a surefire thing to get him to fall back to sleep, but i think it did help lull him a bit. Is that perhaps one of your tricks in the mail?
ReplyDelete