You, Me, and a Baby » sleep deprivation

Bedtime, now with 10% less crying

trena — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:37:08 +0000

I hesitate to start off by saying that maybe, just maybe, things went a little easier last night, because you know that if I were to say that (and not that I am), tonight would be an all-night scream-fest. So, uh, let’s just hypothetically say that although there may still have been hours (yes that would mean multiple hours) of crying, there may or may not have been overall less crying. Maybe.

There were, however brief, two different occasions where Owen did eventually wind down enough to…wait for it…fall asleep on his own. Owen may not like the new regime in place for bedtime, but I think that if kept up, we may actually be on the road to an end destination of a Peaceful Evening lasting more than 2 hours (slogan: “keeping your sanity alive since 2006 by reminding you that you were once a real person with outside interests and abilities not involving the whims of a 32 inch dictator”). I will say that yes, this has been really difficult, but I honestly don’t think I had the fortitude necessary to follow through on this previous to the 18/19 month mark. I’m in awe that there are people who can (and do) sucessfully institute crying it out to get their baby to learn to put themselves back to sleep at a much younger age. I am not saying that I think that’s wrong at all–I just would have been a mess if we had tried this with Owen at the 6 month mark.

Amazing what another year of sleepless nights and restless evenings will drive you to.

Bedtime tough love Round 1: the Aftermath

trena — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:05:57 +0000

Although there were moments that I doubted that my sanity might make it, it appears that both Owen and I survived the first night of crying it out (alternate project title: “How to make an evening suck in a hurry and lose alot of sleep doing it”) without too many scars, emotional and otherwise.

My child is extremely strong-willed, which I am grateful for because it will serve him well someday. Tenacity can be an effective tool to get where you want to go in life. He just doesn’t realize that Mama, after not sleeping for about 4 consecutive hours at a go for 19+ months (hey that last month before he was born wasn’t exactly filled with uninterrupted nights either) has a much stronger will and that the desire for an uninterrupted stretch of time in the evening to get work done far outstretches his puny by comparison will. I generally end up being flexible and going with the flow, but if I get to the point where I decide that this is it and draw my line in the sand and dig my heels in, I’m in it to the bitter bitter end and failure is not something that computes. So yeah, it sucks that it has had to come down to a battle of wills between my child and I, but unfortunately, Mama needs her sanity, so I already know who is going to be the victor in this battle. And it isn’t someone who can be bribed to sit on the potty for M&M’s either. My Achilles heel is mini Butterfingers, thank you very much.

Next up this evening, Bedtime tough love Round 2.