End of my rope

[judecorp]

I don't know what to do.

Punk has never been a good sleeper but she has always gone down fairly easily with the occasional exception. Yes, she will wake up a number of times through the night but she could always be counted on to go to bed at bedtime and stay asleep for a while so things like dinner and chores could happen.

Not so anymore. Now she is absolutely refusing to go to sleep. If I do any of the usual things I would do to parent her to sleep (swaddle, rock, cuddle), she freaks out and squirms and yells and cries and only wants to do one thing: stand on my lap on the rocking chair so that she can try to grab things or look at things. If I put her down on the floor, she howls. If I put her in the crib and say night-night, she howls. If I walk out of the room, she will howl for as long as two hours.

The last couple of days, the only thing that will get her calm enough to sleep is if I give her milk in a bottle. We have not done milk in a bottle at bedtime for quite a while now and I /really/ don't want to backtrack, but the last couple of days I have not had an option. I work 9.5-10 hour days and I don't have the stamina to listen to hours of crying and I also do not want to be a jungle gym for hours for an exhausted baby who does not want to go to sleep.

I am so frustrated and spent. I really feel like whenever I think it can't get any worse, it does. Also, I feel like a major failure as a mama. I am just at the end of my rope.

Comments

[marlatiara.livejournal.com]

The only way Roo will sleep is in bed with me. End of story. She'll go down in her crib if Lance walks around with her for 20 minutes or more (and she may be skinny, but she's still getting heavy) - then she'll wake up about an hour later and yeah, co-sleeping. Which I DID NOT plan nor do I really want to keep doing. But do I shall. You are not a failure as a mama, it's just we gots these needy kids. I hear you. I have no answers. Bleh.

[marlatiara.livejournal.com]

PS I understand your issue with the bottle, but if I'm still nursing Roo then why can't you still give Punk a bottle? It's sort of the same thing, isn't it? (You can yell at me a lot if I'm off base with that statement...)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I don't really know if bottles and nursing are the same. I don't think they are. I mean, they serve a similar purpose but I never really hear about the benefits of "extended bottle use," KWIM?

[marlatiara.livejournal.com]

Totally understand - I also cut out bottles at a year (when I'm away now Roo gets a sippy cup with whole milk in it) so I get it. But I also think that if it is what works at night right now, then it is what works and you are a tired mama who needs her sleep. *hug*

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I'm cool with the co-sleeping but she still wakes up a lot even with the co-sleeping. (It just involves less hassle to get her back to sleep, heh.) I just can't handle the two hours to get her to sleep business, because I /need/ that time in the evenings.

[marlatiara.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm starting to have lots of people telling me that I need evening time too. I have never had it and it's like this mythical thing - Roo has never gone to sleep fully and completely for the night without me going to bed too. And Lance hates the extended singing/rocking time. I hear you. I have no answers. It's so hard.

[cider.livejournal.com]

I'm in your camp. Accidental cosleeper here, too. Argh.