My son has never been a good sleeper. When he was six weeks old, I wrote in my journal that he'd napped for 2 hours and I was ecstatic! At six weeks old! How sad. By six months, he was down to one nap a day. And he screamed in the car - he didn't sleep like everyone swears their kid did. Now fast-forward two years and you'll find us with quite a few of the same issues. Baby doesn't want to sleep.
We've read all the books, heard all the advice. "You should do this - don't do that. It's because you did this - and didn't do that." We've talked to the pediatrician and emailed specialists. And yet, at five o'clock this morning, our little guy was screaming in his crib and I found myself hitting the wall. Not literally. Literally I screamed his name and my husband went running so that I could sob uncontrollably for the next 45 minutes.
We used to ask things like "Do you think he's gassy?" "Maybe he's cutting teeth?", and more recently "Could it be that he's anticipating the transition with baby #2 coming?". They're all fair guesses. But that's all they are. And the thing that drives me craziest is that all those sleep books start out by telling you how important sleep is and all the problems people can have later in life if they don't have good sleep patterns at a young age. Yeah, thanks. Why do you think I'm reading this book?? JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO!
I know we can't special-order our kids. But I'm really hoping for a sleeper the second time around.
August 22, 2008
To Sleep, Perchance...
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6 confessions & pardons:
Just a note that I am working on that six random things meme. :) Thanks for the tag!!
Did you guys ever look at the book Solving Your Child's Sleep Problems by Ferber. I read it when Kara was little and found that it had a lot of good tips. John Lavery recommended it. They found it helpful when KT was a baby. Evidently they took a trip to England with her and the jet lag/time change threw her sleep schedule off. The book helped them get her back on track.
Unfortunately I'm guessing you've already read it. So sorry he's still not a good sleeper. We'll definitely pray that the little one on the way will sleep like a little princess -- ok -- wait, not the princess and the pea -- the other kind :-)
Believe me - at one time or another we've read/looked at them all! And with lil sis on the way, it's hard to know if we should just ride it through til then & hope for the best with the two of them!
You are doing a fantastic job of raising your son. He's an individual and from the sound of it he likes to wake early. Some kids do.
Before you know it you'll be having to drag him out of bed by the foot in the mornings just to get him to wake up!
He's getting old enough to have a couple of books and a toy or two at the base of cot ready for him to play with in the mornings - might be worth trying for an extra half hours sleep?
Slip them in after he's gone to sleep in the evening so he doesn't stay up playing with them all night.
It worked with my daughter.
I guess I should have included in this post the fact that by 5am, he'd been screaming for 2 hours. Not simply that he'd just woken up at 5. That I can handle. The being-awake-several-times-a-night thing? Not so much.
you should just come live with me, He slept well here!! I know it must be so frustrating, I've seen what you go through. You're due for a good sleeper!
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