It is so hard to help babies get the right amount of sleep. I always scoff at the dumb quizzes in parenting magazines: "Is Your Child Getting Enough Sleep?" As if some parent doesn't want their child to sleep? As if you're not already doing everything you can do to make that baby sleep? (Which you can't do, by the way. It doesn't work. I've spent lots of time trying.)
Amelie wakes up almost every morning at 5:30. Since Isaac wakes up with her, that makes him grumpy. She naps most days for 60 minutes. On the dot. (If I give her two naps, they are usually 30 minutes each. On the dot.) Since I'm with her all day, that makes me grumpy.
Earlier this week we decided to adjust our attitudes about Amelie's sleep. Instead of being annoyed each morning, we decided to simply accept that she wakes up at 5:30. Instead of wishing haplessly for longer naps, I simply accept that she only naps for 1 hour a day. That really helped - for a while.
The problem is that it's not really enough sleep for a baby. When she only naps for 1 hour, she wakes up cranky and stays exhausted and cranky by bedtime and can scarcely keep her eyes open. So good mothering (I think, I hope) means letting her scream and cry and learn how to put herself back to sleep. I hate that.
If only we only had to do this once for her to learn. If only there were easy rules and guidelines so we'd know exactly what to do. If only she could understand that we only want what is best for her.
She's been crying for 60 minutes. We'll see how long I last. Happy naptime, everyone!
2 comments:
This sounds crazy, but have you tried putting her to bed earlier? Until around 2, if our boys got to bed late they would be up early and take short naps the next day. I don't understand how it works, but it could be worth a try.
Hang in there though...you're being a good mommy doing what's best for her even though it's no fun!
It was the same with my kids. The less sleep they got, the worse naps they took...
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