A few weeks ago I decided to try to get Gideon to sleep through the night (what are you doing?! Don’t talk about your kid’s sleeping habits!! This is the WORST thing you could possibly post about. It’s not that interesting, for starters and it will also NOT help him sleep better. Plus Teh Interwerbs is filled with preachy people who will cluck their tongues about what you are doing wrong. Sssshhh!). We tried letting him CIO for twelve nights.
Those were long, long nights.
He didn’t respond as horribly as he could have, but he also only made it all the way through the night one time (and not the last night). There weren’t signs of progress. One night would be okay with a little crying. The next night would be full on marathon crying. No patterns. No signs of hope. Most nights were punctuated with hour long stretches of crying at random hours, waking everyone up and even prompting some in the house to seek out internet guides to sleep schedules at four in the morning. We were all going a little nuts.
So, I decided to try again next month.
And then there was last night. It was terrible. He got up every hour and a half to two hours and wailed until I came in. He ate every time, except for the five o’clock wake up when he must have been so incredibly filled with milk that he wanted to explode.
So now I am back to thinking that he should have to CIO because at least he got some good chunks of sleep then. But I don’t know if I can stand the pressure from the adults or the eight month old. Everybody just wants to sleep well, even Gideon wants to (though he doesn’t really know that on any cognitive level), but how long will that take? And if I go into him am I reinforcing poor sleep cycles that will never allow him to sleep well. Will he be that college kid who gets up and does stuff at two am and four am just because he never learned how to transition through sleep cycles properly? There are studies! They say it can happen!!! I can RUIN HIM…for LIFE.
As if all of this wasn’t enough to torture me, John McCain had to go ahead and win the Florida primary. Winner takes all. Why did you drop out before Super Tuesday, Fred? WHY? There were early votes for you in Florida and those were waisted. Waisted! Now the ‘pubs have, what is essentially a two man race against Romney and McCain (I don’t like either of these guys but if push comes to shove I can’t vote for Johnny boy. Hello? McCain Feingold? Border Security? Not to mention, The Crazy). But Romney? Fuhrealz. There is no way I’d support Hill or Obama. I’m thinking that an independent should make a for real run this time. I know I should wait to see what happens on Super Tuesday, but at this point I think it doesn’t matter. The future just looks dismal.
All this sleep deprivation combined with the primary season failures feels like one giant kick to the stomach. At least I have my good friend Ice Cream to get me through the hard times. And since I’m feeding the kiddo every two seconds, there’s no need to hold back. Look out dessert! I’ve got no sleep and calories to burn!
Oh Kim – I’m feeling your pain on the sleep thing. I’m sure by now the night wakings are just plain unbearable. What’s all that you read about CIO only taking about three nights to establish a new routine? I know…I know…the books. Well hang in there friend.
Come to the dark side, throw your weight to Nader.
Keep your chin up and keep at it, you’ll get his sleep figured out. you know, we had Winter sleeping thru the night early and then at 7 or 8 months she stopped for a while again, so maybe it’s just a tough age. And as far as going in to him, I haven’t done CIO officially, but as I understand it if you go in there to comfort him but without just immediately picking him up, that is still CIO and what you’re supposed to do. he’ll figure it out that you are there for him, but you want him to sleep, and he eventually will and this will be a long distant memory someday.
Sorry, I can’t help you with the political things. I’m looking forward to my own sleep deprivation coming soon so I don’t have the energy to stress over all that 🙂
Ya, Goodluck with the sleepless nights, sorry I dont know if it gets better! At this point Evan sleeps through the night better than Elijah..and to be quite honest the only way I get Elijah to sleep through the night is to sleep with me. The things you do for sleep! I honestly dont care (and shhh I actually like it, otherwise I am alone in a huge bed) right now that he is sleeping with me. I do what I have to do to get through these months of singleparentness. Dont let people get to you. You do what YOU have to do. Evan didnt start sleeping through the night til 9 months. 😉 Good Luck!