After all of my ranting about being a horrible mommy, I talked with a pediatrician friend of mine. In doing so, some things became clear to me (funny how that works). Like the fact that after she cried long and hard, daddy would come and "rescue" her. So that taught her to cry harder and longer. She was/is not a good napper unless she is boobed down and can soothe herself back down by nursing to continue her sleep cycle. We are in the "bad habit" of nursing during naps and her sleeping on my lap, and I think that may be a contributing factor. She is sleeping longer/harder than she ever does, which may explain her stamina/reserves in the crying department.
So last night, while daddy was not home, we did a bootcamp per se. She was tired from being at the sitter (no nap) so I got her down early, medicating her and putting something on her gums. She cried for only a half hour! Then was up again at 10:15 and cried for 1 hour and 15 minutes (I checked her periodically, but that was starting to rev her up anew each and every time) and NO TEARS! She was simply pissed off, plain and simple. She slept until 3:30, which I thought was total progress and got her and brought her with me. Even if she can do that every night, I would be cool with it. Today for a nap, she fell asleep nursing, then I layed her down, and ended up boobing her back for another 20-30 minutes, which gave her about a 50 minute nap total. Much more like the "usual".
I hate discussing tonight, in case I pay the piper later, but it was about half of yesterday. We will see what the rest of tonight holds, but this is much more like my girl. But this whole sleep thing is totally crazy making, I tell you. Maybe I do have some "skills", it just takes me awhile to underwhelm myself to think through the issue! Cross your fingers...
2 comments:
We're facing a "retraining" over here too coming up on 11 months, and my mother has forgotten all the hard work we did getting to this point. So she undermines the "wait it out" nature of the crying and picks up the kid. NOT HELPING. And yet I *still* let down when she cries, despite feeling all dried up (we are still nursing), so I'm miserable if I'm the one being the hardass. I guess what I'm saying is, I so feel your pain.
It is so hard, especially when you know it is for their own good. I hate every minute of it, though, but she does so much better that way! Good luck!
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