...i should warn you/ i go to sleep...
my son has decided that he does not like going to sleep.
he likes sleeping just fine, but actually getting quiet and closing his eyes and transitioning from awake to asleep? no. that is just not on.
it's been all of a sudden, too. this time last week he had a pretty solid self-regulated sleep schedule: monday through friday, coming home from day care he'd fall asleep in the car, wake up about half an hour after we got home to eat and get a clean diaper, then cheerfully go right back to sleep. he's not sleeping through the night yet, but that's at least half because i hear him stirring and feed him about every four to five hours - i know he can go at least six because he's done it before. even on the weekends, taking naps during the day he'd let me rock him a bit and go right to sleep. this worked fine for him until about thursday of last week.
now? HELL NO.
so we're going to try this sleep training thing. i need to get him on an evening routine that's more complicated than 'fall asleep in the car' - which sucks, because that means i'm going to have to wake him up when we get home at night, so there goes MY evening routine. god knows when i'll get bottles washed or my own dinner eaten... so we'll do the whole bath-book-bottle-lullaby-bed routine every night, and hopefully it'll work and he'll learn that when he's tired he should go to sleep, not scream at me. (in the past that's been his reaction, when i'm trying some foolish thing like changing his diaper when isn't it obvious he's trying to sleep? so then i'd stop, and lay him down and hold his hand or cuddle for a minute, and back to sleep he would go, quite content. but now he does the whole yawning, eye-rubbing routine and then won't go to sleep.)
ugh. parenthood.
he likes sleeping just fine, but actually getting quiet and closing his eyes and transitioning from awake to asleep? no. that is just not on.
it's been all of a sudden, too. this time last week he had a pretty solid self-regulated sleep schedule: monday through friday, coming home from day care he'd fall asleep in the car, wake up about half an hour after we got home to eat and get a clean diaper, then cheerfully go right back to sleep. he's not sleeping through the night yet, but that's at least half because i hear him stirring and feed him about every four to five hours - i know he can go at least six because he's done it before. even on the weekends, taking naps during the day he'd let me rock him a bit and go right to sleep. this worked fine for him until about thursday of last week.
now? HELL NO.
so we're going to try this sleep training thing. i need to get him on an evening routine that's more complicated than 'fall asleep in the car' - which sucks, because that means i'm going to have to wake him up when we get home at night, so there goes MY evening routine. god knows when i'll get bottles washed or my own dinner eaten... so we'll do the whole bath-book-bottle-lullaby-bed routine every night, and hopefully it'll work and he'll learn that when he's tired he should go to sleep, not scream at me. (in the past that's been his reaction, when i'm trying some foolish thing like changing his diaper when isn't it obvious he's trying to sleep? so then i'd stop, and lay him down and hold his hand or cuddle for a minute, and back to sleep he would go, quite content. but now he does the whole yawning, eye-rubbing routine and then won't go to sleep.)
ugh. parenthood.