I rolled over and I could not believe the time. And thanks definitely goes to my hubby who got up with 3 munchkins and let his exhausted wife sleep. I needed it! Why am I so exhausted? Well, other than the normal life of a mother of 3 little girls who teaches full time and who has been sick for like 2 weeks now, I was also up for half the night the last 2 nights.
Why? You may ask. Well because it seems we have created a monster!!! No, I am not referring to my extremely overly dramatic middle child who can throw a temper tantrum along with the best of them. I am speaking about my youngest munchkin. My most (shhhh!) precious munchkin. I am not kidding. She is precious. She is soft and cuddly and loving and sweet. And her smiles, which come so very often, would melt even the meanest person's heart.
She is by far the best baby we have ever had. Well....except for one thing. She still doesn't sleep through the night! She is 4 months old tomorrow and while we don't have to feed her during the night, we still have to go in and put her pacifier in. Sometimes this is once or twice, and sometimes, like Thursday night, it is 7-8 times!
We have known for a long time what we have to do. This ain't our first rodeo! We have to let her cry. It is the only way she will get used to putting herself back to sleep. Every night we say it. But every night I can't bare to do it. I mean she is so little. What if she thinks I am abandoning her? What if something is wrong? What if, God forbid, she stops crying for another reason other than going back to sleep and I don't know?!?!?!?!?
But it had to be done. We have not had a full night's sleep in four months!!! We are struggling! We NEED sleep! So last night we sucked it up and did it. She woke up at 3:45 and started crying. I went in, checked on her, moved her back to the center of the crib (she likes to snuggle next to the bumper pad), and left without putting the pacifier in.
She did not like that! She started screaming at the top of her lungs. I feel certain that if she could speak there would have been some very ugly words coming out of her mouth. After about 10 minutes, she stopped. I went and checked and she was asleep. 10 minutes later she started again. Then went back to sleep. A little while later it started again. So it went for about an hour, when she went to sleep for the last time and slept until 8:15 a.m.
Did it work? Will we finally sleep through a complete night tonight? Only time will tell. But I can tell you what...whereas I would pay $1,000 for a pacifier, we have used one at night one too many times and We Have Created a Monster! But when she smiles up at you and starts talking with her ooohhhsss and aahhhs it makes everything, even having absolutely no sleep, all better!!!
2 comments:
I know what you mean it's so hard to let them cry. my little guy is going to be 5 months soon and I know I need to do it I've been putting it off and my husband keeps telling me we should soon before he gets older and it's harder. Luckily he doesn't take a pacifier my last one did and I remember doing the same thing with him at night. Good luck!
I had two binkie babies, both pretty hardcore users! I actually thought we were going to have to send Lizzy to Betty Ford to get over her binkie habit!! My third angel was (and still is if he thinks no one is looking) is a thumb sucker! Good luck!!
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