Sometimes when we put her to bed she'll play for a bit, then fuss around for a bit, but she'll always fall asleep without actual crying. Last night was different. As soon as I heard the actual bawling, I knew it was because she had figured out that she could stand up even before the sleeping had happened. I went in to lay her back down. She was SO excited to see me! Cute girl, but then she cried even harder when she realized that I was only there to lay her back down. I told her goodnight, gave her a kiss and a quick hug, then laid her down again. She popped right back up. I left the room for a few minutes to give her some time to try and figure it out again, and to consult with hubs to see what he thought we should do. We were both at a loss, because well, she does need to figure out how to get back down from standing up - but was bed time (and last night was a bit later than usual because we were running errands) the best time to teach her? Not to mention the fact that our way of teaching for this time was to just let her figure it out? I ended up going in 2 or 3 more times, each time the same thing : she'd get excited, then mad when I just laid her down. One of the times, i brought her into our bedroom to hang out and she LOVED that, but it most likely just made it even more confusing and hard on her when I had to just lay her down after she'd gotten her self standing again instead of bringing her in to hang out with us. She cried even harder. I stayed in with her for a few minutes the last two times, rubbing her back and singing her songs- which helped calm her down and she even seemed like she had fallen asleep but as soon as I lifted my hand and turned to walk away she started screaming and stood up again. I decided to nurse her since it had been an hour or two since the original bed time, and this time I stayed with her for more than enough time to make sure she was all calmed down, found her thumb, and was breathing steadily. She was thankfully tired enough to not try and stand up again - but went to sleep. Poor baby girl!
Today, during her second nap, a similar thing happened, except this time I decided I'd stay in her room after laying her down and she'd stood up again - pretending to take a nap next to the crib. She thought itwas pretty funny and was just standing there trying to get my attention. If I looked at her to see what she was doing, she was usually looking right at me, and upon seeing me look back at her she'd start to giggle. I laid her down again, said it's night night time, and left. She went to sleep that time.
And then there was tonight.
We went to dinner with Robert and Casey, and admittedly, Brooklin was probably ready for bed about the time our food came. So we kept her up about an hour longer than she probably wanted, but she was behaving well- mostly because she loves when we're out and about, it's just too exciting to see knew things I guess! We got home and bathed her, Trenton lotion-ed, dressed and read to her, I fed her and then put her down. I left the room without her screaming, and even settled in the living room where they were waiting to pick a game. She lasted about 10 or 15 minutes before she realized she couldn't get down from standing up ( she must have waited until I left to stand, because I really thought she had fallen asleep) and started crying. This was at about 8:30. I told myself that I wouldn't go in to her this time at all, I'd just let her cry it out even if that meant she'd just fallen down from her muscles not being able to support her standing anymore. I made it until about 9 and then I started re-negotiating. Casey and I both thought that it sounded like she had sat down for a little bit. Her crying was definitely different when she was standing up, but after 10:10 when they left, Trenton and I decided that if she was still crying at 10:30, two hours after she had started to cry, I'd nurse her and lay her down and then deal with the screaming and laying down and screaming and laying down etc etc. Well, her crying became more and more desperate, and after praying I realized I should see what the sleep program had to say, if anything, about this standing up and not being able to get back down thing.
It did.
It said to go and check on her every 20 minutes, helping her to lay back down each time. My heart broke when I read this. We had just let her stand there (I'm pretty sure she stood there the whole time, I saw her fall once today while I was "napping" with her but it scared her and she stood right back up) for TWO HOURS! Poor baby girl!! I went right in to her after reading that, and she was SO exhausted that she didn't even cling to my arms like she had during nap time and last night when I grabbed her to lower her onto her tummy - so I decided to skip the nursing and just laid her right down. She bawled for less than 30 seconds and fell right asleep.
I feel just horrible. I can't sleep. Trenton fell asleep pretty much just with the minute after Brooklin did (which is good since he has a test to take tomorrow - woo hoo)
Mostly I just want to know if anyone has any good tips about how to teach a baby how to get back on the ground from standing up? I've tried bribing her with her favorite snacks or toys, but she just stays standing. I guess she'll figure it out when she's ready to, but it's so sad to have to let her cry like that - even know that I know to go in every 20 minutes - I hope she learns to get back down sooooon!
4 comments:
I can totally emphathize with you! We had some big sleep battles with Elise. I tried letting her cry it out when she was about 9 months but I realized I wasn't ready to deal with it and then did it again later around 12 months and it was 2 nights of sadness and she has been a great sleeper since then, but it is one of the hardest things a parent will ever have to do.
As for the standing up, I have never had to deal with that so I have no first hand knowledge but the first thing that came to my mind was to hold onto her hands and lower her down to a sitting position so she sees how to do it but still has your hands for support while she is getting comfortable with the idea...again, no idea if it will actually work but that's what came to mind.
Maybe google has something to say about it. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
Hey Jami! I don't have any advice, but I do remember trying to condition the kids for nap time, and there were a couple of weeks where Julia cried for an hour straight before falling asleep, and I felt so bad I just sat in the other room and cried too! Good luck--I'm sure you'll figure it out. And woohoo for the meal/chore chart! That's a great idea--I do a weekly meal planner, but I never thought of a chore planner--I'll have to try it.
Oh how sad! I hope that she figures it out soon.
I have never heard of that before. But I guess it makes sense. My kids just fall. Good luck. She is so cute.
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