Landry doesn't really like sleep. I could kind of just end the post there, but I need a slight vent session and also want to pinpoint this time for future reference's sake. I wish (and I knew I would) I had more written down from the boys. I did ok with milestones and memories, but I wish I could have documented more of the nitty gritty of the daily grind with schedules, sleep habits, etc. So here's where we're at. We've been doing some form of sleep training effort for a good 2 months now. We started with gradual and then decided to rip the bandaid and go with cry it out. That's just kind of our thing evidently. We got to point around 5ish months where we were ready to go big or go home and just try to get it overwith and get her on a good night schedule. Like the boys I didn't initially mess with naps at all. I still rocked to complete sleep and that was working so I left it. We were really focused on nights.
The last 2 months are a bit of a blur, but our problems were mostly just getting her to stay asleep between feeds. At its worst (probably around 4-5 months) she would wake up every couple of hours. For awhile we were on a decent schedule of 2 feeds a night, but the first was happening around midnight, which would be right after I fell asleep. Not easy, but I was willing. But we often had to let her cry at 1 or more points before that when we weren't willing to feed. Around 5ish months we also adjusted her bedtime back to 7 and then 6:30 and then 6 mostly because her naps were still bad. She was only sleeping 30- 40 min. at a time and always had trouble going down the later the day got. We decided to kind of ride the nap thing out, hoping that as she got a little older her naps would naturally stretch. And that was the case for the most part. But the nights have still been inconsistent and rough. I'm not sure how long, but easily for multiple weeks she wakes up nearly every night between 11ish and 1ish. Every.single.night. At some point, I'm not really sure how, we got her down to one feed. I think we just decided we needed to push it back and set 2 AM as the earliest feed time. So we've let her cry until then most nights. And she does. I don't think she's ever put herself back to sleep before then.
I have racked my brain trying to figure out why. I was pretty sure she was getting enough milk during the day. It was odd to me that it was almost always the same time every night. I even called the ped office last week to make sure I wasn't missing anything and get their advice. She basically assured me that we were doing everything we could and that we just had a stubborn baby. I figured. Landry also hasn't taken to solids, which has been a separate battle. She thought that could help (although it really hadn't with the boys) and suggested I up my efforts to 2-3x a day. She also thought maybe we just cut her off cold turkey. It had crossed my mind as a last ditch effort. Perhaps the fact that she eventually gets fed makes her keep crying. So last night we tried it. She woke at 1 and wasn't totally quiet and settled until between 4 and 4:30. She had one roll over which BJ went in to get her resettled. It was tiring and rough, but I don't know what else to try. She's just been so stubborn and unrelenting. The advantage of CIO has always been that it's painful, but done quickly. Not so with this one. I feel like she's been crying at night for weeks. And she has been I'm pretty sure.
So that's where we are. Our ped has assured me that she's plenty old enough to be going through the night without a feed, and really should be. She has come a long way with bedtime though. We had to let her cry at put down and I guess I have to say that she did dramatically improve there. Now she can go down with a fuss or minute or two cry and be done. So maybe there's hope for this new extinction effort.
She's still a happy, laid back, and sweet baby during the day, despite a lot of too short naps and night crying. I'm very grateful for that. She's definitely been a little fussier as her night crying sessions have increased, but our days could be so much worse. Lord, please help us. I'm tired...
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