As many of you know I have been battling some serious sleep issues in this house. When Max was a newborn I had never experienced such sleep deprivation in my life. for the first 10 weeks of his wee life he got up every hour through the night. As you all know from a few months back at that time I gave up on breast feeding and thought switching to formula would make the difference but it didn't and I was unhappy with our new situation. I switched back to breast feeding and to my surprise he started sleeping through the night. This lasted about a month. At which time, Mr Max started getting up for a couple feeds at night.
Since Max started getting up for night feeds, he has been totally unpredictable. He usually fed twice but sometimes he would feed more. I read books and discussed sleep training with other parents and eventually decided that I would not be doing any sleep training. I would give my sweet baby boy his night feeds as long as he needed them. I was functioning fine with a few nightly interruptions and I had been told that he would eventually just not need them. I was going to let him be my baby as long as he needed.
About 2 weeks ago, everything changed. We now know that everything changed when we took the guest bed out of Max's room and replaced it with a glider. He started getting up more than usual but still not enough for me to change my mind about sleep training. I read a book called Sleep Sense and bought Max a special lovey for his bed and started waiting a few minutes before going to see him at night, I even tried giving him formula before bed. I was going to try and help him cut out his night feeds without cutting him off cold turkey. However, things have progressively gotten worse and everything i thought I knew has gone out the window.
Max cut a tooth 2 weeks ago. He had a terrible night and woke up with a tooth. since then he has gotten up every hour for the entire night. I put him down between 7 and 8 and he is awake again starting at 9:45. When Anna cut her first tooth she went from sleeping through the night to getting up multiple times a night for four months until we finally let her Cry it out. But the difference between Anna and Max is that Anna was easily changed. One tooth and she got up at the same time every single night until One night of crying and she never got us up at night again. Max, on the other had, is so unpredictable. So again, i decided I would wait it out. He had to get over it soon. I have since learned that they may not be as different as i thought. Max had created a habit. Sometimes He doesn't even want to eat, he simply wants to be rocked in his new glider.
In the past week, I have had some of the worst nights ever. I have kicked guy out of bed so max could sleep with me, I have tried Camilia for his teeth, Hydrasense for his stuffy nose, Advil for whatever it is suppose to do. One night max stayed awake until 3 am and then when he finally fell asleep it only lasted 1.5 hours before he was a screaming mess.
So this is where I must decide; to Cry or Not to Sleep! Max has always known how to put himself to sleep. He has always gone to bed at night and at nap awake and always fell asleep peacefully on his own. So I know he can do it. Last night I was out when Max woke for the first time at 10pm. Guy tried consoling him but eventually he left him and hopped in the shower. By the time he got out, Max was asleep again. Hmmmm....maybe this can be done. We next heard from Max at 1am and I decided to give it a try. he put himself back to sleep in less than half an hour before so lets see what happens. So Please, hold your judgement and don't hate me, but Max cried for over an hour. I went in and soothed him (without picking him up), gave him a soother and told him how much i loved him and how sorry I was but he did put himself back to sleep and he slept till 5am at which point I happily nursed him and rocked him.
So there you have it. When it comes to parenting, nothing is cut and dry or black and white. Much like with a birth plans, things can change and throw a wrench in your perfect plans. Not to say listening to Max cry was easy, it was very hard to know how unhappy my baby boy was so lets just hope that Mr Max is as easily trained as Anna.
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