"Those" Nights

When you hear a mother say, "we had one of those nights", you know what they're talking about. Lots of crying (and not always just from the baby) & very little sleep.

We've been having them again . . . sorta.

Once we got over that 4 month sleep regression, it was smooth sailing. We had even been getting 11 hour stretches. It was wonderful! I could sleep in till 8, make my breakfast & enjoy some quiet time before Shaylin would wake up.

But for the past month or so she's been waking at night. But not every night. She might wake up one night at 2am & then we'll have 3 or 4 nights where she sleeps for 9 hours straight. Other nights it's 11pm. Last night it was 5:15am. She's not consistent.

Some nights I've nursed her, which she takes but it seems to be more for comfort than food.

Some nights I can run in there real quick, give her the pacifier, & she'll go right back to sleep.

But then there are the nights where nothing settles her. So I try the cry-it-out method. I'll wait 5 minutes, go check on her, & leave. Then it's 7 minutes. Then 10. Then 15. You would think at some point she'd pass out from exhaustion but she keeps on screaming.

After about an hour of her screaming I give up & rock her to sleep. She settles right down but then I can only lay her down when she's completely asleep.

So now I've had some nights when she starts screaming like that where I go ahead & pick her up & rock her. I know they say to not give in because babies need to learn to soothe themselves. But if all she's going to do is scream, why wait an hour & lose more sleep when I can do the same thing in 5 minutes & get back to sleep?

The bigger question for me is why she keeps waking up like this? I know she's not hungry. She is teething so that's not helping. I've been giving her Tylenol or Motrin before she goes to bed, like last night, but she still woke up. But again, it's not every night.

I guess it could always be the 8 month sleep regression that she hit early.

Whatever it is, I hope it passes soon.