We’ve tried everything. And, one glorious night, we thought we had it licked.
See, on some nights, our son can be a bit of a light sleeper and, on that wonderful evening, he made it all the way through without a peep. So, the next day, we recalled, almost to the exact number of pieces of wheat bread, what Ollie had done. It had come down to: an early-ish dinner, an earlier-than-usual bath, some mellow reading time and a few extra ounces of what we call “moo milk.” We figured that the cow’s milk may have had something to do with it. But we weren’t discounting the rest, either. We’ve been in a good routine, but we thought we had hit paydirt.
So, the next night, we did almost the exact same thing. Dinner was of the early-bird variety. The bath seemed to slow things down. We read. We all drank milk (I had some chocolate with mine). And then, it was off to an early bedtime. Two hours later, I hit the sack.
20 seconds later, the boy woke up.
We gave it a little time until he stared right in to the monitor camera on his crib. Crying.
All of that “exhaustive” research. All of the observations. All of the well-planned, well-intentioned and what we thought was well-thought-out went right out the window.
But, that’s OK. Because I was able to rock him down again — three times that night.
Most parents are resigned to the fact that there will be some sleepless nights. Whether it’s a one-year-old or a teenager, we know that we all signed up for it — and it can be the very best job we could have ever asked for. Sure, I could use a few extra hours of sleep, but I look at it this way: when he wakes up at night, it’s another chance for me to hold my child and spend some time with him — even if he is in a quasi-dreamland.
At some point, he’ll sleep through consistently. Most nights, he does pretty well — maybe up once — so these little meltdowns are fairly rare. All we can do as parents is do our best to develop a routine and keep trying.
In the meantime, I’ll keep sneaking in a few naps here and there.
You don’t want to hear what I’m going to say next, I’m sure. And feel free to disregard it.
Let him cry.
I could share some of the suggestions that worked for us – but only if you’re interested. It involved 2 nights on a cold wooden floor being boring and completely uninteresting. It also involved sticking one hand into the crib so he could hold it while he wailed.
And it worked. Without lifetime trauma for either one of us, no less….
Oh yes, we’ll take any and all suggestions.
I’ve been meaning to try the hand in the crib thing. I’ll give that a go for sure.
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