If you give them an inch…

I think I mentioned that Sweet Baby hasn’t been sleeping through the night since he got sick. It started with him waking up at 4 a.m. instead of 5:30. He acted so hungry, I let him get by with it. And here’s what happens when you give a 7-month-old a chance to set his own body clock.

He started taking 2 1/2 hour morning naps again. This, of course, meant he wasn’t tired and didn’t take an afternoon nap. Not good. All of you mothers out there know what kind of crankiness ensues when a baby doesn’t have an afternoon nap. Their little heads spin around, their eyes glow red, and they make the most horrible whiny noise from dinnertime until they pass out at 7:00 p.m. It sounds like an ambulance siren, only more annoying.

THEN, If you wake them up at 9:00 p.m. to feed them, they’re too sleepy to eat, and of course, they wake up at 3:30 a.m. just DYING to eat.

Rinse, repeat.

I’ve been trying to break the cycle; I really have. This past week, I’ve been loading him up with food at dinnertime, hoping he wouldn’t wake up. Each day has gotten progressively worse. He would wake up at 4:10, then 3:30, and then last night he hit 2:45. That’s when I hit my breaking point. My little Sweet Baby did NOT need to eat. He needed to sleep and get rid of those morning naps. I went in after about 10 minutes of crying, and we had a discussion. My end of the discussion was casually explaining to him (while changing his wet diaper) that it was bedtime, not snacktime, and he needed to get a grip. His end of the discussion was hysterical screaming. I stuck a pacifier in his mouth and he shot me one of those puppy dog looks. Back to bed, pal.

At 3:05, silence. You know how you get those gut feelings, like–this is too easy. Yeah. I knew there was no way he was going to stay down for the night. No flipping way. The calm before the storm, that’s what it was. And sure enough, at 3:15, the screaming continued.

I think every parent hits their moment when they realize that the screaming really isn’t pain or hunger. It’s just a baby who is livid that his mother isn’t coming to feed him. He’s angry that here he is, ready to greet the day, and no one is going to play with him. And by God, he’s going to Make Them Suffer.

And I realized, that two hours of crying–in exchange for a better sleeping baby with healthier habits, was probably worth it. I have enough willpower to stand it. Last night, I was prepared to let him go as long as necessary. I went in at 3:35, put the pacifier back in his mouth, and let him hold my hand for a bit. Then I rubbed his head while he settled down. Last, I turned on his crib mobile music while he sent me accusing looks like: You don’t love me anymore. Why won’t you snuggle me? Don’t you know that I need you to go back to sleep?

I can’t remember what time I left his room. I think it might have been 3:45 or 4:00 a.m. But I didn’t feed him. And mercifully, that last time, he went back to sleep. Even at 5:15 when I woke him up to feed him, he was fairly sleepy and not 100% interested in nursing. In fact, after that, he wanted to sleep some more, so I put him back in the crib.

I think we’re on the right path. And though this last night was a doozy, I don’t regret letting him cry. Re-setting his body clock is far more important than a few tears, and in the end, having a happier kid is what it’s all about. :thumbsup:

(gratuitous kid photo–why is it that 4-year-old girls have the rattiest hair ever? The stuff is impossible to tame!)