A few nights ago Charlotte slept for 6 uninterrupted hours. We both woke up and thought for sure that my mom or someone had fed her and put her back to sleep, but she had slept the whole time. I thought this might be a turning point. Perhaps we had finally reached a happy place where we could all finally sleep! She is almost 9 months old after all, this should have been the case awhile ago.
Sadly the next night she was up all night with a fever. I took her to her pediatrician who told us she had a sore throat and we just had to wait it out. We managed to survive the nights by taking sleep shifts with her. She wouldn't sleep unless she was being held.
Yesterday her fever had broken and she seemed to be much happier. I figured that since she was feeling better she could sleep in her crib - I don't want her getting into the habit of thinking she needs to be held the entire time she sleeps. I managed to get her down around 10:30 and got her in her crib at 11. Surely this was success! We went to bed and sure enough, she woke up around 1. I went out to nurse her right away thinking it would calm her back to sleep and I could put her in her crib. Not so. She would relax and doze the second I picked her up, but the second I even started to put her down she'd start screaming. And this isn't just your run of the mill grunting snorting protest, this is full on ear-piercing shrieking like I'm stabbing her in the leg with a knife screaming.
After about 30 minutes of picking her up to calm her down and then putting her back down again, I finally couldn't take it anymore. When someone screams in my face, no matter who they are, it starts to fray my nerves. I decided to let her scream it out. Surely then she'd wear herself out and sleep on her own. The problem is that this kid doesn't give up. After about 40 minutes of shrieking at the top of her lungs I tried sleeping with her. Eventually Paul had to go deal with her because I'm apparently a milk cow and this is very distracting when you're a baby trying to sleep.
Charlottes well baby visit is in about two weeks. Hopefully I can discuss her issues then. I wish that nights like we had last night were just because she's been sick, but my going to bed well after 2am after hours of struggling to get her to sleep is pretty normal. Its especially frustrating when I hear other moms say that their babies sleep not just through the night, but for 10 or 11 hours! What is wrong with my child that I can't get her to do this?!
I was warned when I was pregnant that I would lose sleep. I just had no idea it would be this ridiculous.
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