I love my baby! Really, she is our pride and joy... except at bed time! And even then, she is our pride and joy but my joy does not follow me at 4 in the morning! There are 2 things I don't like about Bailey not being in a more structured environment during the day. 1. She doesn't have much time to spend with other children. 2. She has NO schedule! However, the list of things I am happy about since she stays home with grandma WAY outweigh the negatives. 1. She is home with someone who loves her. 2. She isn't out getting all the snotty noses from all the other "daycare" kids. 3. Zachs mom takes really good care of her and she is someone I fully trust! 4. It's really nice having someone at home who can let the dog out among other things... she does our laundry and keeps our house picked up during the day (I NEVER asked her to do these things but she says she gets bored). 5. We pay a FRACTION of what we would pay for daycare.
So, I am very glad that she can stay home during the day. However, she HATES to sleep. She will bounce on the bed until she literally falls over! She can be absolutely exhausted and find a way to keep herself awake, whether it be dancing at the end of the bed or jumping up and down, or rolling all over the bed. I just don't know what to do! When she does go to sleep during the day she hardly ever sleeps longer than an hour! At night, she goes to bed and sleeps about 6 hours and then wakes up screaming until we giver her "milky" Which sounds more like "mulky" when she says it. Then, she will wake up about an hour to an hour and a half later. My mom says we will HAVE to put her in her own bed and let her scream! I honestly don't think Zach can do that! Now, I'm not saying I can. But, I do think I could hold out longer going to get her then he could. I just don't know what to do!!!! At 15 months I thought this would have ended by now! I don't know what to do and I would LOVE to sleep all night w/out a screaming baby!
Tiff, I'm still working on the other post we talked about :)
5 comments:
I know it is hard, but I did it with both kids. I also helped Sarah Beth (from college) through email while she did it with Atticus. I can help you if you want. I don't know anyone that has done the cry it out method correctly and had it not work. It is hard, but it pays off. She will be much happier if she is well rested. Email me if you want.
Oh honey. I can't imagine how hard that is. I'm sure she'll grow out of it. Try to let her cry it out. That is what I read. Easier to say than do right?
Hang in there sister!
Kami
I wish I could give you some fantasic advice that would take care of your problem and leave you guilt free, but I'm afraid there is no easy answer. If you do the cry it out be prepared to feel a ton of guilt for leaving your beautiful baby girl to cry. I'm still fighting that battle myself. She has absolutely no need for a bottle during the night at her age. She just gets comfort out of it. I would start putting water in her bottle and I assure you she will become much less interested in it. She is old enough to have a doll in her bed now so I would give her a doll or a blankie. Some kind of comfort item to help her when she wakes up. Do some internet research. There are several versions of cry it out, but none say to just leave your baby to cry and not comfort them. It all really depends on the temperment of your child. My older child never did the cry it out well. It was horrid. I didn't get him out of my bed til he was 5. My second child however never gave me the slightest problem. He never even cried when I put him in his bed. My daughter has given me a heck of a time though. I would put her down and some nights she would do fabulous. I would think "great we finally did it. We resolved our sleep issue." As it turns out, this is not the fact. Some nights she goes down fine and some nights she cries for an hour. I have found that on the nights that she cries. If I go ahead and get her out and comfort her for a few minutes, make sure that she understands she is going to bed, (she knows when I say night night or that it's bed time exactly where she is fixing to go)and check all of her needs, then she will usually go back down fairly easily. She will be a year old April 16th and we are finally doing pretty well. She only cries for a second or two when I first lay her down and then stops before I'm even out of the room. Most of the time anyways. Well I hope I haven't rambled too much and that I am of some help. I hope everything goes well for you!!
You can do it Mel!! Don't give in...it will be worth it in the long run
Mel, I left you something on my blog;)
Post a Comment