Oh the screaming!!

When Sammy was around 6 1/2 months we decided to start doing sleep training a la Ferber method of crying it out with interval checks. Day 1, not bad, Day 2, better, Day 3, Flawless and the weeks to follow went well. Then out of nowhere Sammy started waking around 4am. I would leave her in her crib without checking on her because she was playing and talking to herself versus crying (thank you monitor) and would get her up at 5am.

I guess she got tired of that because then she started going to bed at 9pm, waking up and 10pm and then crying like a mad woman. Unfortunately DH and I were both stressed so this led to rescuing her after 30-45 minutes of crying. She would go right back to bed and sleep until I woke her at 6am. Bad mommy and daddy, we obviously have taught her a new trick.

Last night we went to the grocery store and in the 5 minute drive home she fell asleep, apparently this was the power nap of all power naps. We got home, woke her and followed her bedtime routine. Steve gave her a bottle and she was wide awake versus her completely knocked out norm. She then proceeded to play for almost an hour before falling asleep, only to wake up a half hour later screaming like we had just cut off her right arm.

Cue the Ferber wait. I started with 7 minutes since that's what we were comfortable with given her tone of crying and moved to 10 minute intervals. She screamed...and screamed...and screamed for over and hour until it was after midnight and Steve and I were exhausted. I picked her up, rocked her, she continued to scream so I threw her (nicely) into her swing, turned it on and slept blissfully until 5am.

I know it's our own fault and that we need to really enforce her no napping rules in the evening (good luck) and just put her to bed and let her scream. Its really hard because she sleeps fantastically until we are just about to hop in bed and that's when the screaming starts.

So that's it, I'm fed up, I'm going to have to let her scream until she passes out because right now she has us in her pocket and knows eventually we will come get her. Tonight is the night, Steve can sleep with his earplugs in and I'll stare at the clock with mine in so I can check on her when the time is right but not being crying into my pillow like I was last night. I guess I just couldn't be lucky enough to have her stick with rock star mode forever!

I told Steve last night we have to do this now because if she starts calling out mama or dada I just might have to jump off a cliff. I can only handle so much, it's bad enough that she spent almost the entire last standing in her crib (something she's never done before, in her crib anyway) screaming. I'll give her credit though, she's a smart booger. She started with screaming into her room and once she realized I kept leaving through the door, she moved over so she could scream directly out the door. Talk about volume change...she's too smart for her own good.
Wish us luck!

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