**AnyaBella**

murphysmom

Hi there -

 I just want to tell you, you are not alone. HUGE HUGE hugs to you At 8 months, my DS was the worst sleeper. We were up MULTIPLE times a night feeding, rocking, walking, pleading with him to sleep. We were so regimented with a routine and bath, books, bed and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I found myself in your same shoes thinking "What the heck am I doing wrong when all my friends can get their kids to sleep with no problem?" I think the hardest thing to come to terms with for me is that sleep just doesn't come naturally to some kids and that you have to help them.

While I know that you are at 8 months (and you feel like you might lose your mind soon) I promise you that things do get better. At 11 months, we decided to do CIO, it almost destroyed me at first, but it seemed to stick. Not always and not immediately, but in a way, I felt like maybe that's what my DS was asking for. Obviously I don't know if you are on the CIO train or not, it took me a while to hop on, but in the end, I know that he slept better for it. That being said, we still battle often with sleep. It's just different now. He started climbing out of his crib and started with the toddler bed, he is transitioning to one nap a day, and we have a little power struggle going on.

Honestly, I say do whatever you can to get you and your DS some sleep right now, He will mature and you will know when it's time to take a stand (in whatever way you feel comfortable) The hardest time to try to institute something new for us was when we (my DH and I) were already just getting by on fumes.

Anyway, this is super long. But I just wanted you to 1) not beat yourself up about this, you are awesome 2) know that you are doing the best you can and that your DS knows that too and 3) know that it's possible that you will always have a challenge with sleeping at your house (as we know) but I assure you, it WILL get better.

 

AnyaBella

Thank you so much! It's always nice to know I'm not alone. So many of the moms in my mom group just look at me like I have an alien baby when I talk about his sleep problems and then tell me that I need to try something I've already tried. It's very hard to see other people having such a relatively easy time with their baby's sleep.

We've only sort of tried CIO.  I haven't actually read Ferber (that is next on my list), but out of desperation we have let him cry. It's heartbreaking and I never ever thought I would do it. Maybe it's because I haven't read the book but so far what we've tried hasn't worked at all. He just becomes more and more hysterical. He doesn't stop crying.

I feel like if I was better rested I would be able to approach this more logically, but since I'm running on fumes it's difficult to see the situation clearly. It's a vicious cycle. Sometime I joke that DS will probably always have sleep problems but hopefully when he's 30 he won't be bothering me with them.