Hard times in the neighborhood
My heart is breaking!!! Addison went to the doctor for his 4 month check up on Tuesday and did great (14 lbs. 5 oz; 25 in long). But, the doctor asked about his sleeping habits. So I told her that he usually wakes up once or twice a night and we feed him and let him spit up all over us (he has reflux) and rock him back to sleep. This involves letting him suck on your finger and pacing back and forth in the kitchen (don't ask me why it's the kitchen) for like 15 minutes. She said that he should be sleeping 8-12 hours a night at this point and the problem is that we're rocking him to sleep. This is the doctor telling me this - not my friends from church or some mystical old woman, a licensed pediatrician. So we have to teach him to go to sleep by himself and I HATE IT!! It consists of making sure he's sleepy, giving him a squeeze and a kiss and assuring him that despite my meanness and neglect I really do love him. And then I have to lay him in his crib and let him cry hysterically for a long long time until he falls asleep and meanwhile I have to dip into the forbidden cookie stash to console myself for being such a terrible mother. The first time it only took like 2 minutes. The next time was 20. Before bed last night it was 40 minutes before we finally rescued him, probably wasting all that crying. 15 minutes for his morning nap today, and 14 minutes and counting for this afternoon. YUCK!
I'm so sorry - that's no fun at all! My advice from my experience though (which you may freely ignore): you're his mom and know him and what he needs better than anyone - even the pediatrician. Ours tried to have me wean Gareth to the bottle at one point, but after he first accepted and then rejected the bottle and the sippy cup and I was ready to go out of my mind, I went back to nursing him every feeding. So, if this ends up working for you eventually, great. If not and you don't mind getting up a couple times during the night for a little longer and it makes life easier and happier, then I don't think it'll kill him.
ReplyDeleteYuck! My doctor didn't tell me that until Carly's 6 month, and I had set a day we were going to start and everything, and then I chicken out at the last min, every time! Carly never cries, she is just not a crier, so I can't bring myself to let her do it. We just took the approach that we would try to wean her from night feedings and see if that worked. If not I think we will have to let her cry :( We did find that a noise machine has helped a lot though. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThat is the saddest thing I've ever heard!
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