Sleep or the lack there of.

What is sleep? Where did it go? When did my baby become the baby that never sleeps through the night. We were so lucky the first three months of Fallon's life, she spoiled us by sleeping through the night. She has now gotten to the point where she wakes up multiple times a night to eat and to just whine. It has created two zombies in this household. We can't swaddle her like she wants in her crib because she rolls over and doesn't have her arms available to roll herself off of her stomach. Her amby bed is getting too small for her so we're at a crossroads. It's time to teach her to self soothe so that she can put herself back to sleep at night and to be able to sleep unswaddled. We'll try taking the white noise away at a different point when we get everything else fixed. So we have decided to try the Dr. Ferber "Cry it out" method because it teaches self soothing and we've tried all the other methods. She will not sleep in our bed even when we try to let her now so that's out of the running too.

It's so hard to sit and listen to your little one cry. It tears my heart out but she won't even try to crawl without crying because she gets frustrated and knows that if she whines or cries that mommy or daddy will come and pick her up or get the toy that's just out of reach. I feel that this "cry it out" method is what she needs to start gaining some self confidence that she can take that next step and try something new that her body has never done like crawling to the toy that is just out of reach or finding her pacifier in the crib and rolling back over to sleep. (dreaming on that note!)

Fallon did soothe herself to sleep yesterday while she was in her crib and slept for about a half hour. The rest of the day was a nightmare though. We kept trying to put her down for a nap unswaddled and she would cry her little heart out. So we are trying it again today. The drawback of this method is it starts to make me feel like a cold heartless mother to be able to sit here and listen to her cry but I know that she's okay. She's been fed and changed and is completely safe in her crib. If I get really unsure, I turn on the video monitor and know that she's doing just fine. Just to convince my mind and my heart that.

I have a huge support system of other mothers that had babies in March and they are all seeing the same symptoms with the sleep patterns as Fallon and it seems to be revolving around the first teeth! I hope that I can seriously fix this sleeping situation for Fallon's, David's, and my sanity.