Wednesday, June 24, 2009

no rest for the weary

UGH - I'm tired. My almost one-year-old is not a great sleeper. A good night means he gets up once. A bad night (about half the time - last night being one of them) means he's up 2-3 times and then is up bright and early to start the day. So I'm about to the point where I'm ready to do something about it. I had to do it with the big kids too and it usually involves lots of crying for a few nights and then I marvel at the fact that my child actually CAN sleep all night. But this time is different. With Audrey and Liam I had made that fatal nursing-them-to-sleep error which was causing their wakings. So to fix it I just had to put them to bed awake, let them cry to sleep, and then they slept. But I have never done that with Ethan. He always puts himself to sleep. It's just that he wakes in the night and wants to be nursed - and then is happy to put himself back to sleep again.

So here's what I'm thinking. Starting this weekend when he wakes in the night - I'll have Patrick go in, make sure everything is okay and say goodnight, and then leave. I know it will mean lots of crying for a few nights - but then should get better....right? Does anyone have any other suggestions (because I freely admit I'm not thinking clearly in my exhausted state!)??

2 comments:

Jen said...

It's hard but crying it out is the only way my kids slept through the night.

~beautyandjoy~ said...

Is it possible he's gowth spurting or just needs extra calories? That's all I could think of to add. :)