For the last few nights (Friday and Saturday night) James has been waking up around 5:30-6:00am and is WIDE awake. Ryan has had this shift the last few nights, and he has just been getting up with James and letting him play awhile. Well, I decided I would take that shift last night - and I DON'T have the energy or patience for playtime at 5:30am! First, I gave him his bottle hoping he would fall asleep, but no luck. I swaddled him tight and walked and rocked him for about 15 minutes, this usually does the trick for his naps - but to no avail. I was beginning to feel that awful angry feeling start to burn in my heart, so I decided I'd better just put him down in his crib and take a breather. I put him down, wrapped up tight, gave him his soother and left the room. He wasn't crying, just making his happy "play with me" sounds. I went and laid in my bed (which is, literally, like 3 feet away from his bedroom door). He started to whine, so I went in and said, "James, time to sleep" and put his soother back in, and went back to bed. He was still talking to himself, and I couldn't sleep so - horror of horrors - I closed my bedroom door. I waited for the crying - but there really wasn't any. He whined again a little bit, but soon - silence. He slept for another 3 1/2 hours, until 9:00am. Hmmmmm... I think I may try this again tonight. I was never one for crying it out, but he really never started to cry. If he had really beed wailing, I totally would have caved in. Here's praying that it works again tonight...
On a totally different topic, while I was doing the walking and rocking this morning to put James down for a nap, I whacked his little nogan against the stair railing! Poor little guy, he was sooooooo sad - but it helped him to fall asleep quickly after all that crying. I felt like such an idiot. That story is for Jamie so that she doesn't feel so bad about Keziah falling off the couch.
4 comments :
Thanks Heather :o) I remember doing that with Micah a few times too - carrying him into his bedroom and misjudging the door frame! Ouch.
Anyway, I'm so glad to hear this could be a solution for you. I'm not good at hearing my babies cry either but I think that "fussing it out" can be a good alternative to "crying it out".
And, like I commented 2 posts ago, perhaps changing his daytime schedule could help make the nights a bit easier too. So far it's working well for us. With babies, it's all about trial and error!
It's always good to try a new approach, sometimes it even works! Glad to hear this one worked for last night and you got some needed sleep. Way to go!
Don't worry, we've wacked both our kids with door frames and they've survived! Katie has even gotten used to all of Aiden's roughness even if her parents haven't! Could you possibly put a baby monitor in your room so you could close the door and fall asleep without straining to hear every sound. (It's so hard to close that door the first time!) Both our kids will wake up and talk to themselves and then fall asleep again several times during the night. Hope you start having better nights!
Its a good thing kiddos have hard heads ;-) Taites been smacked in the head numerous times already by his big brother.
My hubby told me that his mom thought he'd be dumb as a stump because he smacked his head so many times as a child. :-) Yet he graduated with a masters degree, hmm... hehe
Oh and the laying them down awake to fuss it out, totally fine! I do it all the time. I never let Taite CRY CRY... but a few fusses here and there, doesnt bug me.
Most nights he lays down to sleep awake... and after his late night feeding he does the same.. he usually sucks his thumb or his wubba nub and is out within no time.
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