Friday, August 10, 2007

Teaching babies to sleep

I had a nurse from Tresillian come over on Wednesday for an "outreach" visit - they come to help you settle your baby. Elora hasn't been too bad on the sleeping side of things. She first slept through the night (7+ hours) when she was seven weeks old but in the last couple of months she has started waking again, and we always had to rock her to sleep.

So, we embarked on a controlled crying regime (also called "controlled comforting"). The last three days have been very trying and wearing of my nerves. Elora just cries and cries and cries. She cried for over an hour on Wednesday morning. Then got better each other time I put her down. Yesterday during the day she only cried for 10 minutes before putting herself to sleep. Then I stuffed things a bit by going out to the supermarket, then met Dan and the boys for dinner at the noodle house. Elora was tired but I kept her up, and she cried for over an hour before I eventually patted her to sleep.

This morning she was okay, but then we went out (took Atti to play with his cousin Abigail - they had lots of fun!) and it took her an hour to get to sleep when we got home after lunch. Now I'm trying to get her to sleep again and she has been at it for an hour and a quarter! This is the record! She just seems to be getting worse, not better. I guess I've made things worse by not putting her to sleep as soon as I see that she's tired (I had to cook dinner and had Atticus clawing at my legs... tiresome late afternoon/early evening).

It really is quite exhausting, this crying. Or rather, listening to her cry and not being able to go in and cuddle or comfort her. I'm amazed at the physiological effects it has on me. My heart is racing, my hands are shaking and my head is spinning. I feel lightheaded and weak (but obviously I'm still able to type). I can't smile. I can't concentrate. I feel sick in the stomach.

It's a terrible thing and yet I put us through it. I did it with Dante and with Atticus as well. I don't know if it feels the same this time as with the boys or whether it's worse because she's my little girl. I just know that it feels awful and I just want to stop. I hope she falls asleep soon.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Crikey, thats hard.... Josh also slept thru back when he was 3 months, but then he stopped doing that at 6 months. Now I just let him wake me up every nite at 1am, i figured if he still wakes up every morning at 6:30 so that i can still make it to work on time, Im fine with that!! Hang in there mate...