1.19.2009

Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This describes Jacob..during the day I have the most wonderful baby boy. He smiles a lot, coos a lot and even laughs some. He rests nicely in his swing and for the most part he has gotten over his aversion to riding in the car. He will nap several times a day..likes to play on the floor and is considering rolling over but has not committed to it yet. He even goes to bed fairly easily around the same time as the other children.

However, around 11pm he turns into the demon child....crying, screaming and not having any of being in his crib. He may sleep for hour spurts and wants to nurse constantly at night. Last night I actually got a 2 hour stretch..the longest in several nights. What is going on with this kid? Admittedly none of my kids have been great sleepers but he takes the cake. Up until he got his cold at Christmas he was going 7 or 8 hours..it's crazy..and hard...and frustrating. I keep thinking this too shall pass, it's a phase and he will sleep eventually but at 1am when a baby is screaming in your ear that's hard to remember...anyone have any suggestions or advice. Keep in mind he's still in our room (hopefully only for another 2 weeks though as we hope to start the work on the bonus room next week) so I'm not sure I can handle crying it out until he's in his own room.

2 comments:

Our4GreatKids said...

My little man could not sleep laying flat until he was 8 mos old b/c of reflux... it may even be possible for him to have reflux w/o the constant spit up. Does he sleep laying down during the day??? Good luck!!!

Jules said...

Idea #1: Shhh...don't tell: our boys were tummy sleepers and were MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better sleepers that way. There's evidently some kind of "angel" monitor now that will detect movement for you and will set off an alarm if they don't move for 30 seconds. Moving would include breathing.

Idea #2: Threaten to wake him up during the middle of the night for hours on end when he is a hibernating teenager!