Ever since we had the tornado sirens go off last week Penelope has not been a good sleeper. Up until this point we just set her in bed, say good night, and don't hear a peep until 6 am. Now if I’m not sitting in her room when we put her to bed she screams her head off. The little booger takes over an hour to go to sleep. It is amazing. I think she is asleep and then a minute later her eyes pop open and then slowly drift down again. I get about an hour reading in and I love watching her sleep so it isn’t bad. Then last night she woke up at 2 am and screamed daddy daddy daddy. Being the good mom, I rolled over and woke Chris up so he could go in there. He sat in the rocking chair. She quieted down, but she never went back to sleep. He came back in our room after an hour and she yelled “Mama…please…I get down now…” for an hour and 15 minutes. I’m so torn on what to do. Part of me wants to snuggle with her, but I hate the idea of her not being able to put herself back to sleep anymore. The "cry it out" was much easier when she was smaller and didn't have these pleading words. Plus, we only did it for a couple of days and it never lasted longer than a half hour. According to my toddler book the worst thing to do is to go in there if she has been crying for a long time because that just teaches her that the longer she cries, the better chance I'll rescue her. Yet I feel so bad for her crying for an hour like her mommy doesn't care about her. Sigh...this is tough.
(I'm hoping if I put this out in cyber land she will all of a sudden go back to her old sleep habits. That seems to be what happens. Hope I didn't jinx it!)
5 comments:
aw I'm so sorry Laura. I don't have any advice (you know my own struggles at times), but I just wanted to offer support. It is tough. And I don't know what on EARTH I would do once Collin started crying "mama". Oh jeesh. He better not learn how to use that secret weapon. There was one night the other night that I accidentally woke him up by opening the laundry doors (which are right next to his room). He woke up at 9:30am and screamed and screamed. I finally went in there and he stopped immediately and started smiling. So I knew he wanted to play, which obviously it was not time for. So I put him back in his crib and he started screaming hysterically. So then I just sat on the floor next to his crib and started singing softly to him, hoping to calm him down. He sat down and clenched on to the crib railings, exhaling his shaky breaths from crying, and then he reached his hand out in between the slats and softly touched my cheek. What did I do? Started bawling of course. I mean, how sweet was that? But I didn't give in....after a minute he got up and started jumping up and down and laughing (did I mention it was 11pm by this point?)...so I laid down on his floor and ignored him. Eventually he laid down and kept peeking at me...once I thought he was asleep I got up to leave and he started screaming again. I figured I was done playing games so I just left.....he cried for 45 minutes and finally went back to sleep. The whole escapade took over 2 hours. Anyway, again, that probably doesn't help you at all....just know I'm struggling with the same thing too so my heart goes out to you.
Sorry I wrote a novel.
once you think you have them all figured out, they go and change on you! Dylan is also going through a struggle with his sleep pattern. We finally had him sleeping through the night and then BOMB he was up again! Maybe it's a growth spurt and their mind is on hyper drive and they can't calm down. Maybe it's teething. Maybe it's them getting smarter and wanting to test us, see what we'll do.
Who knows. All I know is it can't last forever and eventually they'll sleep again. They have to right!?!?
Sorry to hear it. I remember Marissa going through that phase when she was old enough to call for you. We never were "cry it out" kind of people, just kept putting her back to bed and back to bed and back to bed, eventually she got through the stage and began sleeping through the night again. She was also in a big girl's bed at 16 mos, so she would come out and get us, not just cry in a crib. Good luck, it's tough stuff, esp. when you got used to such a good sleeper!
So sorry to hear she's been having trouble sleeping. No real advice here, unfortunately, (you know, due to the lack of ever having an experience like this since I don't have kiddies). I will say it sounds like you are doing the right thing. You are such a great mom. :) Here's to hoping last night was a better one!
Not a lot of advice here either. Evie has been having nightmares lately. Those we do go in and comfort her. One night it was so bad that she was up screaming every 30 min or so (not exactly awake, but screaming). I did just sleep with her because she seemed calmer when I was around. Instead of screaming she'd whimper "mama" and reach her hand for me before falling back asleep. Luckily they nightmares seem to be weaning after only hanging around for a week and she's sleeping again. As for falling to sleep, is Penny in a crib or a bed? Evie is in a bed and will play by herself for a bit before heading to bed. We normally let it go on for 15-20 min before reminding her to get in bed. It's a nice relaxing time on her own (in a safe place) and it seems to help with her actually going to bed.
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