Friday, May 9, 2008

Joke's on Mom

OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 7 months. The
first few months were great--I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime,
day or night. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been
trying to STTN (sleep through the night). At first, I thought it was just a
phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems
like it's pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 6 months.
Here's the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit.
Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep--they just don't need it
anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.
It goes like this: Night 1--cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding
yourself, it's for her own good.

Night 2--cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3--every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights.
Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These
Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I
cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep
through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW IT'S
HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change.
If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10
minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep.
Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10
hours straight, so I know she can do it.

Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to
it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up
with. My sleep sack tickled my foot. I felt a wrinkle under the
sheet. My mobile made a shadow on the wall. I burped, and it tasted like pears.
I hadn't eaten pears since lunch, what's up with that? The cat
said "meow". I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL.
Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the
monitor in the other room. Too hot, too cold, just right--doesn' t matter! Keep
crying!! It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my
goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in
order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks.

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you
suck on
them, no milk will come out. Trust me.

4 comments:

Morgan said...

that is so cute! little stinkers! ;)

Lei said...

I lvoe it! I'm going to link to it on my blog, if it's okay. :)

Sweetpea said...

That's hilarious. Seriously hilarious. Especially the P.S.

Heather said...

This is AWESOME! So, so clever. I think yours has been talking to mine. 16.5 months and still no STTN.