Friday, January 04, 2008

Good Night, Bad Night

I had big plans for a deep and meaningful post about the benefits of working mom-hood, but frankly, I'm too tired to do it. Yes, I recognize the irony in that statement.

The sleep thing is kicking my butt right now. We seem to be alternating good nights and bad nights. On a good night, she sleeps until 1 or so before waking for the first time and then wakes up every two hours or so after that. She eats and goes back to sleep easily, and everything is, well, not good, but bearable. On a bad night, she sleeps until about 10, wakes up screaming for no apparent reason, nurses, screams some more, and then sleeps a bit on Daddy's chest until finally nursing at about 2 or 3 a.m. and going back to sleep easily. We have analyzed every detail we can think of, comparing good nights to bad nights, and we're stumped. We have no idea what causes one night to be a good one and the next one to be a bad one. The only bright side I see to this is that we've decided it is pointless to try any "sleep improvement" techniques since we don't really have a baseline from which to start. So we're just doing whatever it takes to get her back to sleep on the bad nights, and really, that is so much easier and less stressful.

The other sleep thing going on right now is that we're back in a phase where it takes me 3x as long to get her down for the night as it takes Hubby. Hubby can bounce her for a few minutes, put her down sort of awake, hold his hand on her face, and she goes to sleep. If I do that, she arches her back and screams and I have to spend the next 15 minutes letting her pull my hair before she'll even consider closing her eyes again. Needless to say, I think Hubby should have the bedtime duties for the next little bit. Luckily he agrees. The downside is that I have to do the dishes every night now.

Maybe I'll get my deep and meaningful post written tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed for a Good Night....

3 comments:

  1. Oh the screaming in the middle of the night for no apparent reason is the WORST! I have a lousy sleeper, and his got better on its own (mine used to wake every hour or two all night long). Your little one is already doing way better than Swee'pea was at that age. That said, while his sleep got better, it's still not great and it still kicks my ass sometmes, though now it's more the resistance to bedtime that's kicking my ass. You're doing great. It's all about survival right now... I went crazy putting pressure on myself trying to make Swee'pea's sleep better. I felt much better once I finally accepted he is who he is and I just have to get through it.

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  2. Thanks! I needed to hear that. Right now, she is refusing to take her nap... She napped so well for her Grandma when she was here! But with me, all she wants to do is sit in my lap and pull my hair. What is it with babies and hair???

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  3. Listen, this is my life too! Trust me. This is apparently normal for some babies. I love Ask Moxie because between Moxie and commenters, I've realized that it's not just my baby. And the reason why is just simply a developmental spurt or teething or who knows what!

    I hate that we never know what to expect. Is this going to be a magically really good night, like she sleeps straight until 5:00? Is it going to be a pretty good night, like she only wakes up 3 times and takes less than an hour to get back to sleep? Or is this going to be a bad night where she won't be put down without waking up and crying her heart out and we take turns holding her all night?

    I hope your nights get much better! I just keep repeating that this is a phase and it won't last forever. :-)

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