I posted last night's scoop about the paci some time around 9:30, at which time, all was well. But, the storm was brewing under the surface, and it all erupted around 10:30. Meagan had been sound asleep from about 9:00 until 10:30, when she woke up hysterical. I think she woke up because she was coughing, but it doesn't matter WHY she woke up - just that she DID. It was all over from there. For the next 5 1/2 hours, she screamed almost non-stop. She was going full force for a while. Then she got exhausted, at which point she would fall asleep mid-scream. But the sleep never lasted more than a minute, which was about how long it took for her to start 'sucking' in her sleep, and realize she didn't have her paci, then the screaming started all over again.
I tried EVERYTHING I could think of. I stayed firm with her for a while - kept putting her back in bed every time she got up. Didn't talk to her. Didn't touch her (other than to put her back in bed). But she kept coming in and waking Lucas up, or her brothers occasionally. Finally, I thought, well, maybe if I laid in there with her it would comfort her. NOPE. NOT AT ALL. Well, that's not exactly true. She did fall asleep once sitting up on my lap (which means I was also sitting up - in the middle of her bed with nothing to rest against - at 2:00 in the morning - obviously could not be a permanent position for the remainder of the night.) Once she had been quiet for about 10 minutes (or what felt like ETERNITY because my back was quite uncomfortable), I took a change and laid her down (because, like I said, I couldn't sit there like that for the rest of the night). WRONG thing to do! The screaming started all over again within seconds. Nothing else I did had any ounce of a calming effect on her.
Somewhere around 3:30, I was desperate for just a few minutes of sleep. So desperate, in fact, that I found myself out in the van looking for her illusive purple paci (the same one she mentioned that I posted about yesterday). In my state of weakness and exhaustion, I thought up a tricky plan - LOL! I was going to wait until she fell asleep mid-scream, then slip the paci in her mouth, so she wouldn't know she had it, but so she could stay asleep long enough to get into a deep sleep...pretty tricky huh? But, I couldn't find the silly thing ANYWHERE! So I just had to let her scream it out.
I'm not sure when it was that she finally fell asleep because I think I crashed way before she did. When I checked on her this morning though, she was sprawled out on her back in the middle of her floor. Clearly it was a rough night for her.
Nap time, once she settled down and actually laid still, was great - no screaming and yelling, and she slept for 2 1/2 hours. Hoping tonight goes more nap time than like last night. (I might be raising the most determine and persistent child God ever created. We'll see how long it takes her to accept her new-found paci separation.)
2 comments:
I am so sorry to hear about your night. I am been there more times that I would like to track. Not necessarily for the paci (it actually went well seperating it from Andrew - AJ might be a whole other issue...he LOVES that thing), but for sickness or whatever. It's awful. Hopefully had a low key day today and can sleep well tonight.
Oh man!!! But from what I've heard about your baby girl, I'm not surprised. She sounds very determined in EVERYTHING she does! Does it make you feel better to do know that MANY parents deal with the same thing? Working with babies, we get the chance to be with them as their parents try to break them of the paci. It can be quite "interesting" to say the least!
And no pics of you, Fawne and Shanda??? Oh man. I'm so disappointing! I'll see Fawne this weekend and tell her you said HI!
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