As I may have mentioned once or twice before, we have been struggling with Rory's sleep habits (or lack thereof) for quite some time now. He barely naps during the day for more than 30 minutes at a stretch, and even though there's no logical reason for it, he still wakes up several times a night. I've read a handful of books on the subject and heard advice from like a gazillion people, and everyone keeps telling me the same thing - I have to let him cry it out.
I really never liked the idea of letting Rory cry for long periods of time without consoling him - after all, I AM his MOTHER and mothers are supposed to comfort their crying children. THAT'S WHAT MOTHERS DO. However, lately I've begun to realize that my son has become hip to the game that children play with their parents, and he has learned how to manipulate his crying to get what he wants. Yes, amazingly, it really DOES start this young. And what he wants right now is to stay awake as much as possible so he doesn't miss anything, even if it means that he's so tired that his head starts to spin around and he starts whining in that ultra annoying way of his for hours on end that makes me want to shove hot forks in my eyeballs.
And so, after discussing it with his pediatrician and getting the final okay from her, Hoby and I decided it was time to let Rory cry it out. We were going to turn off the baby monitor, shut his door and not go in and get him until morning. It sounds cruel even as I type the words, but I know that it's what we had to do to teach Rory how to fall asleep on his own. Nothing else had worked and the poor child was EXHAUSTED.
I spent the entire day yesteday dreading Rory's bedtime, expecting that it was going to be a long, long night of him crying and me trying to restrain myself from going in to comfort him. He went down to sleep pretty easily around 8pm and had a short burst of crying at 11pm, but then all was quiet. So quiet in fact, that I kept wanting to go in and make sure that he was still breathing (but I didn't). I don't know if we just didn't hear him during the night or what, but when I heard him crying this morning and looked at the clock, it was 7am and I couldn't believe it! My son had just officially slept through the night! The WHOLE NIGHT, from 8pm to 7am - that's ELEVEN FREAKIN' HOURS, people!
I'm trying not to get my hopes up for tonight - I mean, it may have been a fluke or something - but it's possible that this could be the start of something great. Because when Rory sleeps, that means that I get to sleep, and sleep, my friends, is a wonderful thing.
Cross your fingers for me...
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3 comments:
congrats! i've been debating suggesting a similar move, but we've got the added complication of a big sister in the room with him.
Congrats. That is so awesome.
Our monitor has those lights on the top so we could see her breathing, or crying. Or you could just set it really low and when you want to hear him turn it up then back down. I have to check on Avery all the time; when I'm up.
I know it's only one night but it will work out. The best is yet to come.
It's so great when I wake up in the morning and Avery is just laying there playing in her crib, she was so kind not to wake us up any earlier. But now since we stopped the 10pm feeding she wakes us up like an alarm clock.
All of our kids shared up until recently and no one was ever bothered by the crying. Plus, it gets shorter and shorter so they never even hear it after a few times. Another great thing is that now, when they cry for a long time...you really know for sure something is up. Kudos to you! Martha
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