Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Sleeping, or lack thereof

I remember the first night Molly was born. I thought, as I tried to soothe her to sleep, why did we do this again? Not because I regretted having another child because my nights of sleeping all the way through were over for many moons. Cassidy is so easy at nap and night time. Bottle (if she wants it), brush teeth, change diaper/clothes, prayer, songs, and crib. We don't see her again till it's time to get up. And she's usually down around 6-6:30 pm till 6:30-7 am. She may wake during the night but she goes right back to sleep.
But this little Molly... I was telling her tonight not to fight sleep so hard and she smiled and cooed a mocking coo. Really I'm not making it up. I laughed at her. But that's how it is. She gets so tired but has the hardest time falling and staying asleep. Like right now, we've been trying to get her to sleep for almost 4 hours now. Every time I think she's out, she wakes up. And cries, and screams, and cries, and screams so more. Once I get her down it's just a matter of time till she's up for her 3 1/2 hours wakeful marathon. It usually occurs around 2 am. I must average 4-6 hours of sleep, broken into 3 parts. Days like today are rough.
Pacifier works till she drops it. Nursing works till I take her off and she realizes she's no longer sucking. Rocking, nope. Swing, nope. Crying, nope. Luck, that must be it.
Any suggestions?

2 comments:

Marissa of Ris C Handmade said...

Have you tried using a white noise machine at night? Audrey had a hard time staying asleep at night unless we had one on. It sometimes helped her fall asleep too, that or some sort of soft music.

Stacy Pettersen said...

Do you swaddle? That helped Annabelle for the first two months (though I could never do it myself; I bought the Kiddopotamus)... then she wanted to be on her tummy. Maybe one of those will work?

However, if you are going to let her cry-it-out, I strongly suggest using something to drown it out (for Cassidy AND you)! Just set a timer for 20 min. and turn on the fan/noise maker. It's much easier if you don't listen to it!

Good luck!!!