Sleeptime = FAIL

Last night bedtime went great. Dahlia was in a great mood, had a fun bath, read 3 stories & off to bed. Steve & I were both in bed by 9:30 - a full night's sleep awaited us.

Until I had to keep getting up to pee (3 times before 3am - ARGH). Then I started coughing. Awesome. And then at 3 Dahlia woke up & started yelling for me. I was determined to NOT bring her into bed with me. We tried some water, cajoling, cuddling, talking to, explaining, rocking, singing, milk & finally I gave in. I was so mad at myself for doing it but I also NEED to get some sleep so I can kick this stupid cold. So around 4:15-4:30 or so we snuggled & she slept great. I finally slept too.

When I was getting her dressed this morning I tried to reiterate that TONIGHT she will sleep ALL NIGHT in her own crib. She repeated it back to me, but I'm doubtful whether or not she gets it.

Comments

Kate said…
My brother and his wife are doing the co-sleeping thing with the baby. I don't think you need to beat yourself up with bringing her to your bed. You do what works so you can get some rest. Right?
10:36 AM
Anonymous said…
You could try to let her cry it out. Hard when she is that age, but once the baby comes you might be up with both of them!
12:42 PM
MamaD4 said…
My sister is having the same sort of thing going on with her 3-year-old. He'll go down O.K., but he inevitably gets up in the middle of the night, upset and ends up either in their bed with them or one of them gets into his bed with him. She beats herself up too for putting up with it, but she's in the same position (albeit not pregnant!) as you, she needs some sleep and it's the lesser of two evils.

It's so tough, I know it. Have you tried CIO? It seems so harsh, I had a hard time doing it with Josiah, but it did work and it only took about three nights. Of pure hell, but then he slept.

Supernanny always says not to communicate with them after you've put them down, if they get up to just silently put them back in bed and go out. Over and over until they get the picture that they aren't going to get any reaction or interaction and give up. I've watched shows where the parents do it for two or three hours, but it always seems to work like a charm.

OK, lots of advice from an (almost) stranger!
1:09 PM
Test said…
Interesting... we had the same thing with Claire last night. She has a cold and would not let me leave her room without having a complete and total freaking melt down. I finally caved and pulled her into bed.

Urgh.
1:23 PM
J. said…
I have really treated Maddy as the second chance.....2 is not 1 and I swear that I am going to keep Maddy in her crib until she is at least 3 even if I have to put the tent on top of the crib. I never go no matter what (OK you can always tell if it is an emergency cry or a fussy one). This comes from experiencing 2 years of Benjy waking in the middle of the night and screaming.
Here's a question - I am always surprised by how many people have little ones in their bed at night, myself included in this group - what did our parents do? I don't remember ever getting to sleep with them?
6:25 PM
Anonymous said…
I agree with J. We don't EVER go in unless I can tell something is wrong. This came after 22 months of getting up EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT. We didn't bring her to bed, but instead I would rock her the rest of the night. Equally as bad.
8:25 PM
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