Lana has always been not too thrilled with change. When we tried to transition her from bottles to sippy cups, it was a battle. She was so stubborn and dehydrated b/c she was going to prove to me that she would drink from a bottle or not at all. She is still so picky about sippy cups--she will only drink from the straw ones, no spouts.
Now we are embattled in sleep training, part II. Part I occurred when she was about 3-4 months old and we did CIO. It worked, but not in a week, like all the books said. It was more like a month or two, or something like that--I didn't blog back then, so I have no data except my foggy memory. When we transitioned Lana from the crib to the "big girl bed", she decided she did not dig sleeping by herself anymore and I made a HUGE mistake to lay down in the bed with her. Now I am screwed. I spend a large amount of time singing songs, reading one more book, holding hands, scratching backs. Its ridiculous. I never should have done it in the first place and now, months later, I am still here laying next to her wishing I could just give her a kiss and get out of there so I can maybe watch some tv or hang with Bill. Plus, I really hate cosleeping--she is a kicker and her bed is not as comfy as mine, plus I miss sleeping with my husband. A month ago, I told her that she is a big girl, big girls sleep by themselves, etc. and I lay on the floor next to her bed instead of in the bed. It went pretty well, so I moved outside of her room and lay in the hallway, where she could still see me. Then she got a cold and I was back in the bed with her giving comfort so we could all sleep. Then we traveled back east, so essentially I was back to square one. Now I am back to laying down in the hallway. I know so many kids who just get the big bed and climb right in, no problemo. They get the sippy cup and fine--no biggie. But not Lana. Bill thinks we should CIO again. We tried tonight and it lasted 2 minutes before she completely lost her mind (and her voice) and I ended up on the floor again in the hallway. My plan is that hopefully at some point she won't care if I am in the hall or not, but knowing her it won't happen--she will always be looking for me and we will have to CIO anyway. Please don't hammer me about CIO being evil and will ruin her, etc. I have heard it all before. Its not my favorite approach, but if the gentler approaches don't work, I have no other choices. This kid is never going to get a sibling if I am sleeping with her all the time, plus its just not good for our marriage. If you made it to the end of this post, thanks, I know its long and rambly, but I am feeling quite frustrated. There is nothing like a slow transitioner to make you feel inadequate. I just so miss the days where I could plop her in the crib and walk out.
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6 comments:
I'm sorry that you are going through this. Stubborn, persistant children can be a real challenge. If it makes you feel any better...Michael still gets a bottle. :0 He's still in his crib too.
You know, you've got to do, what you've got to do.
Hang in there. We always have to re-CIO with Alex when he has any disruption in his sleep situation (travel, teething, major illness). It has gotten harder as he is older, but I know we are doing the right thing for our family. My thought it always to minimize the amount of crying, which is why we CIO.
But I hear you on stubbornness. When we first CIO at 6 months, it took Nate 6 weeks. Every night I felt like crying and giving in and the only thing that stopped me was utter sleep deprivation. Between the two of them they were getting up 15+ times a night!!!
I am so, so sorry. :( My new puppy Charlie is making me crazy too because he has severe separation anxiety and every time I leave the house, he rips up the carpet down to the baseboards. It makes me so sad. Oh children! :)
((Hugs to you!!)) Like Joanna said, You've gotta do what you gotta do. I think it's better to deal with it now than later.
This is one reason that J is still in the crib--we're too chicken about The Big Change and I keep envisioning either him waking up every hour or wandering around the house at night while we're asleep LOL.
And we finally (fingers crossed) kicked the binky habit 2 days ago. For the 4th time.
No arguments from me about CIO - it saved our sanity when we finally did it with our son at 6 months.
We are moving our son to a big boy bed (tonight - eek!), and I'm hoping we don't end up right back at that desperation point. All my digits are crossed right now. I don't want to have to CIO again, because it's just so much harder the older they get, isn't it? When we did CIO at 6 months, my son couldn't sit up in his crib, much less stand, and he certainly couldn't talk to us. I dread the things he will do once loose in his room, and the ways he could torture us with words if we do have to CIO. Sigh.
Good luck to you, I hope you find success in this!!
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