We were so wrong.
 |
| This is not mellow |
After a few weeks, Lillian decided that she wouldn't sleep at night unless someone was holding her (preferably Mama). She sleeps pretty well during the day, conked out in her bouncy seat or swing. But around 7pm or so she starts waking up and demanding to be held. It's not that she is hungry or cold or dirty. Generally she calms down and falls back asleep as soon as she is snuggling with Emily. And it's not just that she needs a few minutes of that and then we can put her down again. She could be fast asleep in your arms, but when you try to lay her down in her cradle she immediately wakes up screaming as soon as her her back touches the mattress.
The thing that makes this even more challenging is that she really only wants to be held by Emily. Lillian will often tolerate me while I'm giving her a bottle, but other than that (and even in between sips from the bottle) she gets pretty upset that I'm holding her and not Emily. The only way I've been able to get her to not constantly scream while I have her is to carry her around (usually in a football hold), walking back and forth and bouncing. As soon as I stop moving - let alone sit down - she yells at me again.
But Emily can't just hold her all night, so we've started splitting the night up into two shifts. I stay up with Lillian until 12 or 1am, walking around the first floor and feeding her a bottle or two. Then I bring her upstairs, change her diaper and put her down to sleep. Within 5 minutes she inevitably starts crying, and Emily wakes up and brings her over to the big armchair in the bedroom where they both fall asleep (with some occasional nursing or projectile vomiting) until morning. It's not an ideal system, but it beats one or both of us staying up with her for the whole night.
We keep telling ourselves this is just a phase, and she'll settle down in a couple weeks. But we've been wrong before.
No comments:
Post a Comment