Friday, October 2, 2009

Hush, little baby

The bedtime modification experiment is still going very badly. I'm now trying to nurse Chloƫ to sleep at around 11:30, the theory being that once she's used to an earlier bedtime we can try other ways of getting her to sleep, but that doesn't always work anyway and usually ends up with the two of us falling asleep in bed. It's not horrible to have her in bed with us, but it's not the goal either and I'd like to be able to turn over in the middle of the night sometimes. (Though she's a very nice sleeping companion. She's a little radiator, for one thing. She likes to cuddle up with the closest R.I.N.D.S. like it's a teddy bear.)

Getting up early, on the other hand has been going fine, except that she has now started crying almost inconsolably in the evenings, which she didn't before. It's a little late for colic to develop (though not impossible, I'm sure) and Mom has suggested it's probably sleep deprivation, which I've been worrying about but not sure what to do about, since part of the problem is that we can't reliably get her to go to sleep. This includes naps, and when she's fussy putting her down makes her especially upset, and rocking tends to calm her but not lull her to sleep.

My main frustration with this process is that I don't know for sure what to do. It's not a matter of waiting for the correct course of action to take effect; we don't know what the correct course of action is. All first-time parents go through this, of course, but that doesn't help me feel any better about it.

Still, she does eventually get to sleep every night...somehow. And she likes to sleep in her swing; that's usually where she starts her naps. I wonder if they make them for teenagers.

2 comments:

Jaime Christianson said...

You'll make it guys! Hang in there! Matthew didn't sleep through the night until about 4 months and now at 6 months sleeps for about 6-8 hours regularly. If Chloe likes the swing...use it. Matthew fell asleep a lot in his. We didn't move him to his own room until he was 3 months old. He slept with us or in his basinett in our room. You guys are doing great...before you know it Chloe will be sleeping all night and you won't remember the struggles! Love ya! Jaime

Unknown said...

Thanks! It's good to know this does get better. :)