CIO

Yea it is 2:16 in th emorning. Cugli and I have had enough. Peanut refuses to sleep through the night, and we can't take it anymore. We are terrible parents I know, and we cried it out with our older daughter, but this one just won't give. She is so persistant, that this is our 3rd go round of giving this a shot and Mommy and Daddy cracking.

With Sugar Bean, it seemed so easy. (Part of that could be because Cugli handled it as I offered him moral support while sleeping on the couch. Thanks babe!) It took 3 nights all together, and she slept like a champ. We would put her to sleep while still awake and she would play with her fingers and toes until she lulled herself to sleep. She still is a great sleeper. She will come tell us if she is ready for a nap a little earlier than normal, and treats goodnight kisses, like her Victory lap. She runs to bed at night yelling through the house Goodnight...Bye...Goodnight! And once in bed she goes right to sleep with no fuss. Not to rub it in, but she also sleeps until at least 8:00 every morning.

We attributed much of this amazingness to crying it out with her. However, now that we are working things out with baby number two, I am not so sure. Peanut goes down great every night. The issues usually begin about 4 hours later. It does not make any difference what time she goes to bed it is always about 4 hours later that she wakes up screaming. I worried at first that she was just hungry, but we are now feeding her nearly a full 8 oz. of oatmeal formula before putting her down.

I think the thing I struggle with most is not that she is not currently sleeping through the night, it is that she is getting progressively worse at it. At first, I would give in to the 4 hour later feeding, and then she developed a 3:00 feeding. It did not matter if she ate only an hour prior, she is like clockwork, and would be up at 3:00 on the nose. Now she has also developed a new desired feeding time for 5:30 and the worst part of all is that she was sleeping through the night until about 2 months ago.

She started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks old. No tears, no issues, just a great nights sleep. She then developed a cold. He cough would wake her up at night, and so like the terrible mother I am...I would go coddle her or feed her back to sleep. Now I could shoot myself in the foot. As much as I felt bad for her poor little cough, I have now ruined her sleep habits and it is like a downward spiral. She is tired because she is not sleeping, which makes it harder for her to get to sleep, so she gets more tired and so on.

I am not sure what to do with her. I just want the poor baby to get some rest, and to enjoy night time the way her sister does. What am I doing wrong!!!!????

UPDATE - I evidentally wrote too soon. Tonight, we only endured one wake up and it only took her about 20 minutes to get to sleep. Maybe this time is the charm!?!?