Well... it certainly is a blue monday here. Ferber went from fantastic to a flop. I don't understand the hit and miss of this method. It worked wonderfully for days as James slept from 9pm-6/7am and fell asleep on his own. Now while he'll go to bed ok, his magic numbers seem to be 2, 4, and 6 as in 2am, 4am, and 6am. While turning on the cd player and giving him his pacifier used to give him the comfort he needed to roll over and fall back asleep during the night, he has since taken up a new technique of screamig and throwing his belongings until he gets what he wants (picked up, fed, played with). This means during the Ferber method of "consoling your child for one minute without picking him up" that Jamie screams and cries like he's just received his immunization shots, while flailing his arms and kicking his legs . When you try to give him his pacifier, he throws it while kicking off his blanket. This screaming goes on until I feel like my head is going to explode upon which I pick him up and the crying instantly stops.
I could go on and on about the dynamics of this whole situation and the ways in which each night has been special but I won't. Bottom line: the kid is getting zero sleep, mommy is getting less. Kid is crabby during the day and daddy thinks mom is too. I will agree I'm short tempered because I'm tired. But today is a day of evaluation and a fresh start. We're noting habits and starting a new schedule; let's see if it works. In a few days we'll find out and I'll report back.
4 comments:
Sounds terrible. :( Hang in there.
yuck! Duncan's waking again in the night but he's sick so we're hoping it's temporary. He cries when he wakes but he does that whether we pick him up or not so I don't feel like letting him cry it out matters to much to him - I just need to find a way for him to be comfortable at night.
oh goodness, i can imagine how exhausted and frustrated you must be. a non-sleeping baby and a non-sleeping mommy are quite a cocktail.
i wish i had advice to give, every baby is different. we let henry cry it out...and in our experience, it takes 3-5 days to get things straightened out.
i'm not very good at letting him CIO, because i always want to go in and comfort him. but poppa is the rock on this issue. we go in every 10-15 minutes to verbally comfort him. generally, we hear the clackclack of the binkys being pitched from the crib shortly thereafter.
good luck, hang in there. when henry was going through a i-refuse-to-sleep stage, my m-i-l said "well, it can't get any worse!" and that gave me some hope...
*gulp* I am 15 weeks pregnant and it is going to be my first child. I panic a little bit when I read stories like yours. I really feel bad for you and I hope he eventually settles down and you can have a break. Heres holding thumbs....
P.S I am still really excited though :)
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