I have been lucky in that Annabelle has always been a pretty darn good sleeper. Once we figured out the whole napping situation every hour and a half as a newborn, we were golden with our little daily nap schedule, give or take the occasional hiccup. She was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks and in her own crib by 10 weeks. I got to the point where I could pretty much toss her over my shoulder into her crib and she’d land safely asleep and I’d walk out. Then around 9 months she suddenly started waking and standing up in her crib crying. This is when we had to employ the cry it out method, which worked for us. There seemed to be a new waking pattern that would pop up every few months and we’d do CIO again and boom, we were back to good. It’s no big deal to have a rough week when you just have one little toddler. You cave out of tiredness and let her sleep between mommy and daddy, and then you realize this is for the birds after a few days and say HI to CIO again. It’s fine.
BUT, what do you do when you are literally THREE WEEKS away from popping out baby #2 and your two year old is once again waking nightly at 3am? It’s not like CIO really works anymore because little miss can just hike her leg up and crawl out of her damn crib! In our case, Annabelle is now standing in front of her door trying to open it and crying because she doesn’t know how (The beauty of round doorknobs in our new house!). So we can’t leave her standing in her room until she stops crying. What’s she gonna do, curl up on the floor? Jeff has been on night patrol and he gets up and goes in her room to try and soothe her. I swear she has a radar on him, because she’ll sink into what seems like a deep sleep and he’ll tip toe out, only to have her wake and cry as soon as the door shuts behind him. UGH! So now he has begun just sleeping on her floor and she’s right down there with him on her plush shag rug. Then I go in there at 5am and lay her back in her crib and tell Jeff to go to bed. It’s to the point now where Jeff says goodnight to her followed by “See ya at 3am!” *sighs*
I read on Babycenter.com that it’s better to camp out in your toddler’s room in the middle of the night than to let them join you in your bed. The article also said one of the reasons for frequent waking’s could be that your toddler is likely growing an active imagination and could be experiencing nightmares. I’m imagining her dreaming about a giant clown floating over her crib. That’d freak me out, too. But I don’t think she’s really ever seen a clown, so it couldn’t be that. Who knows, but it’s freaking ANNOYING to deal with, especially considering the impending birth of our little boy in a few weeks. I’m going to have a bassinet in my room with a sleeping newborn, and the last thing I need is for Annabelle to wake and start crying at 3am and wake her brother. This cannot happen on a regular basis or else I’ll die a slow, sleepless death.
How do we get passed this? I’m open to any parenting tips you have on getting through the night with a toddler and newborn who both have a penchant for middle of the night crying fests. HELP!
Baby bump watch continues – week 37!
O-M-G, 3 weeks left! I think it’s finally starting to feel a little real now, ha! Why the hell is it taking me this long to realize I’m having a BABY?!?! Chalk it up to the baby #2 phenomenon, which means that baby #2 just gets the shaft in the child preparation department and over the moon excitement, let’s get real. I’ve finally decorated the nursery and it’s now about 90% done. I’ll take pics and share when I feel it’s complete. I had a little baby “sprinkle”/housewarming party this weekend and everyone seemed to love the nursery, which was nice. No airplanes or uber boyish decor, much to my dad’s dismay, but it’s def cute!
I’m proud to say I’m still making it to the gym two times per week; doing 30 minutes on the elliptical followed by 20 minutes of weightlifting. I felt an older man staring at me yesterday at the gym, and no, he wasn’t checking me out and undressing me with his eyes…at least I don’t think so. He eventually came over and congratulated me on still working out and told me he was just going to stand by and make sure my water doesn’t break. Don’t worry, he was a gym employee so it wasn’t 100% weird, but nonetheless, I found it annoying. I miss being stared at for all the right reasons, like being ogled at like I’m a piece of meat. Those were the days…