Sleep in my life is a foreign term. I believe the last time I had a full night's sleep happened about 10 months ago.
My sweet little Jonas, for some reason or other, does not want to sleep through the night. I remember when he was about 4 months old, I was reading an article in babycenter about when babies begin sleeping through the night. It said that at about 6 months old, they do not need a late feeding, and that they will eventually sleep through the night. I, as a first-time mom, naive and all, believed that my gorgeous son would do as the article said. Well let me tell you, it has not happened yet. He awakes at about 12 a.m and 3-4 a.m. He still has a late night feeding, which I am trying to wean him from, but it is so hard to do because when you wake up from a blissful three hours of sleep at 4 in the morning, nursing him seems to me the easiest option.
We spoke to his pediatrician about it, and he told us, plain and simple, to let him cry it out. Well, that is easier said than done. He said most babies cry for a good half hour the first night. The next night there will be less crying and so on, until eventually Jonas will learn to fall asleep on his own. Jeremiah and I tried it one night. I think we only lasted about five minutes, and we went in and checked on him. We couldn't handle it. He sounded so sad and hurt because we weren't going in to check on him. Jonas has us trained, and he knows it.
I begin to think, well maybe he's in pain because he's teething or maybe he's hot. I just can't do it. Jeremiah can handle a little more crying than I can, but in the end we both give in.
I guess we'll continue to have sleepless nights with our little chubby chunker. I've done it for 10 months. What's a few more? I keep hoping that maybe tonight will be the night that he decides to stay asleep longer. I guess I'll have to wait and see.
