Baby Whispering

So, my littler guy is a fussy baby. He's not colicky or anything like that. He's just, um, fussy. It's getting better, that's for sure, but don't put the kid in his car seat, or in the swing, or put him down! MY GOD! DON'T PUT HIM DOWN.

Did I mention that about two months ago, he cried so hard that he burst a blood vessel in his eye? That was on a very short trip in the car. I had to drive... I had to get home... Babies have to be in car seats!

I've tried wearing him in the Baby Bjorn and in the Moby Wrap. He vehemently objected to both. Vehemently. I've recently ordered another wrap to try (I had a coupon, making it ridiculously cheap). So, we'll get on that in the next few days.

Nathan was a much easier baby to soothe. Part of it, I'm sure, was his affinity for the pacifier. Daniel prefers nursing and being held. This would be great if I didn't have another child.

Also of note (probably only to me) is that this child was sleeping through the night at 4/5 weeks, consistently. I should say, he slept from about 10/11 pm to about 6 am. So, not the 12 hours that you'd like to see, but I thought it was awesome. Nathan, the angel baby, still doesn't sleep 12 hours... or even 10. On a good night, it's 8. Anyway, around 2 and a half months, just after he was released from the hospital, he started working on a tooth (which he's still working on). Since then, he's been waking up a couple times a night. It's gotten particularly bad since it gets daylight so early. Now, he'll go down between 9 and 10 pm, and then wake up around 3 and 5 and 6. I believe the latter two are daylight-related, but we still haven't done anything about that. Because we're dumb.

I just don't have the temperament to try CIO, especially with a high-needs baby, because it probably won't even work. Really though, it's not my thing. But, I am going to try to move him from the pack-n-play right by our bed, to the crib one the other end of our room - away from the window! We'll see if this has any impact.

Since I've got a zero success rate, I'm totally open to suggestions.

On Parenting

Tonight has been one of those nights where I'm more than convinced that I am not a good parent, and I'm absolutely going to flop when I have two children.

For the last week or so, we've been able to put Nathan to bed without screaming. It takes quite a while (1-3 hours), but the quietness of it made it all worthwhile. Tonight, Lord help us, we weren't so lucky.

Our childcare situation suddenly fell through on Friday, so Nathan will be with me, The Targo, or Ti-Dah (grandpa) this week. Today, we were super busy in the morning and then Nathan managed to take a 2 hour nap. I was hoping this would make things easier tonight, since I knew exactly how long he napped. No no no. The scream fest was back! Freaking out, dry heaving, screaming in terror. Oh, yes! My house is fun! It's nights like this one that make me understand why my downstairs neighbors smoke up 3 times a night. (Actually, I don't understand and it infuriates me because it smells so bad ... but whatever.)

So, I gave up. An hour and a half of cajoling, bargaining, and finally, threatening, had worn me down to the point that I just had to walk away. I needed a time out. The Targo took over, and an hour later, Nathan seems to be sleeping.

I know he should be sleeping. I know some people say "let him cry it out." I know others say that's not the solution. But here's the truth: We haven't found anything that's really worked... and it's been over a month (i.e. we're now two to three days before mama loses her mind.) and we're still struggling. And man, I'm so freaking tired.

A New Leaf?

Last night was bliss. Well, in our little world it was bliss. Okay, so we didn't get Nathan to bed until after 10:00, but for the second night in a row, it was scream-free. And, oh my word, he slept in his own bed all night long. I almost feel like I need to delete that right now because I'm going to jinx it.

This morning, The Targo and I woke about about 20-30 minutes before our alarms went off, because we were so well-rested. Six hours sleep has never felt so good.

What did we do last night that was so different from the last month? Nothing. Not really, anyway. We just didn't force the issue. Finally, he was tired and The Targo rocked him for like, two minutes, put him in the Thomas bed, and waited five minutes... the dude was O-U-T.

I'm hoping he's asleep when I get home from class tonight, but that might be too much. That might be too miraculous.

About that Sleeping

Well, it's not getting any better. In the past three and a half weeks, gotten a good night's sleep twice. We're all about crazy. In fact, I've nearly bitten off my boss's head TWICE today alone.

Last night, he struggled a little more than usual to go to sleep. We managed to get him down around 10:30. Naturally, he woke up at 12:30, 2:00, and 4:00. He finally settled into a deep sleep around 4:30.

Sometimes, I'm sure this is hell, but mostly I'm still loving this little person with all my heart. But why, OH WHY, won't he sleep?

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.