personal rant
I've come to the undeniable conclusion that attempting to give my in-laws every reason to like me is an exercise in futility.
For the past few months Logan has been sleeping through the night. Lately, however, he's taken to waking during the night--sometimes once, sometimes every couple of hours. We've tried all sorts of things, and now we're to the point that I make sure he's dry, fed, and let him cry. I feel terrible doing it, but we can't always rock him to sleep, or let him nurse until he crashes out. So, every night, I sit in the living room and listen while he cries. I check on him, reassure him (tell him there's NO WAY I'm getting him out of his bed), then go back to wait it out. He did really well last night--only cried about five or ten minutes before getting quiet and starting to drift off.
Teaching him to go to sleep on his own this way isn't bad parenting, I hope. And getting upset when he DOES wake me up at 3:30 in the morning isn't wrong, per se, is it? I may fuss, but I don't hurt him in ANY way.
Why is that important? Tuesday night he woke up in the middle of the night, and I was upset about it (not been sleeping well, anyway). When I got into Logan's room, the poor darling was soaking wet, and the diaper had leaked through his clothes and onto his sheets--so much for getting back to bed quickly. Needless to say, much whinging and harping ensued, all with him screeching the ENTIRE TIME. Shortly, the Hubby appeared, asking what happened. I explained (breathing fire the entire time because HE can sleep through all this), made him redress Logan while I changed sheets, then we went back to bed--after kissing Little Squirt and telling him "Good-night"...
Next day, I give similar summary to MiL, in reply to her "How'd he do last night?" I mentioned how Hubby had heard the fussing and come to investigate, grinned it into a "no big deal" and went to work. Thought no more of it until Hubby came home asking if I love him, do I love Logan, etc.
Make no mistake: I love them both, but my child is MY CHILD. He's my heart, now.
I get Hubby to fess up to what prompted the question. MiL thinks I yell at the baby. She worries that I yell at him all the time, apparently. All this paranoia stems from One Really Bad Day when she was on our porch and heard me yelling from one room to another for Logan to shut up. Not a good choice of words--esp for a baby that has no idea what I'm saying--but I'd had all I could take that day, and snapped. I've not done it since. (Hey, once in six and a half months isn't THAT bad.)
So, MiL thinks I'm a verbally abusive/bad mother, I guess. All this effort and willingness to bend my guidelines on how *I* want my child raised went for nothing.
How frustrating. In any case, I decided I will try to always tell her "Fine" when she asks how our night went. No need for her to know if I slept two hours or eight, is there?
For the past few months Logan has been sleeping through the night. Lately, however, he's taken to waking during the night--sometimes once, sometimes every couple of hours. We've tried all sorts of things, and now we're to the point that I make sure he's dry, fed, and let him cry. I feel terrible doing it, but we can't always rock him to sleep, or let him nurse until he crashes out. So, every night, I sit in the living room and listen while he cries. I check on him, reassure him (tell him there's NO WAY I'm getting him out of his bed), then go back to wait it out. He did really well last night--only cried about five or ten minutes before getting quiet and starting to drift off.
Teaching him to go to sleep on his own this way isn't bad parenting, I hope. And getting upset when he DOES wake me up at 3:30 in the morning isn't wrong, per se, is it? I may fuss, but I don't hurt him in ANY way.
Why is that important? Tuesday night he woke up in the middle of the night, and I was upset about it (not been sleeping well, anyway). When I got into Logan's room, the poor darling was soaking wet, and the diaper had leaked through his clothes and onto his sheets--so much for getting back to bed quickly. Needless to say, much whinging and harping ensued, all with him screeching the ENTIRE TIME. Shortly, the Hubby appeared, asking what happened. I explained (breathing fire the entire time because HE can sleep through all this), made him redress Logan while I changed sheets, then we went back to bed--after kissing Little Squirt and telling him "Good-night"...
Next day, I give similar summary to MiL, in reply to her "How'd he do last night?" I mentioned how Hubby had heard the fussing and come to investigate, grinned it into a "no big deal" and went to work. Thought no more of it until Hubby came home asking if I love him, do I love Logan, etc.
Make no mistake: I love them both, but my child is MY CHILD. He's my heart, now.
I get Hubby to fess up to what prompted the question. MiL thinks I yell at the baby. She worries that I yell at him all the time, apparently. All this paranoia stems from One Really Bad Day when she was on our porch and heard me yelling from one room to another for Logan to shut up. Not a good choice of words--esp for a baby that has no idea what I'm saying--but I'd had all I could take that day, and snapped. I've not done it since. (Hey, once in six and a half months isn't THAT bad.)
So, MiL thinks I'm a verbally abusive/bad mother, I guess. All this effort and willingness to bend my guidelines on how *I* want my child raised went for nothing.
How frustrating. In any case, I decided I will try to always tell her "Fine" when she asks how our night went. No need for her to know if I slept two hours or eight, is there?