Nathan

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Daniel

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Monday, October 18, 2010

Hush, Little Baby

So, we're on day 16 of Nathan barely sleeping. I actually feel bad about posting this today, because last night was a good night. Well, a night that The Targo and I would consider a win.

I'm really guesstimating on how long it's been, because I don't remember the exact night. But the pattern has been occurring for quite some time. It began with Nathan waking up earlier and earlier: 4 am one morning, 3 am the next, and so on. One night, when he woke up at 1 am, he was up until 5:30. We normally get up at 6; so this was a real problem. This early waking changed to real problems going to bed, and that's what's been really hard the past two plus weeks. We'll start our bedtime routine around 7:45. On bath nights, we start a little earlier. We participate in quiet play, snuggle, and then read two stories. Before this period of HELL, we would then put him to bed (we've given up on the big boy bed for the time being) and that would be that. Then came the fear, and when I say "fear," I mean terror. I don't know what he saw, or what he thought he saw, but the screams were blood-curdling. He was sweating, and his eyes were wide with fear. I just don't feel like we can let a child that scared - of God knows what - to cry it out.

So, we'd hoped the internets would come to our rescue, but none of the tactics really worked. For the past three nights, we've been rocking him until he calms down. When he does, we'll put him in the bed and wait in there with him until he goes to sleep. While bedtime is still long, it's been relatively painless. But, he's still waking up in panic around 2 or 3 every morning. This morning it was 5 and we were so so grateful for that.

I feel like a lot of the sleeping issues might be normal developmental things. But, Nathan has always been such a bad sleeper that I don't really know. I'm just hoping to average more than four hours a night this week.

2 comments:

AJU5's Mom said...

That sounds miserable!

Here I am complaining because AJU5 wakes before 6 most mornings and AJU6 wakes 2-5 times at night (but just needs to nurse to go back to sleep). Hopefully tonight is like last night for you.

Shannon said...

Oh sweetie, I can relate so well to the sleep issues. You know all about our year of sleeping about an hour at a time. It was so hard and I do believe many brain cells (of mine) were killed. I wish I had some wonderful and earth shattering advice for you guys. We finally threw in the towel and put Liam in bed with us. Now he may only wake once or twice usually. But some nights he is up more. But he sleeps pretty late if given to his own devices. Co-sleeping is something we thought we would never do. And it isn't for everyone. But it works for us. We are rested and I do enjoy all that cuddle time. Don't enjoy all the negative comments from mostly family though. I am fully aware that he will probably sleep with us until college. ;) Sending big hugs and prayers for sleep.