In my last post, I wrote about how easy it was when it comes to feeding Elyssa. I do count my lucky stars since I know that feeding can be a big problem for other mummies. But I guess we all have our own problems. My main headache is getting Elyssa to sleep.
These days, I need to spend 1.5 to 2 hours every night just to make her sleep! It can get really frustrating. I normally take her upstairs around 9 plus, turn on light music, let her wind down a little, let her drink her milk then switch off the lights. At this stage, she'll usually rub her eyes which is a sign that she's sleepy. Unfortunately sleep doesn't come easy. Instead of lying down, she'll sit up and play with my belly button. If I try to put her into a lying position, she'll cry. If I try to cover my belly button, she'll cry. So I just lie down next to her pretending to be asleep while she continue to play, play, play with my belly button.
She'll do that until she gets really tired and then plop herself to a lying position. Once she's in a lying position, I'll either pat her while saying "shhhh shhh shhhh" or continue to pretend to sleep. Quite often, after 5 minutes of patting, she'll almost drift off to dreamland but then suddenly SIT up again. If I'm lucky, she'll lie down soon after, but if not, she'll start the belly button routine again. Aaarghhh!!!!
That long grandmother story above is just "Phase 1" of the sleeping process. There's actually 2 more phases.
Phase 2 - Once she falls asleep, I need to delicately extricate myself away from her. Half the time, she wakes up. If she does, I need to "get back into position" and pat her back to sleep.
Phase 3 - Once I successfully extricate myself, I still need to transfer her to the baby cot. (She fell off the bed last month, so I don't want another incident). This used to be an ok phase but for the past few weeks, she woke up again almost every single time. Aaarghhhh!!!
So every night, I go through Phase 1, 2 and 3 godness how many times. Once, after I failed to complete Phase 3 twice (with multiple attempts at Phase 1 and Phase 2), I got so frustrated that I decided to let her cry in the baby cot. My goodness.... she stood up immediately and started screaming away. Scream, scream, scream for ages. She even stomped her feet so much until her pants dropped down!!
*SIGH*, some days I wish I can just spike her milk to make her sleep. The days that hubby tried to help, she screamed the moment I leave the room. So I have to be the one to go through the process every night.
Sleeping has been a regular problem with Elyssa (with various degrees of difficulty), but I do hope that this very difficult phase will pass soon.
Erin's Ticker
Elyssa's Ticker
12 comments:
probable make her do some activities before go to sleep i.e. let her utilise her energy to the maximum then easy to get into sleep....the sleeping time may not be too close just after the nap...probably 4 -5 hours....
Poor mummy got to go through so many phase....slowly la...Elyssa will find her own pattern to sleep soon.
oh poor mommy. i understand what you are going through because ashley was like this too. does elyssa nap a lot during the day? i let ashley skipped one nap so that she would go to sleep real fast at night :)
I think it's just a phase. Hang in there ya. It shall pass.
I totally understand the frustration you are going through. Last time my girl was like this too. Hang in there...this phase will go by soon.
ssighh... she bully you lar. my boy is relatively easier to put to sleep, sometimes i do that, sometimes hubby, sometimes the maid. but during the night, it must be ME. he wakes so often, and dun really drink a lot... if i'm working i think i'd be dead by now. no fun waking up 3-5 times every nite! not that he's playful, he cries a bit when he stirs, and sometimes more...
how abt u try to bring elyssa into the room later when she's REALLY tired?
i've been having a similar problem with keira just recently. takes one hour for her to fall asleep, but luckily she plays in her cot and just wants me to be in the room with her. so i read a book. but tonight i deliberately let her sleep later. 10pm instead of 9pm, and she fell asleep within 10 minutes.
also i don't let her nap past 4.30pm to make sure she's tired by 10pm.
and i thought i'm the ONLY mummy having this problem with my daughter...*sigh*
my cheeky daughter also refuses to sleep after we switched off the lights and TV...sometimes demanding this and that somemore..and still walking/climbing up and down!
STRESSED!
when i lack of sleep, i feel aggitated the next morning!
so if she cries, we just let it be and let her cries her lungs out...then she will be tired and goes to sleep...that's when me and hubby managed to sleep...
at last!
Adrine, we are using Canon 350D.
My boy sometimes take up to 2 hrs to fall asleep at night. That's y I try not to let him nap past 5:30pm. His usual bedtime is 10+. Hope this phase will pass soon. It will, trust me. :)
THANKS mummies for your comments. I've learned one very important thing which is the too much napping part. She used to have a short nap between 5.30 -6.00pm. It's the same routine since she was a baby. We tried removing that nap last time, but she got so sleepy and cranky after 6pm that we gave up.
But the past week, we tried removing the 5.30 nap again. Still a little cranky at night, but better than last time and also getting better day-by-day. Best part is that the night time sleeping is MUCH better now. Yay !!!!! :)
adrine, i was about to post about this same frustration too, getting jayden to sleep every night is a nightmare! He will cry and scream too when we put him to sleep, he obviously is sleepy... rubbing eyes, cant stand properly, no balance etc... i think he's just too playful... but anyway i will try to cut his evening nap to 30 mins if possible, good tip, thanks all mummies!!
and adrine, glad that elyssa's sleeping pattern is much better now!
btw, what is the model number of ur faber oven? :)
Hi Kristie, the model number is FEO40.
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