Tales of Sleep (and the Lack Thereof)

For 2 1/2 years I have rarely gotten a full night's sleep. It comes with being a mom. I realize that, but this lack of sleep is still hard and I still get grumpy about it.

Hannalee has always been a poor sleeper. She wakes most nights at least once if not four times. But things were going pretty well up until the first of February. Hannalee was sleeping most nights with few wake ups. She did wake up once a night to pee, or because her blankets fell off of her. But she was easy to put back to sleep. All I had to do was give her kiss, say good night, and close the door. She would quickly go back to sleep.

But two weeks before Tayo was born, she flipped a switch. On night we put her in bed and she just started screaming every time we left the room. She would get out of bed and come to find us in a major hysterical fit. First we tried the tough it out approach, "Super Nanny Style, where we would put her directly back in bed, tell her goodnight and walk out.

After 30+ times of putting her back in bed, her screaming the whole time. We tried another approach, locking her in her room. This may seem cruel, but at 12:00 at night your desperate. This approach didn't work either. It made her scream harder with no end in sight.

Finally Bob, being the calm rational one, suggested we stop playing tough and give her some love. So we sat in her bedroom holding her hand till she fell asleep. It worked until she woke up again. After a couple of nights of fitful sleep we decided the only way anyone would be getting any sleep was for one of us to sleep on her floor. Since I was nine months pregnant at the time, that was Bob. So for a couple of weeks I was sleeping alone and Hannie had a room mate.

After Tayo was born, she was still unhappy about sleeping alone, however, I came up with a new plan. After tucking her into bed, I would sit with her for a couple of minutes then I would tell her I needed to check on daddy or Tayo and would be back in two minutes. After two minutes I would come back sit with her then say I'd be back in 5 minutes. After doing this for about half hour she would be asleep at my final check in. So I would get to share my bed with my husband the first part of the night, but this approach didn't work in the middle of the night. (Probably because we were too tired to give it much effort.)

But slowly Hannalee has gotten used to Bob not sleeping on the floor. Instead we leave the hall light on, her door open, and she sleeps on her floor. We still have to get up with her a few times a night, but she is OK with the fact that we are just in the other room as long as we keep her door open.

Sleep for Tayo on the other hand started out very well. He was such a calm baby and slept nicely. He is a grunter when he sleeps so he got booted out of our room and now sleeps in the kitchen in a little bassinet. (Not sure what we'll do when he outgrows that.) His night routine was and still is (most days) 9:00pm feeding, 1:30am feeding, and 5:00am feeding. That is very doable!

Recently, he has been more fussy. During the day he doesn't sleep much (unless I hold him). I think he has belly gas that is bothering him. He curls himself up in a ball and cries. He also has long crying spells at night. So, I am going to try and eliminate dairy from my diet.