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Jayde fell asleep this way - hand down her pants and all!
We started playing her a lullaby CD while she was going to sleep to help calm her, and keep her bedtime routine the same. That first week after she would wake up 3-4 times per night and wasn't able to fall asleep by herself and would be bawling which is so not like her. The only way she would fall back asleep is if we went in there and would either sit on her chair, or lay on the floor until she fell asleep (and she was good about checking on us every few minutes to make sure we were still in the room). When she woke up in the middle of the night she would say, "sit sit" and motion to the chair in her room for us to sit in so she could fall asleep in her crib knowing we were in the same room.
It's interesting because some of the tips in our Baby Book say it could be Separation Anxiety. Their tips are to either sleep in their room or put their mattress at the foot of your bed and tell them that if they want to sleep with mama and dada they can come in and sleep in the bed on your floor, but not wake you up. They are against having them 'cry it out' because it makes them lose trust in you and I agree with that. We've never needed Jayde to cry it out for hours to fall asleep and she learned how to fall asleep by herself just fine without that method. I'm also not much for letting your kid sleep in the same room as you though, because I don't want her to get used to it and need that to fall asleep.
Before that nightmare ordeal she was always great at falling asleep by herself after we give her a bath, read her 2 books, and sing her some songs so this is totally throwing us off! I don't remember the last time I had to get up in the middle of the night because she was screaming my name.
We've now gotten into week 3 of this whole ordeal and I think that we're hopefully over the worst of it. Of course I say this after she is barely falling asleep 2 hours late for her afternoon nap. At least this time she wasn't bawling in her crib wanting me to be in there - but was playing with her sippy and doll.
I think at this point after doing some researching we've decided that we'll let her cry and try to fall asleep on her own for about 10 minutes at a time. If she doesn't fall asleep after that, then we will go into her room and either sit on her chair or lay on her floor until she recognizes that she isn't getting any positive (or negative) attention from us, and realize that we're boring, and fall asleep.....
.....the key is hopefully she'll remember that we're boring when she's crying our name in the middle of the night after she wakes up - wanting us to go in there, and staying awake for 2 hours at a time. We joke that we wish she had her own "Kid Manual" tied to her big toe when she was born which that would make things much easier!
Wish us luck - and let us know if you've had the same experience, or any tips/tricks that have helped you. It would be greatly appreciated!
2 comments:
Oh I feel for you guys! The only thing that worked for Mally after a night mare was a food storage flashlight ( the kind without batteries and you wind up) she really enjoyed that and was distracted enough by it . Good luck!
I am so sorry! There are few things worse than a child who won't sleep. Both our kids go through rough patches from time to time, and it's interesting how they both need help getting back to "normal" in different ways. For Ella, she never responded to anything but crying it out, but when we finally did it (at 11 months!) it took one night. From then, when she has rough nights, we just have to go in and show her we are there, and then she calms right down and can go right back to sleep. Jones is the complete opposite, we never sleep trained him because he was an amazing self-soother from the start. When he has rough nights/days/weeks, we can't go in and soothe him like we do with Ella because he gets even more worked up, Won't let us put him down, etc. He just has to cry for a few minutes and then he's fine.
I was an adamant proponent of not letting our children cry. For one it worked (jones), and for the other, we
ended up holding her for naps and rocking her to sleep.
Nightmare. I think every child is different, and the key is being consistent. Like you are doing, I think a bedtime routine is very helpful. And once you cross the "cry-it-out" bridge you will realize that it's a helpful tool too. For example, we know that if either kid cries for more than A minute or 2 minutes, they arent feeling well, maybe they have a stinky diaper, etc. Obviously, it would be ideal to not ever let them cry, but I know there are times when it is appropriate. You'll figure out the magic combo for jayde, and everything will go back to normal. One thing that has helped Jonesy lately (after being sick) is one of those gloworm dolls that you push their tummy and the face lights up and it plays a lullaby. He can push the button when he's needing some attention, and it works wonders for him :) he doesn't have a lovey, but Ella did, and it really helped to reassure her.
Good luck!
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