Sleep Is Still Elusive

It’s 3:22 AM and I thought I’d blog a bit since I am not sleeping. C has been crying for about 50 minutes. I’ve gone to check on her once to be sure she’s not sick/uncomfortable. When she sees me, she calms down. When I walk away, she cries. It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged on her sleep situation, so let me fill you in.

Over a month ago, I decided that nursing 3 times a night was not necessary for a 7 month old and I needed to teach her to get back to sleep on her own when she woke at night. I decided to nurse her once per night. For a week or so, I went in and rocked/calmed her instead of nursing, then I began to let her cry instead of going in at all. It seemed that if I did go in, she just got more worked up. After a couple weeks, she was still waking up 2 or 3 times a night and crying for 15 minutes or so before getting back to sleep. There were nights she would wake up only once or twice. There were nights she would cry 30 to 45 minutes. But things seemed to be on a progressive path.

The past two weeks have been a steady backslide. She is waking 3-4 times at night and crying for an hour or more. It’s insane. She is cranky all day. This is when I start to doubt myself. How can I just let her cry for hours every night? Proponents of this “crying-it-out” thing say it will only take a couple weeks and then the child will be sleeping wonderfully!

Maybe she is teething and in pain? A couple nights I tried an additional nursing and she fell back asleep within minutes. So it doesn’t seem she is in pain. She just wants to nurse. Maybe I don’t nurse her enough during the day? At nearly 9 months old, she is eating regular food 4-5 times a day and nursing 4 times (morning, mid-morning, mid-afternoon, bedtime). This all sounds very normal and adequate to me. So WHY WHY WHY won’t she settle into a healthy sleep pattern? (Side bar: She doesn’t nap well either. She takes 3 short naps a day when we are home all day. It varies when we are out, because she sometimes sleeps in the car. She never naps for longer than an hour.)

If I nursed her every time she woke up, I’d be getting a hell of a lot more sleep. But I truly feel that at her age she should not rely on nursing several times a night to fall back asleep. Perhaps she is confused by the one nursing she is getting at night? Is she wondering why sometimes she wakes and gets nursed, while other times she is left to cry? Would it get better if I just cut her off completely?

It’s 4:02 and she has been quiet for about 15 minutes. I’m going to try to go back to bed for an hour or two. {Yawn.} I know this is not the most compelling blog reading, but I need to get these thoughts out. And if any of you wise Moms out there have any suggestions, send ‘em my way.

Good night (I hope).