We've Created a Monster

This is day one of undoing what we have done.  We've created a sleep monster.  I thought this couldn't happen to me because I have heard all of the "studies" or thoughts on this and thought I would be able to be consistent and mindful of this, but we just went to our baby when he needed us like all good parents do and without thinking and without even knowing it, it happened.  Conrad has the bad habit of needing us in order to sleep and to fall back to sleep.

I have been very mindful lately of the creation of bad habits and trying to put him in his crib for naps and putting him in his bed after reading and eating his night time bottle and slightly before he is really fully asleep so he will earn to fall asleep there.  I have gotten up and woken Kris when he has fallen asleep rocking Conrad telling him we can't let him get used to sleeping in daddy's arms in the chair, so how did he get used to just that?

I had thought maybe it was teething, i felt a little sharpness on his upper gum, but after last night now I am not so sure and am pretty convinced it is a bad habit and it is our fault.

Let me preface this by saying Conrad has been pretty sick so we had him sleeping in his cradle bed that is at an incline and when they are sick all night bets are off, so I am pretty sure that is what really set this off, but it was coming, it had to have been.  For the past several nights Conrad has consistently woken up like clockwork just about every hour.  We put him down at 7pm with a full tummy of 4 to 6 ounces if milk a couple bedtime stories and a little rocking.  Put him in his crib and he is super tired and goes right to sleep.  But at 8 almost on the dot he wakes and cries, we have always waited for him to cry and not gone in with just every stir, but he cries like he needs something, we go in and give him his pacifier and he immediately nuzzles his head back down and drifts off, then again awake at 9, same routine, pacifier and back to sleep then at 10 maybe 10:30 he wakes, this time just giving the pacifier doesn't cut it, we rock him and he will go back to sleep, but put him back in his crib and no way instantly awake and screaming.  We can't hold him all night, he also will be in such a fit and the only thing that seems to calm him is another bottle, can he really already be hungry?  But put him down and awake! Once we finally get him to sleep (maybe in someones arms or after some pretty heavy fussing and a lot of frustration) he sleeps until 2am and it is the pacifier routine again, 3am and he wants another bottle, NOW. Then he only sleeps until about 5:30 and he wants up so we entertain him while we get ready for work and he naps as soon as we get in the car.

We can't get up every hour any more.  I am losing it with frustration, why is he doing this?  So I cried, thought it was a tooth and felt bad for being so upset.  Last night I gave him some Orajel when he first woke, he still woke an hour later, a little Tylenol, nope still woke and I wanted to try not giving him the bottle, he just screamed in my ear as I tried to soothe him with rocking.  Put him down and cries again, it is not his teeth, or not just his teeth. He needs to be sleep trained.

So we decided not to go to him.  We put him down and let him cry, what choice did we have.  We listened to him cry for at least an hour.  Midnight now, gave him a bottle in his bed so we didn't have to move him and thank goodness with all the fussing he went back to sleep.  We asked ourselves what do we do when he wakes at 3?  Fortunately he didn't.  He slept until 5, Kris fed him again and he went back to bed until about 7:30 when I was about to have to get him up to leave.  So we decided, touch love.  Tonight we wont go to him, he will cry, a lot, but we wont go to him.  We will feed him at what time we aren't certain yet but we will worry about weaning away from eating so often after we tackle the going to him for the pacifier and soothing and him sleeping in our arms first.  I thought a week of this horror, my doctor told me about three weeks this morning.  Three weeks, I don't know if I have the strength.  Kris is bringing me ear plugs - if I know he is crying they wont help me sleep, but maybe I won't cry along with him.

I'll keep you posted on how this goes.