10.17.2008

longest night

Last night rivaled the longest night of our parenting lives. Tobo, since we've been back from florida, has gotten in the habit of sleeping for 4 hours and then waking up every hour until finally I break down and take him into our bed at about 6am. I had hoped it was just part of the adjustment back to CO time, but by last night I was at the end of my rope. So, at about 1am I woke paul up and tapped out. I was just done. So, we started the long night of getting tobo use to daddy at night. This involved lots of fussing (new diaper, eating, more tylonel, etc) and eventually letting him cry it out for about 10 minutes around 2:45am. That was the longest 10 minutes of my life. I hated it. After 10 minutes, Paul went back and within about 5 minutes of soothing, tobo was finally a sleep. And then he slept for close to 5 hours. I think we've made good progress of getting him integrated with dad again. It breaks my heart to let him cry like that, but I can't keep the hours tobo's asking me too and not go loopy. We also think that he's getting himself up at night to practice rocking on hands and knees. I've heard of babies doing that sometimes when they are working on a new thing. They want to practice all night.

1 comment:

Amy said...

Wow. That absolutely stinks. Crying it out is hard. But if there's nothing wrong (new diaper, full belly, etc) then sometimes they just have to self-soothe. Our ped. recommended 20 min. before checking on Charlie again.

The other night I was exhausted and plopped him in the crib - we have no idea how long he cried because we both fell asleep. There comes a time when sleep will win.

Also wanted to mention that sweet and young as he is, he's totally manipulating you (and Charlie, us). If it worked for a few days, he will continue to do it. Good luck and here's what I keep thinking - He will not be in kindergarten still getting up at 3:30, so eventually he WILL start sleeping through.