I am bone weary and appalled at the level of frustration I feel
bubbling up inside of me as I run into cradle sweet Caden for the third
time in the past hour. I realize as I rock him that he is somehow,
impossibly almost 8 months old. And do you know how many times he has
slept through the night? Zero. Or how many times he usually wakes up
every night? At least three, usually more. And he only takes two or
three 15-30 minute naps every day. And I KNOW that sleep begets sleep
and that he is overtired and that is precisely why he's not sleeping.
But how-oh-how-for-the-love-of-everything do we begin the elusive
process of getting him to SLEEP so we can "beget more sleep?"
I'm about at the end of my already-fraying rope, not to mention that I feel like I'm walking around in a constant semi-fuzzy state of losing and forgetting and not quite knowing what time or day it is or whether I've switched the laundry or what Jayci just asked me. And before y'all say anything, I KNOW you are probably oh-so (ironically) tired of hearing about how tired I am. And I'm sorry, but I need to vent somewhere and y'all are the lucky winners. Feel free to ignore this and not read a single word more. I will, however, remind you of my fragile and over-tired emotional state.
Let's take today as an example: Jayci was screaming in her room about how much she did NOT want to have "rest-time" (As usual, and therefore I dread rest-time, which is supposedly a "break" for me. Or not at all). I was bouncing Caden trying to get him to give in to sleep, and finally I went into Jayci's room and LAIDDOWNTHEHAMMER (or asked her in a slightly-whiny voice to please to stop screaming while fighting back tears of frustration). She was quiet for awhile, which was just enough time for me to lay down on the bed with Caden where we both slept for a good ten minutes before she started yelling again and woke us both up. And then Caden wouldn't go back to sleep, obviously.
Fast forward to bed-time. I nursed and gave Caden his bottle, rocked him for a minute until he was super-chill (aka completely asleep). I laid him in his bed, and he immediately FREAKED THE HECK OUT (which is his usual response to being put in his crib). He kicks his feet violently, spinning himself in circles, yelling and crying and getting all sweaty. I try patting him while he's still in the crib, picking him up and rocking him, ignoring him for a few minutes . . . nope. Nothing works. Finally, over an hour later, he is finally sleeping in his bed. But don't worry, he will wake up again in probably less than three hours. And then continue this pattern until morning. He will sleep until seven if we're lucky, but sometimes he refuses to go back to sleep after that 5am wake-up.
I feel like crying in hopelessness just thinking about the night ahead. In fact, it's 10pm on Saturday night, so I should probably go to bed. Immediately, that way I can get a good four hours of sleep. But not in one big chunk, because that would be just crazy. Sigh.
Any suggestions? Oh and we can't really let him cry-it-out too much for several reasons: 1-his health (I get freaked out because he gets all sweaty and gets himself more and more worked up and it takes forever to calm him down if he cries for more than five minutes or so at a time). 2-He shares a room with Jayci who is also not a good sleeper and when she wakes up it's even more of a disaster.
I'm about at the end of my already-fraying rope, not to mention that I feel like I'm walking around in a constant semi-fuzzy state of losing and forgetting and not quite knowing what time or day it is or whether I've switched the laundry or what Jayci just asked me. And before y'all say anything, I KNOW you are probably oh-so (ironically) tired of hearing about how tired I am. And I'm sorry, but I need to vent somewhere and y'all are the lucky winners. Feel free to ignore this and not read a single word more. I will, however, remind you of my fragile and over-tired emotional state.
Let's take today as an example: Jayci was screaming in her room about how much she did NOT want to have "rest-time" (As usual, and therefore I dread rest-time, which is supposedly a "break" for me. Or not at all). I was bouncing Caden trying to get him to give in to sleep, and finally I went into Jayci's room and LAIDDOWNTHEHAMMER (or asked her in a slightly-whiny voice to please to stop screaming while fighting back tears of frustration). She was quiet for awhile, which was just enough time for me to lay down on the bed with Caden where we both slept for a good ten minutes before she started yelling again and woke us both up. And then Caden wouldn't go back to sleep, obviously.
Fast forward to bed-time. I nursed and gave Caden his bottle, rocked him for a minute until he was super-chill (aka completely asleep). I laid him in his bed, and he immediately FREAKED THE HECK OUT (which is his usual response to being put in his crib). He kicks his feet violently, spinning himself in circles, yelling and crying and getting all sweaty. I try patting him while he's still in the crib, picking him up and rocking him, ignoring him for a few minutes . . . nope. Nothing works. Finally, over an hour later, he is finally sleeping in his bed. But don't worry, he will wake up again in probably less than three hours. And then continue this pattern until morning. He will sleep until seven if we're lucky, but sometimes he refuses to go back to sleep after that 5am wake-up.
I feel like crying in hopelessness just thinking about the night ahead. In fact, it's 10pm on Saturday night, so I should probably go to bed. Immediately, that way I can get a good four hours of sleep. But not in one big chunk, because that would be just crazy. Sigh.
Any suggestions? Oh and we can't really let him cry-it-out too much for several reasons: 1-his health (I get freaked out because he gets all sweaty and gets himself more and more worked up and it takes forever to calm him down if he cries for more than five minutes or so at a time). 2-He shares a room with Jayci who is also not a good sleeper and when she wakes up it's even more of a disaster.