So, what has caused Little and I to cross the ever so delicate line between love and hate? I can hear my mother now "There's a fine line between love and hate, Jennifer"- always making this comment after my across the street neighbour, Ryan, had irritated me to the point of major emotional erruption. I admit that was not hard to do, I am a bit of a drama queen. But this story is not about a short lived romance with the boy across the street. This is a story about the day when Little 'forgot' how to sleep!
He used to be quite stellar. Sure, he didn't always make it through the night, but you could always count on being able to place him wide awake in bed , walk away and he would drift off to lala land all on his own. Then the other day, in a flash, it was over. Soon I found myself pacing the floor, rocking and sitting, combined with interludes of letting him CIO for a while , only to go back in the room to try the shhh-pat/PUPD technique a-la Baby Whisperer (which normally works like magic). After about, I don't know the 50th attempt at trying to get this little terror to finally go to sleep, I had to call in the reinforcements. I was spent. I had no more tricks up my sleeve.
Luckily for me and Little, Big Daddy took my 'sublte cues' to go in to the room and woo this babe back to sleepyville. These cues included, but were not limited to: swearing, sighing, kicking covers off and flinging myself down to the pillows out of frustration and exhaustion, followed by a fairly strong 'nudge' (okay, maybe more of a jab) and a "You go deal with him- I'm through!".
Like I said, I was subtle.
Like a bomb.
45 minutes after sending Big Daddy into the room, I finally heard him return to our bed, slide under the covers and fall back asleep. Later I found out that he didn't do any of the sleep training techniques we have used in the past. Instead he sat in the rocker holding his baby boy until sleep found him again. I was only mildly annoyed that this was the option he chose while I sweated it out trying to 'teach' this kid to sleep properly. However, I was so thankful to not be in the room anymore and happy that this baby finally went back to sleep after being AWAKE for over 2 hours in the middle of the night, that I chose not to say anything. If I have learned anything at all over 7 years of marraige it is that you have to pick your battles.
The next night wasn't any better. So this time when Big Daddy was sent in I didn't ask him what he did to get him back to sleep. I just didn't care. All I was a break from the bruiser.
By the third night I found the inner strength and patience to deal with Little again. This time my killer PU/PD method +shhh pat worked and he was back off to sleep in 10 minutes. On night 4 we had success again with only a brief disruption of sleep.
Today as I finally have some time to write I remain hopeful that by the end of the week our Little will be sleeping through the night again and peace and bliss will once again return to this household.
Fingers crossed.
If not, babies are usual 'For Sale' at 2 am. Inquire within.
**Editor's note: This blog post has been in draft mode for 1 week and we are still dealing with sleep challenges. Desire for 3rd baby continues decrease. A sister for the brothers is becoming less likely with each passing night. Sob.**
First of all, you're a drama queen, when did this occur? Secondly since I have a better memory than you do (which is ironic!, also you were the wise friend in the 'I thought you should know' post) on Mother's Day last year you called me right after I had Iris and I believe I might have started crying as soon as you asked me how it was going because that was when Iris was treating me like a 24 hour buffett and would not take a bottle. Anyways you said, it will pass and babies have a way of working themselves out. And I thought that smug bitch she doesn't have a clue what she is talking about. But it did work out and I didn't die or sell her. So now you can think of me as a smug bitch but I guarantee you that it will all work out, a wise friend told me so.
ReplyDeleteI love you, you smug ol' mombshell! I know it will pass. It did eventually with Big- at least I think it did. I have a tendancy to rewrite history already!. Remind me that it gets easier. I was bawling my own eyes out last night begging him for sleep. Then today I remembered, I don't negotiate with terrorists. I am like the USA. So tonight I am gonna fix his wagon. I am going in at 1am to wake him up (just a little nudge) so that I disrupt his sleep patterns and he continues to sleep through his habitual wake up time. Wish me luck. My helmet will be strapped on tight, yo!
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