Imagine you are in bed, sound asleep, peacefully dreaming away. Suddenly, you are violently shaken awake by someone. They shout, "Wake up! Wake up!" They demand that you sit up in your bed, keep your eyes open, and stay like that for 20 minutes.After this rude awakening you fall back into a deep slumber, only to be startled awake two hours later. "Get up! Sit up and stay there until I tell you to go back to sleep!" So you sit up, trying desperately to keep your droopy eyelids from slamming shut. After the 20 minutes are up, you fall back asleep, knowing that it's only a matter of time before you have to endure this again.
Imagine this torture is repeated over and over again until morning. And imagine these nightly sessions are repeated night after night -- week after week -- for eight months straight. You are never permitted to enter that really deep sleep stage, you never feel well rested. Most mornings you can barely keep your eyes open. You are so tired that you sometimes cannot form simple sentences. You become forgetful, irritable, and foggy.
This is my nightly hell.Ok, so I've kind of brought it on myself. Kaylin doesn't need to eat every two hours anymore. But she wakes up and she doesn't yet know how to get herself back to sleep. The fastest way to get her back to sleep is to nurse her. So I do, and I'm paying the price.
But I can't take it anymore! In an effort to change it, I'm about to spend the next few weeks using the plan laid out in my book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution". I'm trying to stay away from the "let her cry herself to sleep" route. I know, if you have kids you're probably laughing at me right now. But I'm going to try. Wish me...yawwwwwwwn...luck!
4 comments:
Welcome to my world. It's not a pretty one, and I'm bloody tired, but it all works itself out in the end. Barely. You eventually will get more sleep. I can't tell you exactly when, but trust me it does come. In the meantime, call me. I truly truly truly understand your pain.
Based on that picture, it looks to me like my little neice sleeps like an angel.
Uncle Dennis
That's how they torture prisoners in Abu Grebe. It contravenes the Geneva Convention.
My heart goes out to you. I thank God that I'm not sharing your current hell, but I'm also smart enough to know it can hit our household at any time. I wish you luck, but if your plan doesn't work, try the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby".
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