Last night I had one of those nights where I just needed to either cry, scream or give up and run. Max has had an ear infection and of course, teething and of course, a cold and of course a stuffy nose..so what does that leave a momma with-NO SLEEP. I AM RUN DOWN, TIRED AND A LITTLE NUTTY. When I get tired, I start to think that every other baby in the world sleeps and then I think that every other mom in the world never has any problems getting their kid to sleep. Max is a great kid. He is one of the happiest and most chill babies that I have ever met but he is not the greatest night sleeper. I go back and forth-in my bed and not in my bed. My kid just does not want to be alone when he is in pain and ya know-I wouldn’t either but I also know that he needs to sleep on his own. The only thing that worked was when I phased him into my version of sleep training but he has had an ear infection for a few weeks and so that is not possible. I am not risking his ears or his emotional state. So he has not been able to get comfortable and he tries and tries and then he is awake. WIDE AWAKE!! Last night, after wanting to scream and throw stuff against the wall and a few times of counting from 1 to 10, well I picked up my little (after an hour of trying to get him to sleep) and we watched a movie together. My hubby was out with friends. It was nice. Max and I watched The Holiday (great feel good movie). He was sleepy. He laid his head on my lap and drank a bottle and watched the movie. An hour later he laid his head down on the floor and went to sleep. I moved him to the over sized chair and looked at my little angel sleeping. AAAHHH!!!I start to feel like a nut for complaining about sleep when he is such a good kid but sleep is huge for my mental well being. I know you guys always remind me that I am not alone but it is so easy to forget all the posts I read on mommies struggling with sleep.So who knows what is going on with my kid and his sleep habits. Poor baby but poor mama! Sorry for the blah, blah, blah but this momma needs a break.
I haven’t been able to coment on the last couple posts… hopefully this one will go through! Just wanted to say hang in there and how many days until you get some R and R in FL?! You are doing great and there is nothing more crazy-making than sleep deprivation! I’m glad you found a way to just relax with your little guy… I’m going to try that the next time Charlie’s sleep gets out of sorts. Hugs to you and Max. I hope you get some sleep tonight!!
COmplain away!!! hope it gets better soon, mama!
Yup i agree you compain all you like! I have had a night like that, i was sat emailling you last night just before bed and he was fast on….. then i closed my eyes and he woke, off he went back to sleep and took me hours to get back to sleep and within 10mins he was up again! Feel bad grumbling as hes so unwell but i seriously think you can handle anything so long as you have had sleep, so i am there with you!
I hear ya. my son goes down to sleep at about 10PM, wakes up at about 11, 2, 4, and 6 before finally waking up at 9AM. AND he’s not teething. He just likes to wake up and pick on me and nurse more since he’s too busy playing during the day. He’s a big fan of sleep-nursing. And he’s almost 13 months old.
I figure he’ll learn to go to sleep and stay asleep when he’s ready to go to sleep and stay asleep. Self soothing is a natural behavior same as crawling and walking and babies achieve it at their own pace.
IMO forcing the issue just makes the child less likely to self soothe. If you need to force the issue sometimes for your own sanity that’s one thing. If you’re just forcing it out of fear and guilt at the idea of him never learning to self soothe… Chill, woman!
You’re a great mom and you’re intuitively interacting with your child and reading his cues and helping him learn to live, and teaching him that he’s not alone in life. You’re a good mom!
BTW- calorie weighting works wonders (sort of)
Schedule is also pretty good- the important parts of the schedule are ironically waking the child up at the same time every day (even if you let him go back to sleep for a nap a half hour later), making sure the house is dark and quiet for the hour before bedtime, and making sure the baby is getting enough naps during the day- but not *too long* naps. Try playing with the duration of the naps a bit to see how they effect the sleep. Keep a sleep diary. I’ve managed to get a whole extra half hour of sleep some nights with careful finagling. (I know, I’m a loser. 
)
I know all about sleep deprivation. Porgie didn’t sleep through the night until she was a year. And now I think Izzy is headed down the same path. We have to get together and bitch!
i’m always a little nutty