Whoever coined that phrase is an idiot.
Seriously!
I am, and probably always will be a girl who needs her 8 hours of sleep.
So, lately, it's been a bit ridic (for all you uncool kids, that's short for "ridiculous") with Royce and his sleeping,
I've always had to rock him to sleep.
And he used to do pretty well sleeping through the night, until teething began.
And then I turned into a big pile of mush (quite literally too! But, as you all know from this blog, I'm working on the physical mush!!) and went in to him any hour of the night to soothe my pain-ridden little guy.
And some nights we just cut right to the chase...kicked daddy out of the bed so mommy and Royce could cuddle all night and get some sleep.
My little guy smarted up! - He wasn't born yesterday. (He was born 355 days ago, actually!)
He quickly learned that mommy came to save him and rock him at any hour of the night or bring him into the bed with mommy and daddy even when he wasn't teething.
So, that about brings us all up to where I am now....Frustrated.
Because sometimes it takes half an hour to rock him to sleep; only for him to wake up the second he realizes he's been laid down on his mattress (even though, I could throw him down on my bed, hardly half asleep and he'd drift off into dreamland like it was nothing...HOW DO THEY DO THAT?!?)
And because he usually wakes up, screaming and crying about 2 times a night.
First time (if it's before 3am) usually consists of me rocking him back to sleep and usually being able to put him back in the crib.
Second time is usually anywhere from 3am-5am and that consists of me rocking him, then putting him down in the crib only to have him go stiff as a board on his back and wake up ready to let the world know he is NOT going back in that crib!
So, exhausted mommy listens and carries him back to her bed. So she now has to share her spot in the bed...which means great sleep for the guys, little to no sleep for mommy.
Do you now understand my frustration??
We need a good nights sleep...for as many nights as possible!!
So, I finally break down and realize I've got to try this sleep training thing or we're all gonna be in the crazy bin!
I read up on different methods and after talking to the hubs, we decide to try the Ferber Cry It Out method.
Basically, you put your baby in their crib when they're still awake, tell them you love them, say goodnight and walk out of the room.
The first night, you stay out of the room 3 minutes before going in to comfort your baby (being sure to not pick them up) then leave the room again.
This time for 5 minutes, comfort, "love you", leave.
This time for 10 minutes...and so on and so forth.
They say, for the first night to leave any more subsequent times at 10-minute intervals.
Last night was night one.
I gave Royce his sippy cup of milk at 9pm
Changed into his PJs, read some books and snuggled.
And then down in the crib at 9:30pm
He cried, I cried, but at 10:05pm he was asleep!
I was super happy!
I get into bed about 10:30pm and decide to read "50 Shades..."
At about 11:15pm, I'm getting to the part where Grey is going to "make love" to Ana and I put the book down, cos I know all the explanation that's going to go into that scenario will take me well until midnight.
But alas, I cannot fall asleep until midnight anyway...go figure.
Royce is up at 1:40am.
And so the cycle begins...
He's back to sleep at 1:55am.
Wakes up at 2:15am and takes himself 5 mins to fall back to sleep (Score!! Mommy doesn't have to get out of bed!)
5:07am and Royce is up again.
Needless to say, this is where it all goes downhill...
We do the cycle of waiting, soothing, crying till 7am.
2 hours.
No sleep for Royce or Mommy.
(Daddy stayed on the couch cos he knew I'd be doing this and he had to work today...everyone say it together..."You're a good wife/mother"...and repeat...)
We're at 7 hours of sleep for Royce for the night and 4.5 for mommy. (Part of that for mommy is her dirty, trashy novel's fault!)
Give Royce his breakfast and then we're off for our run.
When we return home, this is what I have...
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| Zonked out in the middle of our run this morning |
So, I unhook him, take his jacket and shoes off, and he barely stirs.
I transfer him to the crib and BAM!!!! he's awake.
I take him out cos I was set to try the nap time at 9:30am. (he probably got a good ten minutes of sleep in the stroller)
At 9:30am we try for a nap, doing the interval times...reaching the max time for mommy to be away of 15 minutes.
An hour and a half later with no success.
11am was my cut off time.
So, I get him up. Planned get myself some coffee, feed him a little snack, snuggle and feed him lunch about 12:15 and then try again.
**side funny story I have to share...I made myself a pumpkin spice coffee (I love my Keurig) and I topped it off with Lite Cool Whip (20 cals in only 2 Tablespoons = perfection). Exhausted me reaches for the cinnamon to sprinkle on top of my cool whip and wonders why it's white. I grabbed the onion powder instead!! Luckily I was able to just scrape that Cool Whip off and add 2 new tablespoons of it and grab the correct spice! Doesn't it look delish?!?**
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| a much-deserved cup of coffee for me...minus the onion powder |
12pm he was falling asleep sitting straight up in my lap.
So, take him to his changing table and change him and he's basically asleep while I'm changing his diaper.
Pick him up and lay him down in his crib and BAM!!!! Guess who's up and bawling??
I fix his sippy cup of milk in hopes that he'll drink it, it will put him to sleep and now he won't wake up from being hungry.
Well guess what?..
I'm on the 3rd interval of waiting to go in and comfort him... it's been 30 mins so far and he's still bawling.
I know he's exhausted, so it's killing me that he hasn't crashed....
Thanks for listening...I have to go cry now. :(
