Sebastian 1; parents 0.
For the last eight months, we have tried to convince Sebastian to sleep through the night in his crib. We moved him into it, in a separate room, when he was 6 weeks old, and we have pretty much stuck with it. Unfortunately, he is not a good sleeper. He'll wake up anywhere from 3-8 times a night, crying for us. He doesn't need much attention, often only a hand touching him and shushing, but still, we have to get out of bed. We tried letting him cry it out, which sort of worked - it decreased the frequency of his wake-ups to 3-4 instead of 6-8. But when he cries for 45 minutes and hasn't fallen asleep, or when he cries himself to sleep and wakes up 2 hours later crying, it's pretty hard to stick with the program.
While we were in Portland, we let him sleep in our bed - the nights were cold and we wanted to minimise his crying and let Popo and Grandpa and Uncle Carl and Aunt Kim sleep. He slept like a dream - waking up once or twice and easily falling back. It was incredibly seductive. We came home and let him stay with us during our first week back, since I was returning to work. And so on Thursday night, with a three day weekend in front of us, we put him back in his crib. He cried all night. He would fall asleep for brief periods but then wake up and cry some more. By the middle of the night he was just inconsolable. So we've given up - he gets put to sleep in his crib, but when he wakes up, we move him in with us.
Sigh. We tried. But clearly, Sebastian has conclusively won the first round.
2 comments:
Oh, I'm sure Sebbe's up on you way more than 1-0. :) But now that I've met him and seen those adorable eyes up close, I can't blame you.
-Carl
Did I send you The Baby Book (dr sears) when you were pregnant? If I didn't, I meant to. PLEASE read it. A securely sleeping baby produces a happy baby now, a secure and independent child later. The most important lesson I've learned as a mother is that while not sleeping through the night is ANNOYING (and trust me, just last night I was frustrated as all get-out that george took an hour to fall too sleep--turned out, though, he was hungry, not lying to get my attention...) it's worth the payoff of a happy, well adjusted older kid. Julius and George are both shy, but they are happy, secure kids who love life. I think this is in no small part because of the way we've chosen to approach the sleep issue. I'm not saying the crib is terrible--it does work for some, and it's always worth a try in case your kid is that some. But if it doesn't work, and you find something else that does, a baby who sleeps happily lives happily. I can't tell you how much I believe this. I'm not usually willing to preach about issues, but this is one I'll stand on the roof tops and sing about (except for how tone deaf I am). Lots of love, and hang in there!!
Julia
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