Mama screwed up
Well scratch what I wrote, I have no idea what she wants now.
Last night I made a big, big mistake – second night in a row. I thought, hey she’s napping so well by herself during the day, how about I wait until she’s almost asleep and then move her to the cosleeper beside me. If she does well with that I can sleep on my own side of the bed! So that’s what I did. She was almost asleep, had nursed herself down, taken the paci and was just settling in. As carefully as I could I moved her over and settled her into the cosleeper.
And she woke up. Oh no, she didn’t wake up crying and screaming the way she used to, she woke up excited. Her eyes darted around at this “new” vantage point (I wouldn’t have thought it would be so interesting, considering she sleeps right next to the cosleeper every single day and night). And then the legs and arms started pumping. “Ooo! Ooo!”
“Uhhhh,” I said to Den, “this isn’t working, she’s waking up.”
“Have patience,” he counsels.
Bad idea. Five minutes went by and now she was super awake and wanting to play. I pulled her back into our bed but by that point she wanted no part of sleep. I snuggled her. She screamed and pushed away from me. I sat her up, she looked around and flapped her arms happily. Shit. Shit. I tried to nurse her. More screaming. I gave her the paci. She spit it out and yelled. We got up and walked her around. It was obvious she was tired – it was 11pm by now – but she was utterly convinced it was time to play. She’d doze off on our chest while we walked her around, then wake up shrieking in anger whenever we layed her down.
I was SO frustrated. Den reminded me that she’s been such a good sleeper that we’ve been spoiled and are kind of due for some bad nights. But I swear to you, I felt like throwing myself face down, beating the snot of a pillow, and throwing a nice big toddler-esque tantrum. I was so damn angry at myself for moving her. You know that feeling… that everything was just fine until YOU screwed it up.
It took some work and a lot of patience, but Den finally waited her out until she was really soundly asleep before laying her in my arms. And I froze like that for a good half an hour until it was clear she was going to stay asleep. The rest of the night she did okay. She’s still a little fidgety at night, and that’s the part that I can’t figure out.
The next few nights I’m going to do what I know works for her. Please shoot me if I get any brilliant ideas.
when my son was itty bitty he wouldn’t sleep unless he was being held. as soon as we put him down, he would wake up and be READY. TO. GO. one of my mommy friends told me to try wrapping a hot water bottle (the rubber medicinal kind) in one of his receiving blankets and putting my swaddled baby against it in his cosleeper, tricking him into thinking he was being held. it worked well for us, and i would just refill the bottle when we woke up for his midnight feeding.
I nurse my baby to sleep and place him in his crib. He frequently wakes up when I do that. I just ignore him and pretend he’s still sleeping. Turn on the baby sense and leave the room. I watch him on my video monitor and sometimes he will play for 5 or 10 minutes (it’s fun to watch), but he’s tired, well fed and ready to sleep and he will fall asleep on his own just fine. No fussing or crying. And sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and will talk to himself for awhile, but, unless he’s upset, I just ignore it and he goes back to sleep on his own in 10 or 15 minutes. For us, it’s just best to give him time and not intervene as long as he’s happy.
I used to sit in his room and wait for him to fall back asleep after I put him to bed at night, but this didn’t work at all for us and I was a distraction. It probably sounds harsh to ‘ignore’ him, but really it’s for the best for everyone and he is never fussy since we got our schedule established. And it is such a relief to me that my baby can soothe himself to sleep without nursing, because that puts so much pressure on me to produce.
Since you co sleep, I know it’s not an option to leave, but maybe just roll over so that she can’t see your face? Let her try to entertain herself for awhile. Hopefully if you have good habits in place, you stick to them and things should work out… and if they don’t you will know when something is wrong.
It took Noelia a LONG time to be OK with sleeping not so close to me.Infact,she´s over 2 now and I put her in her own bed after nursing her to sleep each night..but if she´s restless,and she reaches out only to find that Im not there,she´ll get out of her bed and come to mine (lets just say we are co-sleeping-she´s a restless sleeper *sigh*).
Everything´s fine if she´s sleeping deeply.We can watch TV in our room,have some “couple” time (kwim? lol) but if she´s not fully asleep,she has to lay next to me with her hand on my face,and nurse.Its a must.
Yeah,Im not so cool with nursing all night anymore..neither am I cool about getting kicked in the face and pushed right to the edge of the bed lol.
But,like you,I try to tell my self that we are lucky that she´s always let us sleep if we do things this way.I can be very frustrating though..especially when you have other kids.I think “great! they are all down for the night”,and one wakes up..SHIT!! lol
Off topic…wanted to comment on your twitter about Fuzzibuns….and holding in poop….Have you tried Kawaii pockets OS? They are sooo reasonably priced and they hold in the poop very well. My favorites are the Minky Bamboo (only about $11-13 new)….I buy mine from this on-line store….http://www.theluvyourbaby.com/MinkyinBamboo.htm
kd
hahaha. Yep yep. I’ve made that mistake. But how else do you know? I AGONIZE over stupid little decisions like these for that very reason.