Tough
Man, things have been rough lately.
So, 4-month-olds apparently go through sleep regression. Gwen has never been an incredible sleeper, but we had got the feedings down to about 2 a night. Now she's waking up at least 5 times a night, sometimes every 45 minutes. I'm a complete wreck. I got a bunch of sleep books, and there are two basic theorys: Keep responding to her every time and meanwhile try to do all you can to her environment and sleep patterns to encourage her to go back to sleep herself, or Cry it out. She's really too young for the second one so we're going with the first at the moment. I've tried everything I can think of- white noise, music, lavender scent, blacking out the windows, putting a fuzzy cover on the crib mattress, keeping a strict and early bedtime routine, vibrating the crib, having daytime play sessions in the crib to get her used to it, putting a T-shirt of mine in there so my smell is there, encouraging a stuffed animal lovey. Finally yesterday, after putting her down repeatedly, I decided I wasn't going to nurse her more than every 4 hours at night. I'll get up and bounce her on the yoga ball, but she's going back in the crib awake and I'll just keep doing it until she falls asleep. Man, was she mad last night. It took an hour to get her back down. I just stuck my iPod headphones in and let her cry while we bounced. Soi's mom leaves on Monday and if something hasn't improved by then, I am going to literally, physically collapse. I really hope she stops bothering to get me up if she knows that she's not going to get nursed to sleep anymore.
So, 4-month-olds apparently go through sleep regression. Gwen has never been an incredible sleeper, but we had got the feedings down to about 2 a night. Now she's waking up at least 5 times a night, sometimes every 45 minutes. I'm a complete wreck. I got a bunch of sleep books, and there are two basic theorys: Keep responding to her every time and meanwhile try to do all you can to her environment and sleep patterns to encourage her to go back to sleep herself, or Cry it out. She's really too young for the second one so we're going with the first at the moment. I've tried everything I can think of- white noise, music, lavender scent, blacking out the windows, putting a fuzzy cover on the crib mattress, keeping a strict and early bedtime routine, vibrating the crib, having daytime play sessions in the crib to get her used to it, putting a T-shirt of mine in there so my smell is there, encouraging a stuffed animal lovey. Finally yesterday, after putting her down repeatedly, I decided I wasn't going to nurse her more than every 4 hours at night. I'll get up and bounce her on the yoga ball, but she's going back in the crib awake and I'll just keep doing it until she falls asleep. Man, was she mad last night. It took an hour to get her back down. I just stuck my iPod headphones in and let her cry while we bounced. Soi's mom leaves on Monday and if something hasn't improved by then, I am going to literally, physically collapse. I really hope she stops bothering to get me up if she knows that she's not going to get nursed to sleep anymore.