16.10.09
The horrifying lows, the dizzying heights.. and an update
The word that has been constantly on my brain the last few weeks? ROUTINE!
Shortly after my last post, things went very pear-shaped.. and I was reminded, once again, that with a child things never stay the same.
Micah had had his vaccinations, actually I’m not sure if that was the trigger, but it was around the same time and I needed something to blame. Suddenly the routine went out the window- Micah refused to sleep during the day. I kept everything else the same, feeds, solids, baths… but come bedtime, it was a fight.
Just to clarify: when I say ‘not sleeping’, I mean willful angry screaming when any attempt is made to put him to sleep, and constant whinging when I give up and let him stay up. This is hard to deal with on a good day. 2 weeks of it turned me into a quivering weepy wreck. It’s not just the sleeplessness, it’s the emotional toll, it’s having to hear your baby scream and cry and not knowing how to make it ok. It’s the fact that you can’t do anything! It’s the expectations that you give to yourself and fail to live up to, it’s the shame you feel when you admit your problems to someone else.
At the height of the woefulness I finally took action. I didn’t start enforcing a strict routine, call Tresillian or skip the country. I just sent some prayer request emails. That was actually a really hard thing to do, it felt like giving up. But later I realised it was something I should have done days ago… put my trust in God.
I sent those emails on a Tuesday. From the moment I did, I started feeling so much better. The dark cloud lifted.
We had a extremely busy weekend, and I knew that if things continued the way they were we were going to have to cancel altogether. But we didn’t have to. On Friday suddenly something clicked in Micah’s little brain and things were back to normal. God is good.
Since then things have gone from good to better. Not only has Micah started to sleep.. he’s started to have good long sleeps. Instead of 4 short sleeps he does two long sleeps. Our only challenge now is to get him to sleep in early evening. Evenings are still a bit of a battle where sleep is concerned – but I would prefer that to a week ago!
I should mention that throughout the whole fiasco that I was trying to keep up the encouragement to sleep through the night. And it’s paid off. We did it! No more 3am feeds!
And all this extra sleep makes for a happy chumbawumba.
