(no subject)
I need more sleep. For the last few weeks, my baby has been dysfunctional. I turned down almost 5 hours of easy work tonight because I couldn't trust myself to make the drive.
Xander all the sudden decided that he was going to sleep in less than 2 hour increments. This lasted almost a week. Then I got a few 3 hour increments. After almost 3 weeks Jake and I were at our wits end trying to figure out what could be wrong with him. I think it started with some stomach issues, then some teething right at the end of that. But now...I think it's rebellion. Mostly cause he'll scream and scream and scream and everytime we enter the room he LAUGHS (seriously fucks with your mind).
I think that while he was legitimately not feeling well, our coddling him messed up the routine. We had done the 'cry it out' (a modified version of it anyway) when he was 5 months old. It worked beautifully. No horror story, the first night he was asleep in a half hour, the second night it was 10 minutes. Since then he'd been going down for sleep very easily. He was still getting up for good at 5 or 5:30am, but that's a different problem.
We had been struggling with naps, he just didn't take them. Then one week we were noticing very obvious cues that showed us he was ready for a nap. We put him down and he, I kid you not...I was seriously shocked, just rolled over and went to sleep, not the slightest fuss. This lasted until about 3 weeks ago, I want to say we got almost 2 months of 2 non-fighting naps a day.
So now we decided to reinstate the sleep training. It had worked great before and the big turning point was when he was sick and we were not consistent with the sleeping rules. So we started yesterday. We started after we'd had an hour crying fit and another almost 2 hours of trying to nicely convince Xander to go to sleep. We do a 3 minute check then we check every 5 minutes. You're supposed to up the time, but I just can't leave him that long. He was pissed off. It came time to have a bottle and it only took about 10 minutes for him to go to sleep. Both Jake and I think he just blacked out though. He was so freaking exhausted, he couldn't crawl right.
He has been super tired and cranky for the last 2 weeks. I realized that with his short infrequent naps, his going to sleep later in the night and his waking at his usual time, that baby was only getting about 8 hours of sleep a day. Seriously not enough for an 11 month old.
So last night he slept from 6pm to 5:30am, waking up to have bottles twice in the night, midnight and 3:45am. This was awesome. He was up and playing til about 8:45am and I put him down for a nap and he cried for almost 10 minutes and then slept. I was super excited. All we had to do was get back to our structure and he was happier.
Then tonight.
Well, this afternoon. At 4pm, he desperately needed another nap. I put him down and followed the routine, till 4:55. He SCREAMED almost the entire time. A seriously anguished I'm dying kind of scream. Everytime I'd go in to do the check he'd get quiet and a few times even laid down with his pacifier and ~almost~ fell asleep. The very moment I thought about leaving the room, he'd sit or stand up and start screaming again. My stomach was in knots and the baby was so obviously completely exhausted. It was time for his next bottle at 5, so I gave it to him and he was sleeping while drinking it. He let me put him down, yelled about 30 seconds after I left the room and spent the next minute and a half yelling every few seconds, then all was quiet.
He slept til 8:40, I gave him another bottle and he went right back to sleep before I even stood up to put him back in his bed.
I can totally see how people give up on the sleep training stuff. It is gut wrenching. But, I tell you what...seeing my baby slip and fall just from exhaustion and see him pause while playing to stare off into no where because he is so freaking tired is also gut wrenching. We will see how tomorrow goes.
I've also had a migraine all day and it was horrifying around 5:30/6. I need to try and get some rest, but now I'm wide awake from the caffeine in the migraine medicine. Ugh..
Xander all the sudden decided that he was going to sleep in less than 2 hour increments. This lasted almost a week. Then I got a few 3 hour increments. After almost 3 weeks Jake and I were at our wits end trying to figure out what could be wrong with him. I think it started with some stomach issues, then some teething right at the end of that. But now...I think it's rebellion. Mostly cause he'll scream and scream and scream and everytime we enter the room he LAUGHS (seriously fucks with your mind).
I think that while he was legitimately not feeling well, our coddling him messed up the routine. We had done the 'cry it out' (a modified version of it anyway) when he was 5 months old. It worked beautifully. No horror story, the first night he was asleep in a half hour, the second night it was 10 minutes. Since then he'd been going down for sleep very easily. He was still getting up for good at 5 or 5:30am, but that's a different problem.
We had been struggling with naps, he just didn't take them. Then one week we were noticing very obvious cues that showed us he was ready for a nap. We put him down and he, I kid you not...I was seriously shocked, just rolled over and went to sleep, not the slightest fuss. This lasted until about 3 weeks ago, I want to say we got almost 2 months of 2 non-fighting naps a day.
So now we decided to reinstate the sleep training. It had worked great before and the big turning point was when he was sick and we were not consistent with the sleeping rules. So we started yesterday. We started after we'd had an hour crying fit and another almost 2 hours of trying to nicely convince Xander to go to sleep. We do a 3 minute check then we check every 5 minutes. You're supposed to up the time, but I just can't leave him that long. He was pissed off. It came time to have a bottle and it only took about 10 minutes for him to go to sleep. Both Jake and I think he just blacked out though. He was so freaking exhausted, he couldn't crawl right.
He has been super tired and cranky for the last 2 weeks. I realized that with his short infrequent naps, his going to sleep later in the night and his waking at his usual time, that baby was only getting about 8 hours of sleep a day. Seriously not enough for an 11 month old.
So last night he slept from 6pm to 5:30am, waking up to have bottles twice in the night, midnight and 3:45am. This was awesome. He was up and playing til about 8:45am and I put him down for a nap and he cried for almost 10 minutes and then slept. I was super excited. All we had to do was get back to our structure and he was happier.
Then tonight.
Well, this afternoon. At 4pm, he desperately needed another nap. I put him down and followed the routine, till 4:55. He SCREAMED almost the entire time. A seriously anguished I'm dying kind of scream. Everytime I'd go in to do the check he'd get quiet and a few times even laid down with his pacifier and ~almost~ fell asleep. The very moment I thought about leaving the room, he'd sit or stand up and start screaming again. My stomach was in knots and the baby was so obviously completely exhausted. It was time for his next bottle at 5, so I gave it to him and he was sleeping while drinking it. He let me put him down, yelled about 30 seconds after I left the room and spent the next minute and a half yelling every few seconds, then all was quiet.
He slept til 8:40, I gave him another bottle and he went right back to sleep before I even stood up to put him back in his bed.
I can totally see how people give up on the sleep training stuff. It is gut wrenching. But, I tell you what...seeing my baby slip and fall just from exhaustion and see him pause while playing to stare off into no where because he is so freaking tired is also gut wrenching. We will see how tomorrow goes.
I've also had a migraine all day and it was horrifying around 5:30/6. I need to try and get some rest, but now I'm wide awake from the caffeine in the migraine medicine. Ugh..