Thanks for the sleep Anna!

I'm really hoping we're back to our normal.  The last week has been rough.  It is overwhelming chasing two toddlers all day off of two hours of sleep.  I know, I know, people do it all the time.  And I respect them a great deal more after this week!

What worked?  Heres's a way more lengthy than I intended post on what worked.  I can look back and see how silly it seemed to be so upset over just one week of bad sleep :-)

Well, I was pretty much at my wits end with her in the middle of the night.  After being asleep only 2 or 3 hours, she would wake up and scream (a "I want to poke my ears out" kind of blood curdling scream) for 1-3 hours until she finally gave into exhaustion, slept for an hour and got up again.  Repeat until morning... 

We tried it all.  Rocking, back patting, me sitting in the room.  She just kept screaming (unless we were holding her).  As soon as we thought she was asleep and tried to lay her down, she screaming began again.  It was overwhelming to say the least.

No one was getting any sleep.

So we talked to her doctor yesterday (Friday).  Here's what her opinion on the matter was.  Anna probably woke up the first few nights from constipation (my original thought) from the whole milk.  They are very habit forming at this age especially.  She said it only takes one or two nights for them to pick up bad habits.  She said most likely, especially with Anna who learns very quickly, she's getting up with the intention of getting us in her room, to snuggle.  I LOVE to snuggle my baby, but not for 2 hours in the middle of the night...

So she suggested we stick with something, being very consistent with whatever it was.  If we didn't mind her in our bed, we could do that (I mind...).  If we didn't mind her being rocked every night, we could try that.  If we didn't mind her crying for a little while, we could try that.

Let me back up one night...  Thursday night I had hit a breaking point.  I couldn't continue this.  When Anna got up the first time, I let her scream.  We've let her cry it out once or twice before, but what I really mean is we let her play it out in her crib.  Never before has she screamed like that during the night.  I'm not a propnent of that method of sleep training, but sometimes you have to resort to the last resort.  So we did.  And she cried.  For like 45 minutes.  But during this time, she'd stop, look around, see if we were responding, and then continue crying.  She knew exactly what she was doing and how to get us to rock her.  She definitely had an agenda with all that crying.  So after her screamfest, she calmed down and sat in her crib for an hour or so until she fell asleep.  There was no crying though.  She was calm, playing with her giraffe, and evening talking happily at one point.

I was worried she'd hate me.  I was worried that I'd scar her for life, making her scream like that and that all the bonding we've done her whole life would be washed away in one night.  Sleep deprivations causes me to fear the worst... I think it depends on the child and on what's bothering them.  In Anna's case, she's strong willed.  She needs clear boundaries or she will take advantage of them.

So after talking with her doctor, determining that there's nothing else wrong, she's just gotten into a bad habit, we said that last night we'd let her cry it out again if we needed to.  Hubby agreed and we went to bed expecting the worst. 

She got up once.  She fussed for 5 minutes (notice, I didn't say screamed!).  Then she played with her giraffe, laid down and fell asleep.  30 minutes after she woke up, she was sleeping soundly again.  She didn't get up again until 6:45 which is perfectly normal.

I know people feel strongly against letting them cry it out.  I'm not saying it's the best way, for me it was a last resort, that we desperately needed.  And after a praying a sleep-intention rosary last night while putting her to sleep, I felt at peace about sticking with my gut.  She woke up as happy as can be this morning, ready to love on her mom and dad.  She woke up without bags under her eyes which had become the norm.  And so did we.  Just in time for her 1 year pictures today. 

And as a reward?  Two Gee-Gees!  She pulled them both out of the dryer this morning...