Mr. Sandman, are you there?

I mentioned in my first blog that Linc and I don’t get much sleep. I know most of you say, well that is motherhood for you. Of course, if it was up to me we would all be getting 9+ hours of sleep at night. I know before I had Linc I would be in bed most nights by 9:15 and get up at 6am for work. And even then I would sometimes be tired. But now, I get about 6 or so hours of combined sleep if I am lucky. I say combined because my sleep is always interrupted. I get up with Linc an average of 3 times a night. And then I seem to be the only one that can get him back to sleep. There are two ways to get him back to sleep, nursing or patting him over my shoulder. The shoulder trick only works if I get to his room with in 30 seconds of the first cry; if I am late nursing is my next trick. We all know that a 13 month old baby does not need food in the middle of the night, so why does he wake up. Well I am pretty sure that is our fault. We never taught him how to soothe himself and fall asleep on his own. We have always had to aid him in falling asleep. Who knew that babies didn’t come out knowing how to sleep? I never though about learning to sleep, I always thought it just came natural. Just like breathing and opening your eyes. I guess the act of sleeping is natural, but getting to the point where you can sleep is not, I don’t know. Obviously falling asleep is a learned act.
So how did I let it get this bad? Well when he was born we did the whole bassinet thing and he would wake up every 1-2 hours like most newborns, right? Well then he just never seemed to grow out of waking up every 1-2 hours and he was 3+ months. So I started to move him into our bed because I was so dang tired and I was back at work, so I needed some type of sleep. That seemed to help a bit, now it was every 2-3 hours he would wake and I would just nurse him and he would be a sleep in 10-15 minutes. It would still take me an extra 10 or so minutes to fall back asleep, but it was much better. So then at about 6 months I was so tired and ready to try something else. In came the “Sleep Sense” by Dana Obleman. Essentially it turned out to be a cry it out method but the parent stays in the room while the child cries and until the child goes to sleep. Well the first night we tried it, he cried for an hour straight. We had to take off his clothes because he was so hot from crying. He finally fell asleep only to wake back up 30 mins later. We had to start all over again. That night he did sleep through the night, but was extra clingy and fussy the next day. We said we would try it again, so that night it was an hour and a half before he went down, then he woke up 10 mins later and would not go back to sleep, so we gave up this method. So we waited a month and tried something called “the no cry sleep method”. Needless to say it did not work either. Although this book did have some good concepts about not letting your child fall asleep nursing, that has not worked for us yet. Overall, I know I have not given either a fair chance to work, I think that is because the alternative is still better than having a screaming baby.
I am finally to the point again that I am ready to try something new. So while on search for how to get a baby to drink whole milk, because Linc refuses to do this as well, I stumbled across this banner for a DVD called the 3-Day Sleep Solution. It claims that you can get your sleep back in three days. I have no idea what kind of method it is, but I am ready for some help. I just have to be willing to accept the help, right? I think I am ready, I hope.
While I know that I am tired and it sucks, the person I am most worried about it Linc. I would say he gets about 8 hours of combined sleep a night, which is not enough for a 13 months old. I know that if he does not learn to sleep well now, he will always have issues falling asleep and I just don’t want that to be the case. I know that we will be a different family when we all sleep through the night. Oh and I just want to mention that Craig is involved in this, but since Linc won’t fall asleep with anyone but me right now, he is kind of helpless. So he helps in other ways and I appreciate that. I love him for all the things he can do for Linc and me!
I will let you all know how it goes once I get the DVDs. Wish us luck and for the sandman to finally visit our house!