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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#3

Sleep Training

sldlHad I written this post on Monday it would be nothing but puppies and rainbows about how sleep training is fabulous. Unfortunately its Wednesday!


We started sleep training Sammy Friday night and it went smoothly. Her crying lasted about 20 minutes on Friday (total) with me checking on her at 3/5/10 intervals. She was asleep just before the second 10 min check. Saturday was thrown off a little by my MIL, we went to dinner and she let Sammy fall asleep on her shoulder. Therefore when she finally went down around 10:30/11:00pm it was maybe 10 minutes of crying. Sunday she was out before she hit the crib and slept all night.


I went in Monday feeling fabulous. We went to dinner because it was our 2 year wedding anniversary so things were a little off but back to 10-15 minutes of crying before falling asleep and then she was up playing in her crib at 4am. I left her there until 5:15 when it was an hour before her normal waking time. She didn't sleep much according to the sitter so last night we went straight into her routine, everything to the T. This, sad to say, resulted in 40 minutes of screaming before she passed out and slept until 6:10 this morning.


That was horrible. Not only was she sitting up in her crib crying...but I was power pumping so Steve was the one soothing her and all I could do was listen in. It eventually led to a fight between Steve and I because I was overly emotional and irrational (partially because he was being an ass too) and today I just feel....shitty.


I'm not willing to give up yet and I need to talk to her daycare and make sure they are following her schedule. I have a feeling she tends to leave Sammy in the crib to play just by certain comments she's made, so I want to make sure that's not the case. I swear though, on the weekends I've got this great baby and during the week, not so much. I'll be working my hardest to figure out why my weekend baby leave me every Monday morning.

She's lucky she's cute!!!