Goodnight Sweetheart

29 March 2012

or

Bad night after bad night after bad night....sweet...heart.

So here I go. Getting real. Needing some catharsis or something. For those of you who don't want to read about Baby Jake's sleeping habits, I've posted pictures for you that are otherwise completely unrelated to the text. Enjoy them. 


For the first few months of Jake's life he only woke up a few times at night. Maybe 2-3 times a night. He would nurse, I would put him back in his bassinet or I wouldn't and the family would ease back into a peaceful slumber.

I was never exhausted during the day. I never felt sleep deprived. I was so encouraged by the apparently good sleeper I had birthed.


Somewhere around six months old Jake got really bad at sleeping. It happened slowly so it took me a long time to notice. If you’d asked me a few weeks ago about his sleep schedule, I would have given you his general newborn to six month routine. I would have told you his sleep schedule was something like this:

7pm Sleeps in his bed  
1am Wakes up to nurse and we put him in bed with us where he stays
Wakes one or two more times to nurse. 
 7am Wakes for the day


But that was four months ago, and it has become VERY apparent just how bad of a sleeper baby is, solid foods be darned. 

I'm making a big effort to write down his sleeping patterns. So I give you last night:

7:45pm Jake goes down in his crib.
10:13 Wakes up and nurses - 10:30 Back down in his crib.
10:58 Wakes up and papa rocks him back to sleep. **Jacob and I go to bed**
12:19 Wakes up, nurses, stays in our bed.
1:23 Wakes up nurses.
2:30 Wakes up nurses
3:57 Wakes up and fusses, nurses, kicks, fusses, gets rocked, gets sung to, fusses
4:15 Falls back to sleep.
**5:30 Mom gets up to get ready for work***
6:15 Wakes up nurses and is up for the day
Reality check, Mama Rhodes. I've been avoiding making a record of how much he slept because the record would you know...make it real. Because otherwise maybe it was just all a dream. I don't think I'm tired...but then again maybe I just don't know what it feels like to have slept enough. Alleged non-sleepiness aside, on about mid afternoon I start to fear the nighttime.


I'm not really a cry-it-out proponent (...yet) but I tried it once not too long ago. I let Jake cry for five minutes while I hid in the corner of the room watching him and praying that God would spare us both. I was curious to see what would happen. Little whimpers became huge wails became baby standing in the crib and rattling the bars and making futile attempts to climb over the rail...so yeah...

My mother was really deliberate to get her babies to sleep through the night from very little. She did the whole let them cry a little then go in and comfort, put the pacifier back in, let them cry a little longer next time, before you go in, comfort, put the pacifier back in...That's an idea...a pacifier...how do you get a 10 month old to start taking a pacifier? Have we missed it AND the cry it out train?


Getting her babies to sleep was pretty necessary for my mother since until her third kid she was working full time at the clinic, was on call, and was delivering babies at the hospital, so sleep was hard enough to come by. When I told her about my sleeping woes she said, "I've had patients like you." Thanks for the empathy, mother dear.


For the good of everyone in the family - Mama, Papa, and baby - we have begun some sleep training. I hope and pray we'll have good news to share with you soon.

Now isn't that just what you wanted to read about this Thursday afternoon? Perhaps I shall rename the blog: The Riveting Rhodes Sleep Log. What say you?

7 comments :

  1. ha! aw, motherhood. I look forward to you. (really, I do.) if it's of any comfort, I don't think the binky thing would really have done you any good. I'm a nanny to a nine month old, and he takes/took a pacifier... but all it really did was give him something to play with. so, his nap times and sleep times would look something like: sleep a little (maybe), pacifier falls out (or he takes it out himself), horrible wailing commences, I go in and pat pat pat the back, he is soothed momentarily, the binky falls out again and away we go, back on the non-sleep train.

    my non-mother self feels ya, sister.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had to run over to your blog ASAP :) I totally understand your woes, but don't worry...you haven't missed the window! I finally (after a lot of encouragement from other mothers) had to let Anna cry it out (well my mom had to stay the night, kick me out, and take over); and after Anna only woke up twice for her I realized she was manipulating me and was actually capable of sleeping for more than 2 minutes at a time! So I put her to sleep 1/2 awake, it takes about 5 minutes of her crying while I go to my bedroom closet and chew off what is remaining of my nails, and it's amazing but she gets better (almost) every night! I found that she still loves me in the morning (sort of) and is wayyyyy happier after getting a full night's sleep. So hard but worth it...I wish you the best of luck and will be thinking of you while I pull out the only half of my hair during this evening 4.5 minute (maybe tonight) CIO session. YAY.

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