Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Opposite of Progress

I might lose my mind. But I know for sure I am definitely losing my patience. Brandt's sleep issues are not improving and I don't know what the heck to do.

We started using a baby gate across his doorway on Saturday night and things went fairly smoothly the first few nights. When he woke up (still 3-4 times a night) we only had to walk to his door and he would climb back into bed and go to sleep. We didn't have to stay in there for the 10-20 minutes it took for him to fall asleep like we had to do before. But the last two nights have been HORRIBLE.

I figured we were just reinforcing his night waking by going to him every time he woke up, so I told Joe we should just let him fuss for a while and do the whole cry-it-out thing. We went to him at 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 20 minutes. But he never calmed down and fell back asleep. Last night this went on from 12am - 2:30am, at which point I gave up and brought him into our bed. I was surprised that he actually went to sleep. But then he woke up at 4:40am. Joe brought him back to his room and stayed with him until he fell asleep, but then Brandt was up for the day by 6:20am.

None of us are getting enough sleep and I have no freaking clue what to do about it. And my neck still hurts like hell from Tuesday night when I slept on the floor next to his bed for 2+ hours.

I'm definitely a cranky pants.

6 comments:

Lindsey Greene said...

Why don't you guys just let him sleep with you? I love co-sleeping. Carter has not cried once at night - if he's upset he just reaches out a hand (finds me) and settles back to sleep. It rocks! Plus - I feel like it's time for us to bond (since I work and he goes to daycare). Lindsey

Karen said...

Co-sleeping is not something that I ever enjoyed because I never slept well with Brandt in our bed. I think co-sleeping works well for some, but it never worked well for me.

Lindsey Greene said...

True - but your not sleeping "well" now either. :)

Karen said...

But I have been for over a year and a half up until now, so we're just working through a bump in the road to get things back on track. It's an evolving process and I'm using my best judgement and my pediatrician's advice. Co-sleeping is just not something I will do.

Lindsey Greene said...

Fair enough. One of the students here at the medical school's daughter is going through the same thing. She turned two today. She said she's been getting out of bed at night and coming into their room. So, temporarily she's moved a mattress to the floor of her daughters room and sleeps on the floor.

Do you think he gets up because he's hungry, not tired, scared, or is it just habitual now?

Karen said...

It's habitual. It started Christmas Eve with him climbing out of his crib, and then we switched his bed to a toddler bed for safety. We do give him a snack before bed every night and he has a night light. The pediatrician said we just have to be firm and consistent so that way he knows he needs to stay in bed at night. Unfortunately it won't get fixed overnight, so we're in for several rough nights. But I'm trying to stay hopeful that things will get back to normal soon.