2.01.2011

Sleep little one...Please!

Sometimes I wish we could swaddle Archie until he leaves for college. Somehow I don't think that is feasible though. The past few months have been long ones come 2 a.m. Our dear son has no problems falling asleep. He is usually down for the count in less than 5 minutes. However, come those wee hours in the morning, he always wakes up between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. We usually change his diaper first thing and then rock him back to sleep. After about 15 minutes of rocking he is totally out, but the second we lay him back down he wakes up again. I have stood there rubbing his back for 30 minutes and he just lays there awake. If we walk away then he starts to cry and fuss. Repeat cycle. Same outcome. We bring him into to bed with us and he is asleep in 5 minutes and sleeps until 7:00 a.m.

We tried cry it out at two different ages. Each time he cries until he throws up. Clearly this is not a viable solution. I have tried sitting next to his crib, but he cries and cries because he wants to be picked up. We have white noise going, a humidifier, a fan, we've tried music, we've tried singing. I know that sleep problems are nothing new for parents, but we are seriously getting concerned b/c we are going to be adding a newborn to the mix in about 3 months. I won't be able to always rock Archie back to sleep in middle of his nap plus we are going to be functioning on very limited sleep b/c of Baby F.

The only time Dave and I fight is at 3:00 a.m. b/c we are frustrated and don't know what to do. It is amazing that something as awesome and precious as sleep would be so hard to teach a kid to do. Is there a sleep fairy that I can send my wished to?

1 comment:

Natalie said...

I hear you. Middle of the night wakings are torture. Sophia alternates a week or two sleeping great then we will have a week or two of wakings. Its driving me nuts but she is still too young for sleep training. You said you tried Cry It Out, have your tried something else like the Baby Whisperer method: http://www.ehow.com/how_2318214_apply-baby-whisperers-sleep-method.html

Maybe he needs a more incremental approach like this versus sudden like CIO. Its just harder on you guys to do it this way :o/