This parenting gig- it's harder than I thought it would be. One thing I've learned in my 2.5 year career as a mother is that you figure one thing out, feel like you've got a handle and understanding of one aspect, and your kid will throw some other challenge at you! (Or is it just my kids? Please tell me everyone feels like this?)
One of the hardest aspect of babies for me- SLEEP! Or the lack thereof. When Chase was 7.5 months old we "sleep trained" him. Our method: let him cry for ten minutes intervals and after ten minutes one of us would go in and comfort him, repeat until we were all so fed up that I would nurse him so we could all go back to sleep. Repeated for 2 nights and on the 3rd night- magic! Chase slept through the whole night without waking! And he continued pretty much every night after that (with the exception of traveling, teething, moving that would temporarily throw him off). Let me tell you- sleeping for a solid 6-7 hours is amazing!
We decided to start Hudson a little younger, shortly after he turned 5 months. Since he's a big guy I figured he should be able to sleep all night without feeding. We worked on it for 15 nights, which was pretty much a nightmare. He slept through the night on nights 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 and then completely stopped. Nights that he didn't sleep through the night were exhausting. So after 15 nights, I gave up. Whatever, I'll just feed him so I can go back to bed.
The problem: I think I broke him. Since I threw in the towel he's been getting up 5-6 times a night! And he's not napping well either. Basically I'm losing my mind.
So I'm writing this out so that I can remember years from now how hard this stage is, and [hopefully] just like every other stage, eventually it passes. And so if you see me do something embarrassing/crazy in public (like lose my patience with my kids, drive away with groceries on my car, forget what I'm saying mid sentence) you can just laugh and know what I'm up against!
But, like I titled this post- It's a good thing he's cute! The lack of sleep might be driving me crazy, but I sure love this baby and he's 100% worth it!
I think sleeping habits can be one of the hardest parts of parenting- or lack of sleep I should say. Benson started at 5 months to be up every 2 hours to eat. So exhausting! My sister in law sent me the book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Don't know if you've read it, but it was a lifesaver for me! Good luck and hopefully things get better soon!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure this is the age that Jack stopped sleeping through the night and I wanted to cry. Best wishes that this is just a short stage and Hudson starts sleeping much longer stretches for you!!!
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