a friend sent this to me, and i got a kick out of it -
Dear Fellow Babies,
OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 5 months. The first few months were great - I
cried,
she picked me up and fed me, anytime, around the clock. Then something
happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep
thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only
getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like its
pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 5-6 months. Here's
the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit.
Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep - they just don't need it
anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.
It goes like this:
Night 1 - cry every 3 hours until you get
fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your Mommy upset over your
crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.
Night 2 - cry every 2 hours until you get fed.
Night 3 - every hour.
Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and
may
resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for
hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough:
CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just
once, she will expect it every night. I know it's hard! But she really
does not need the sleep; she is just resisting the change.. If you have
an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes,
just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep.
Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for
10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.
The other night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I
cried for any reason I could come up with:
-My sleep sack tickled my foot.
-I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.
-My mobile made a shadow on the wall.
-I burped, and it tasted like rice cereal. I hadn't eaten rice cereal since breakfast, what's up with that?
-The dog said "ruff". I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL.
-Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room.
-Too hot, too cold, just right - doesn't matter! Keep crying!!
-I had drooled so much my sheets were damp and I didn't like it touching me.
-I decided I was sick of all the pink in my room so I cried.
It
took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal
is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in
order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks.
Sometimes my Mommy will call for reinforcements by sending in Daddy.
Don't worry Daddies are not set up for not needing sleep the way
Mommies are. They can only handle a few pats and shhing before they
declare defeat and send in the Mommy.
Also, be wary of the sleep sheep with rain noises. I like to give
Mommy false hope that listening to the rain puts me to sleep sometimes I
pretend to close my eyes and be asleep and then wait until I know Mommy
is settling back to sleep to spring a surprise cry attack. If she
doesn't get to me fast enough I follow up with my fake cough and gag
noise that always has her running to the crib. At some point I am
positive she will start to realize that she really doesn't really need
sleep.
P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out.
Trust me.
Sincerely,
Baby
Re: another funny
haha, the whole this was funny. But this:
was always an issue at our house during months ~5-7 since I did all the nighttime stuff up to that point (at 6mo Jack began the night in his room). At about 7mo. Jack decided he liked night sleep too and just stays asleep all night in his own room. Although, for 3 or so bad days last month this paragraph could have been written about me, except I wouldn't even get out of bed. I just hit a wall. I just said I can't and refused to get up - bad mommy! DH stepped up, phew).
This killed me - I SWEAR my kids have bed radar. The second I'm getting back into bed, that's when it starts up again! Doesn't matter if I go there right away, go to the bathroom first, or try to fake them out by standing in the hall (yes, I've done this
).
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Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
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