I'M ESCAPING!! Hiding, if you will. From my almost 11 month old bedtime tantrum.
I know it sounds horrible. I'm drinking wine by myself and I have left my husband peeling and deveining shrimp, while he listens to our wonderful screaming soundtrack of the last 11 months. As I've said, we have moved, so the first couple of days the sleepless nights had to do with the change of location. Now, three wonderful teeth are coming in. Yes, nature is cruel to her and her parents. But also, my child doesn't like to go to sleep. Has never liked it. I think we have had 2 months where she actually falls asleep without screaming her ass off for a half hour. Then, as if a switch has been turned off, she's knocked out, hopefully for the night.
I know I'm not alone. I come from a family of babies who slept a lot less than Amelia. And that's when you need that family support. Let me tell you about my cousin Vanessa. She has three beautiful children that she stayed home to raise. She has belonged to the Junior League, her local Ballet Board and thanks to her dedication to all the schoolwork, teenage drama and extracurricular crap, her kids have flourished.
But before you hate her or throw up, my cousin Vanessa has complained every step of the way. The woman keeps it real. She adores her kids but she has no qualms telling you motherhood is hard as all hell. She is my kick ass older sister when it comes to motherhood.
Case in point: she came to visit with her youngest daughter. She stayed with us so she had to be a part of the evening screams. I was embarrassed and ready to go get the baby out of the crib so my guests wouldn't go back to Florida and tell the rest of my family what a horrible mother I was. Well, Vane said "Serve yourself some wine and this too shall pass". Words of wisdom, I know.
Before you call the Department of Family Services on us, we don't mean hit the bottle every night until the kid goes to college. Just do what you need to do to survive. Some friends of mine take a shower to drown out the crying. Some experts recommend that actually. Some of my friends just rock the kid to sleep until they get over this phase.
I pour myself a glass of wine and wait the half hour I know it might take her to cry it out. I also sing to myself, walk around the house and stare at the video monitor hoping that telepathically I can send some ZZZs over to that baby. Ay Mama!
2 comments:
I agree about the wine. I don't think my twins will ever sleep through the night. Is it so bad to cuddle them and put them to sleep? Is it worth it, going through all the suffering to make them sleep throughout the night while they are still young? and more important: will it really affect them and make them have problems sleeping when they are older if I don't let them learn to soothe themselves?
Try the wine on them. That could be an option to sleep throught the night. I don't know if it's worth it but I don't think our parents let us cry it out and we don't know how to go to sleep on our own now. This from someone who used a combo of crying out and the baby whisperer.
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