Will she ever sleep?

This has been an insanely long week for Annabelle and I. She hasn’t wanted to sleep in her crib at all, she woke up about 30 min after I wrote my last post and refused to go back into her crib until tonight. Every time I get up off the rocker or start lowering her into her crib she would start screaming. On Wednesday night it was so bad that she didn’t even give me a minute before she started screaming. I decided that was the night to let her cry it out. Actually I didn’t really have a choice because I had to wash bottles and take a shower. I went in and checked on her after letting her cry for 7 minutes at a time and tried to soothe her but she was screaming again by the time I walked out the door. So I’d wash a bottle, come back in and start all over. We did this for about an hour and then Annabelle decided that if I wasn’t coming to get her she better come and get me, so she stood up and tried to climb out of the crib, and then she fell back down and smacked herself on the side of the crib. How do I know? I was watching her on the video monitor of course. So into the swing she went and she still cried the whole time but at least I got her bottles ready and myself a shower before giving in and putting her in bed with me.

On Thursday I decided to forgo zumba so I could rush to pick Annabelle up and come straight home in an attempt to get everything ready for the next day before bedtime. Thank goodness. It was about 30 minutes before it started all over again. By 9:30pm we were both asleep in my bed. I was ready to go to battle with her again tonight but she must have worn herself out the last few nights because she’s been sleeping for about 2 1/2 hrs now.

So the $1000 question: what is going on with my princes? Is it just separation anxiety? Was she teething really bad? Did something she ate make her not feel good? Maybe there’s a connection to something she ate that I didn’t notice before because she didn’t have any new foods for the past few days. What was different for her today? Well, she had breakfast later today, she was starving so she had lunch (she usually just has breakfast and dinner and bottles in between) and she had dinner about an hour later too, and she took a 3 hour nap. So which one of these variables was the magic one? or was she just wanting to be near mommy for a few days? I guess I’ll never know. But I do think it’s time to break our habit of letting her sleep with me after she wakes up for the first time. Did I say it’s time? I meant it’s time, soon. First let me wrap my head around it and read some books about sleeping babies to give me more time to procrastinate and then once I’ve thought long and hard about it, then I’ll start.

Like I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of letting her cry it out. The only reason I let her cry for so long on Wednesday was because I had no other choice. So thank you Tamara for the suggestion of the no cry sleep solution. It actually sounds like something I can do without having to go hide in the closet and cry. So of course now I have to go buy it and read it before I start. Oh, and then I have to pick a weekend to do it. Or maybe Thanksgiving break. Unless we go visit my family for Thanksgiving, then that won’t work. Maybe Christmas break? Surely I’ll break down before then and will need her to sleep through the night for my own sanity. Only time will tell.