Lincoln has been having trouble sleeping now for about a month or so. Naps, bedtime, it doesn’t matter, the kid just doesn’t want to sleep. Last night was particularly bad. Our bedtime routine goes something like this: Dinner at 6:30, then a bath, then jammies, then a bedtime story, a bottle, and bed at 7:30ish. So last night he went to sleep really easily at about 7:15pm, then he woke up at about 8:00pm (this is typical as of late) and would not go back to sleep. We are trying really hard to teach him to go to sleep on his own without being rocked to sleep by one of us. That means when he wakes up screaming bloody murder (and it’s always bloody murder) we have the extra special fun task of trying to calm him down without picking him up. Lincoln doesn’t take a pacifier. So last night (as we do every night) we tried talking to him, we tried rubbing his head, Aaron sang to him until he was hoarse, I sang to him until I ran out of Primary songs, we turned on the light, he finally stopped screaming. He played in his crib. We turned on the desk lamp and turned off the overhead light. Lincoln kept playing. I took everything out of his crib. I turned off the lamp and turned on the night light instead. He kept playing with the crib bumpers. I took off the crib bumpers. I turned off the night light. Lincoln started crying. I started singing again. Finally, finally, around 9:00ish he stopped moving and fell asleep. That was not the end of it.
At 1:29am Lincoln started screaming. We talked to him, sang to him, gave him a little baby massage. We turned on the light and
tried working our way down to the lamp, the night light, and then dark. We tried letting him cry it out. We’d set a timer for 5 minutes, and when he was still crying when it went off we went it and started all over trying to calm him down. We did that for an hour. We changed his diaper. We thought he might be hot, so we took off his jammies and turned on the fan. We thought he might be cold, we put his jammies back on and put a blanket over him. We thought his teeth might hurt so we gave him ice chips and baby ora-gel. We tried sucking boogers out of his nose and giving him nose drops. We thought he might be hungry. He wouldn’t eat. We thought he might have gas, so we gave him gas drops and tried to burp him. We put his favorite blanket back in the crib with him. We tried rocking him. We gave him a small amount of Tylenol in case he was in some kind of pain we couldn’t figure out. Finally, at 4:00am I was out of ideas. I got dressed, got Lincoln dressed (and Aaron got dressed), put Lincoln in his stroller, and went for a nice (except for the fact that it was 4:00am, and I’d been up since 1:29am) stroll through the neighborhood. Yup, at 4:00am. It was actually pretty nice outside, warm with a cool breeze. I didn’t stop walking until Lincoln fell asleep, then Aaron and I turned around and came home. Luckily Lincoln went right back to sleep after Aaron picked him up and laid him back down in his crib. What a night…or should I say morning.
At 1:29am Lincoln started screaming. We talked to him, sang to him, gave him a little baby massage. We turned on the light and
tried working our way down to the lamp, the night light, and then dark. We tried letting him cry it out. We’d set a timer for 5 minutes, and when he was still crying when it went off we went it and started all over trying to calm him down. We did that for an hour. We changed his diaper. We thought he might be hot, so we took off his jammies and turned on the fan. We thought he might be cold, we put his jammies back on and put a blanket over him. We thought his teeth might hurt so we gave him ice chips and baby ora-gel. We tried sucking boogers out of his nose and giving him nose drops. We thought he might be hungry. He wouldn’t eat. We thought he might have gas, so we gave him gas drops and tried to burp him. We put his favorite blanket back in the crib with him. We tried rocking him. We gave him a small amount of Tylenol in case he was in some kind of pain we couldn’t figure out. Finally, at 4:00am I was out of ideas. I got dressed, got Lincoln dressed (and Aaron got dressed), put Lincoln in his stroller, and went for a nice (except for the fact that it was 4:00am, and I’d been up since 1:29am) stroll through the neighborhood. Yup, at 4:00am. It was actually pretty nice outside, warm with a cool breeze. I didn’t stop walking until Lincoln fell asleep, then Aaron and I turned around and came home. Luckily Lincoln went right back to sleep after Aaron picked him up and laid him back down in his crib. What a night…or should I say morning.
2 comments:
Wow Krystal! That sounds awful! Are you sure he doesn't have ear aches? William is an awful sleeper. He wakes up about every 1 1/2 and sometimes won't sleep anywhere but in my arms. Then when he is asleep in my arms he kicks and punches and is never sound asleep! Let's just say I am a bit sleep deprived. Good luck, I hope he sleeps better for you.
It's a sad fact that sometimes the really mellow babies turn into the poorest sleeping toddlers, I would try a nap routine and earlier bedtime, have you read any baby sleep books? I have a really good one but I can't remember what it's called, probably Syd has it. Hang in there, I now it's AWFUL (Aneya doesn't sleep through the night any more either and it's not making me very happy)
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