Jim posted in June our sleep issues with Bear. I would love to report that we now have a happily sleeping baby Bear who goes down on demand and stays asleep all night. But I can’t. Unfortunately Bear has been blessed with the stubborn gene and a really good set of lungs that I’m sure have been keeping up our neighbors. It was a big deal when we were able to get him to go to sleep without nursing at his bed time. It was awesome when we could get him to go back down without nursing after his first initial waking up somewhere around 10 pm. Even better was when we could get him to take his afternoon nap without nursing. Now we are trying to take the 2 am nursing away and he is not a happy camper. Unfortunately for him his momma is even more of an unhappy camper so he has to suffer. He started to pinch, scratch and pull at his 2 am feeding waking me up and keeping me in severe pain. I was willing to let him nurse as long as I could sleep through it. Once that stopped and I went for almost a week being woken up and kept up by his little shenanigans well, I was no longer playing that little game. So his crib got lowered and Jim and I switched sides on the bed and we do not have a happy little Bear from 2-4 am. It’s only been three nights and each change has taken us two weeks to implement so I’m suspecting we still have a few more nights of unpleasantness.
I came across an article in Baby Magazine this week that just made me feel better. I’ve been doubting our process and feeling like I should have sacrificed my sleep in the early months instead of now when he’s more stubborn and feeling guilty because he is so unhappy and has dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep and feeling like we just did it all wrong. But this article basically says if you have a baby you are going to go through sleep issues it’s just the way it is. We all deal with it in different ways and there is no “right” way. Even if she’s wrong I like it and I’m going with it. I am blessed with a husband willing to do all the hard work because without him I'm not sure if we would be getting any sleep at all. It's almost (ok really) frustrating that Jim can put him down without there even being a fuss but if it's me he will scream and scream! He's got his mommy's number.
My other tactic has been to wear him out in the morning so he will sleep his whole nap without waking up. I will do just about anything to keep him awake in the car to get him in the house and put him to sleep in the crib! I've gotten them both so tuckered they have just fallen out a few times utterly exhausted and of course provided me with the cutest pictures!
I came across an article in Baby Magazine this week that just made me feel better. I’ve been doubting our process and feeling like I should have sacrificed my sleep in the early months instead of now when he’s more stubborn and feeling guilty because he is so unhappy and has dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep and feeling like we just did it all wrong. But this article basically says if you have a baby you are going to go through sleep issues it’s just the way it is. We all deal with it in different ways and there is no “right” way. Even if she’s wrong I like it and I’m going with it. I am blessed with a husband willing to do all the hard work because without him I'm not sure if we would be getting any sleep at all. It's almost (ok really) frustrating that Jim can put him down without there even being a fuss but if it's me he will scream and scream! He's got his mommy's number.
My other tactic has been to wear him out in the morning so he will sleep his whole nap without waking up. I will do just about anything to keep him awake in the car to get him in the house and put him to sleep in the crib! I've gotten them both so tuckered they have just fallen out a few times utterly exhausted and of course provided me with the cutest pictures!
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