Every time the girls get sick we go back to square one in terms of sleep. They won't go to sleep without an hour of carrying on. They won't stay asleep overnight. Naps are a disaster. When they were smaller we would let them cry it out (CIO) when things got really bad and after a couple night everything would settle back into somewhat of a routine (keeping in mind that Abby has never really slept through the night).
After this last round of ear infections, viruses, etc. we have landed in our usual post-illness predicament. For the past 3 or 4 weeks we have been dealing with general distain of sleep (by them, not us). They take turns being "the problem" so we can't ever seem to get a quiet night where they both go to sleep and stay asleep. Last night we hit a bit of a breaking point. Brian and I are exhausted. The girls are exhausted. Something has to give.
So, today Brian came home from work with this idea that we needed to re-ferberize our children. Let them CIO and get back into a schedule. I admit, I don't have the balls for CIO on my own. I feel like I torture Abby enough with all her doctoring that I hate to add more fuel to her "I hate you" fire when she's a teenager. (Abby is the one who is the most resistant to the CIO method.) I do realize that if they don't sleep it doesn't help in our battles to grow and develop so fighting it was futile.
We put them to bed. Armed with extra milk and the threat that if they cried we would be downstairs but would not come in (which I usually do). They went down quiet. Then the crying started. Gracie was more goofing around than crying but Abby went into full blown hysteria. After about 45 minutes even Brian couldn't take it so he went in to tuck her in and say good night. It worked out okay because she settled in and Gracie then only cried for a couple minutes. This all started at 9 and my house is quiet at 11:06pm. That hasn't happened in a while. Let's just hope it lasts...
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5 comments:
Good for you! It's tough being tough about bedtime. Just look at them as little terrorists trying to steal sleep from you and say over and over again "I do not negotiate with terrorists."
Our girls are similar ages. Mine just went from great sleepers (in bed by 7, sleep till 8ish, 2 hour nap) to awful in one month. We put them in toddler beds and that made a difference. Are you ready for that?
When we put them down, they carry on with each other for a loooong time. We are letting them do that. As long as they stay in their room, it's fine. Madeline cries out usually once a night now, so we go in, rub her belly ad kiss her goodnight and leave. Clearly my girls were ready to be free range and out of the crib. I, of course, was not! I hope it evens out for you. I am well aware of what a lack of sleep can do to a mom.
It's hard...almost impossible...and totally stressful...but, also, totally worth it. Surprisingly, free-spirited Lincoln was much more resistant to it than Ava was. It took almost a week for it to click for Linc but he's been so easy to put down for naps and bedtime since. Hang in there!
"I do not negotiate with terrorists" - ROFLMAO! I love it! :D
We just went through this too! Between the transition to daycare and being sick, the month of January has sucked for sleep.
I let mine CIO Tuesday night. What was awesome was that now that I tell them I'm not coming in, they understand! Luckily it only took one night of minimal crying. I feel like CIO is so much harder now that they're older.
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