Sleep Training Sucks

Sleep training sucks, it's awful, I hate it, ahhhh!!

We have been in sleeping hell recently. I won't go into the specifics, who wants to hear about that, but I will say that all aspects of Patrick's sleep (and unfortunately some issues with Ryan too) have been really bad. That means we are all tired, all stressed, and I'm desperate for a change.

Our days start between 4-5 am, and Patrick wants to be up for the day, doesn't he know mommy is not a morning person. Then Ryan is up by about 6:30.

Naps, what are naps?? No one gets to nap recently. Patrick takes forever to fall asleep and then his naps only last 20-30 minutes tops. I think we have been blessed with maybe 5 naps that are longer then a half an hour in his entire lap. Even in the car or a stroller, after 30 minutes the eyes pop open and the screams immediately start. I can sometimes get a little bit more if I am holding him in my arms... Which is impossible which a three year old (thank God for GiGi).

And at the same time, Ryan has suddenly decided he doesn't really want to nap. It's been a week or two of very short naps. I'm
Scared... It might be that time where the naps start to fizzle out! I'm not ready, make it stop. I was hoping for at least a few months when both Patrick and Ryan were taking an afternoon nap! It doesn't look like that dream us going to come true. Oh man.

Okay back to the baby. As if naps where not bad enough, night time is a nightmare. He can not settle himself to sleep at night. We officially started sleep training on July 12 (because he was waking up 5-6 times every night) and he has cried hysterically at bed time every single night since then. Once he finally gets himself settled (after what can be almost an hour) he then will normally sleep through til about 4 am... But that's still not consistent.

In addition to it being hell to listen to the baby cry so hard every night, and feeling helpless about it, the crying keeps Ryan awake. So we can't get Ryan settled to bed until after Patrick finally settled. And even that takes a while, Ryan then takes almost an hour to fall asleep and gets up to pee or poop multiple times each night before he actually falls asleep. We work hard at bedtime in this house.

Anyway, I have tried it all... Sound machine, go to bed drowsy but not asleep, giving him more to eat during the day, a steady bedtime routine, letting him cry it out, not responding when he wakes up in the middle of the night, not nursing him until close to 5 am... I'm feeling helpless.

I have started praying every night, one night things will change, one day he will take a real morning nap... One day! And for the first time I am considering hiring a sleep consultant. I'm desperate!

That's it for now. End of rant 😁 wish us luck!




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Location:Sleep training... SUCKS!

Happy 6 months to Patrick

I can't believe this milestone came so fast.  I blinked and he was 6 months old... as I type this, he is closer to his first birthday than to his birth.  Thats crazy talk!

This has been a great month, just like every month with this little guy.  He is such a happy baby and he loves to take in the world around him.  It doesn't take much to make him smile or to get him to giggle.  Here are the fun facts of 6 months:

-He is still 26 1/4 in long, no growth from last month.  But he is now 16 6/16 lbs.  That puts him at about 25-50%
-Still in size 2 diapers and clothes 3-6 months.
-He is still nursing well... only breast milk still. 
-We started solid foods.  I skipped the cereals because they are really void of any true nutrients and not really a necessity.  We started with peas and then 5 days later gave him sweet potatoes.  He really liked both of them and is having fun playing with the new foods.  For now I am making all of the baby food (I just use a good old fashion blender and ice cube trays to freeze individual servings).

-Not much interest in water yet.  He will have a couple ounces occasionally in a bottle, but doesn't really like it.
-Patrick is still rolling, but not often.  He only likes to roll when he has to, not just for fun.
-Big Milestone- he can sit on his own!  He is still a little wobbly, and I always stay near by, but he is officially sitting.
-His babbles are changing, he now says "dadada" frequently.
-He can blow bubble and make raspberry sounds with this mouth.
-He makes the silliest faces with his tongue and lips, its like he is exploring with the different faces he can make.
-When he smiles really big he has a little dimple in his right cheek.
-His new hair is starting to grow in.  The infant hair is dark brown, but the new hair is lighter.  I am not sure what color hair he will have.
-His eye color is frequently changing too.   Some days they are very brown, some times hazel or greenish. 
-He has the cutest perfect little baby face!
-His skin is so smooth and soft, I love baby skin.


Now onto the only bad think... his sleep!  His sleep habits are so bad and I have been really working so hard on it. Currently a normal day is this:

-Naps-  the goal is for a 9am, noon, and 3pm nap.  But his naps are still only 30 minutes exactly.  He has a hard time falling asleep and then wakes up at exactly 30 minutes every nap, every day.  If he is sleeping in someone arms (like when we are out at the beach or something like that), he will sleep closer to an hour, maybe even 90 minutes... but thats rare and obviously I don't want to get into that habit.

-Bedtime-  I think this part is even harder.  Bedtime routine starts about 6:30pm.  He is normally asleep by 7 ish.  But then from like 7:30-midnight he wakes up all of the time randomly.  He goes from sound asleep to screaming in about 2 seconds.  I don't feed him, and I try to let him settle himself, but he really doesn't.  We normally have to go up and rub his back or do a quick rock and lay him back down. 

Then he sleeps well from midnight through 4 am, and then the craziness happens again.  I won't nurse him til after 4 or 5 am, but then he wants to be up for the day.  He occasionally doses off but only like 20-30 minutes at a time. 

So sleep is limited right now.  I am trying to have a very set schedule and routine for him and stick to it (which is nearly impossible when he has someone new watching him every day during the week), but its just not working right now.  I did start official cry it out this weekend for bedtime and nap times, so right now life sucks.  He cries for  30 minutes, 40 minutes, even and hour... its so hard to listen to.  But cry it out over night or when Ryan is taking a nap is extra hard because now everyone is the house is away. 

I am praying that this issue starts to resolve itself.  I just feel bad because he is so restless and has such a hard time settling to sleep.  I feel so bad for him :(

But other than sleep-  he is my perfect little angel and we are all loving every minute of having him in our world.