From Self-Soother to Sleep-Depriver

It is shocking to me how different my kids are.

I used to be that mom who didn't understand why people couldn't let their babies cry it out. It annoyed me how there was a population of weak mothers that wouldn't allow their infants to self-soothe, choosing instead to deprive themselves of any decent sleep whatsoever.

You see, I did the whole cry-it-out thing with Wyatt, and it was easy. Yes, he cried... for 2.5 minutes and then would sleep for 12 hours straight. The kid also napped a minimum of 5-6 hours during the day. I remember laying him down in his crib, watching him roll over and say "nigh nigh". As I exited the room, I would smugly think to myself that those 2.5 minutes of whimpering were so worth it- I mean it produced the best sleeping baby in the entire world. If every new mom would just buck up and refrain from running into their child's nursery at so much of a sniffle, then there wouldn't be an issue of babies not sleeping throughout the night for no apparent reason.

Then, my darling daughter was born. She is now eight months old, and I am still rocking her to sleep- every night. We have tried putting her down drowsy, wide awake, swaddled, unswaddled, in a sleep sack, out of the sleep sack, with the soother on, with the soother off, with the sound machine, without the sound machine, lights on, lights off, lamp on, lamp off, night light, no night light. You get the picture.

The end result? The kid screams, and screams, and screams. Her face turns purple, snot pours out of her nose, she vomits, we start the process all over again. It's awesome.

Her naps suck too. I count myself lucky in she will go down for 30 minutes. I cannot for the life of me figure it out. Who wouldn't want to sleep?!?! I mean the only thing she is missing is watching me fold laundry or rather move the pile of laundry in an effort to get some shut eye.

The only thing that I have found that works is to rock, in the dark, with a paci held firmly in her mouth until she is in such a deep sleep that I can pray and wriggle and tip toe out of the blackness without her feeling her body leave mine. The whole process takes about 45 minutes, but she won't have it any other way. And, secretly, neither will I. No self-soothing for my girl- in fact, at this rate, I might be rocking her to sleep up until she leaves for college. Better enjoy it while I can :)