Bedtime has become an interesting struggle at our house. I'm not sure if Lily is starting to have some separation anxiety, is learning to manipulate us, or is legitimately upset for some reason, but for over a week she has been fighting going to sleep. We would lay her down in the crib at night or for naps and she would scream. Sometimes it would only last five minutes and sometimes it would require multiple trips into the room to soothe her. It didn't matter if I rocked her or nursed her until she was asleep (which I don't love getting in the habit of), as soon as her head hit the mattress the screaming would begin. It didn't even matter if I tried to lay her in the bed beside me (which I also don't want to become a habit, but is nice for a nap), as soon as she was out of my arms she would scream.She even did it last night in the middle of the night, which was one of the first times ever she hasn't just gone right back to bed after nursing during the night (I know...I know...parents everywhere are groaning and saying in their best "lucky" in their best Napolean Dynamite voices). I finally just laid her down and let her "cry it out" at which point she preceded to dose between fits of crying for about a half hour before she finally fell asleep and slept the rest of the night. It was rough, though. I hate hearing her cry, especially at 1:30am. It is in those instances that I really wish she could tell me what was going on. I had no way to know if she was legitimately hungry, not feeling well, or just overly tired.
Tonight, however, I just put her to bed and after feeding her, and she didn't fuss at all. She smiled as I put her in the crib and played about five minutes before falling asleep. It was blissful, but I have no idea what was different from last night's bedtime battle. I think one of the hardest things about parenting for me is realizing that it's not an exact science. I can do the exact same thing tomorrow and get a different result! That is hard. I want to find the formula for blissful bedtimes and repeat it!
so glad she went down well and hope she sleeps through the night :) <3
ReplyDeleteI hate to say it but babies are not dumb! They realize that if I scream you will come back in. I think that here soon you will need to do tough love and let her cry it out or else it will be a bad habit to break. It's hard at first to hear them cry but when you know she is fed, changed etc... then it is the right thing to do. Also, I found as my kids got older I needed to buy an otoscope to check there ears. Now when they cry at night or lying down it is almost 99.9% when they have an ear infection. Best of luck to you!!!!
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