Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted. I’ve been too exhausted to do much of anything lately. For the past two weeks or so Alethea has been waking up three to six times a night so most nights her longest stretch of continuous sleep is about 3 hours. As a result I want to burn all of my “Baby’s First Year” type books which include a congratulatory note in the 12 weeks chapter about how my baby is probably sleeping through the night now. Ha… right…
It sure does feel like we’re going backwards on the sleep front. Alethea hasn’t slept for 6-7 hours straight since she was about 6 weeks old. Ever since I figured out how to get her to sleep with the swaddle/pacifier combo, she has been taking better and more regular naps during the day, but nighttime sleep seems to have gone out the window as a result of daytime naps.
I told Peter jokingly last night that maybe we should go back to keeping her up all day without naps so she’ll sleep at night. His reply was, “Sure, if you also want to go back to spending all day with a cranky, difficult child who won’t let you put her down.” Hmmm… maybe not.
I’ve been reading the blog Chronicles of a Babywise Mom lately. (We’re not totally following the Babywise method at our house, but I’ve found a lot of the information to still be helpful.) In her blog she talks about progress with children as an upward spiral. From different points on the spiral, it may appear as though you are moving further from your goal, but in time you will circle back around and realize that in fact, progress is being made.
Here’s hoping we loop back around soon…
Since you have just tons of time to read… a book that I found helpful was “The No-Cry Sleep Solution” by Elizabeth Pantley. It was a little more “attachment parenting” than we are, but the nice thing was that it contained a wide range of ideas for helping your kid sleep.
The other book that a friend just recommended to me (but I have not yet had a chance to read) is The Wonder Weeks by Hetty Vanderijt. Here is the Barnes & Noble review: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Wonder-Weeks-Eight-Predictable-Age-Linked-Leaps-In-Your-BabyS-Mental-Development-Characterized-By-The-Three-CS/Hetty-Vanderijt/e/9789079208012/?itm=1 It looks like it may contain some helpful hints on dealing with difficult periods in a baby’s development. My friend said she was amazed at how accurate the book was in dealing with her 7 month old.
Good luck!