Tuesday, November 11, 2008

A Love/Hate Relationship

I can't tell if AK loves me or hates me.

She either loves me so much that she can't stand to be away from me; or hates me and wants to torture me with sleep deprivation.

She is a little over five months old and yet she refuses to sleep for more than four hours at a stretch. Occasionally we have a break-through for a night or two and I get all excited. I even refuse to blog about these little miracles for fear of jinxing myself. I shouldn't bother with the censorship.

Every night, like clockwork, AK falls asleep around 8:30. It doesn't matter if she woke up from a catnap at 8 or has been wide awake since 2, at 8:30 she conks out. This is when I think she loves me. Giving me some precious quiet time to fold laundry and make lunches without infants and toddlers under foot.

Except...

With few exceptions, every night, like clockwork, she wakes up at 12:15. And sometime in the three o'clock hour. And sometime in the 5-6 range. It doesn't matter if it is a weekday or weekend; a day I have to get up at 6:30 or that I am allowed to sleep in. This is when I think she must hate me.

Last night her sister got in on the act and at 2:45 began calling out "Daddy! Help me!" I realize that I am not Daddy, but apparently the Hoos can sleep through anything (he claims to be a light sleeper, but he is full of sh*t). I snuck into her room to find her hanging off the end of her bed. Her head is on her pillow which is resting on top of the diaper boxes we store there. Apparently she inched up her bed one inch too far. I pulled her back on to solid ground and tucked her back in. She then asked, "Sing me a song?"

Gawd, I love these little munchkins.

4 comments:

Robyn said...

Thank goodness they're cute, right?!

Bear didn't sleep through the night until 10 months old (waking up at the SAME time every night). But, I think if I had let him cry it out earlier (which, in the end, is what did the trick), he may have learned to go back to sleep without me.

(And, she LOVES you!)

Mrs. Booms said...

Like I always say, they're cute for a reason.

We ended up having to let Crazyman cry it out too, just like Robyn said.

I realize that if you're like me, you probably feel that 5 months is too early for that action though.

I waited until he was a year, I did the same with my daughter too. I figure they get a year and then they are done with middle-of-the-night mommy action.

Anonymous said...

felt your pain until 6 months+ w/Ez...weaned him by using the "take one to two minutes off of the feed each night" approach until you're down to nothing...after that, we'd let him cry and do 5 then 10 minute check-ins...it wasn't perfect but it did ultimately work. sending you hugs and energy : )
LN

Tiffany said...

I so know that feeling. I have been whispering to Lily as I put her down for the night "Sleep until 6am, you are a big girl, you don't need to wake up". So far it has not worked yet!!