Returning to work = Bad Mommy!

That's how I'm feeling right now anyways. I'm not in a sulky, beat myself up kind of mood either!

Today as I was rocking my Monster to sleep for another night in a row, I flashed back to a memory when I could just lay Monster down into his crib, AWAKE, and he'd fall fast asleep on his own. I flashed back to a time when Monster didn't wake up each night been midnight and four in the morning and come to our bed so that everyone in the house can finish their nights sleep.

These facts make me feel like a bad mommy. I returned to work and sacrificed my consistency for sleep. I sacrificed my self-soothing Monster for a well rested feeling the next day at work. I told myself over Christmas time that I'd spend my time off sleep training so that we'd reverse this new habit and return to normal. I made an excuse for myself and my Monster over Christmas time because he was teething. I'm embarrassed to even admit all of this because of my fellow parents who read this.

I'm at a loss and don't even know where to go from here. Monster sleeps in his crib until his middle-of-the-night wake up, when instead of spending the time and effort rocking him or soothing or god forbid letting him cry I dutifully pick him up and bring him to bed with me.

I am a bad mommy whose laziness created a bedtime Monster.

Mommy in Denial!

This mommy has been in denial for about a month now. It's been a month since I returned to work and Hubbs took over my job as "Primary Daytime Care Giver" for our Monster.

My Monster has gone from a very near perfect little sleeper to a terrible sleeper in the blink of an eye. I don't know how it happened but I do have my suspicions. We went from an 8 month old who could put himself to sleep, and self soothe in the night to a 9 month old who has to be rocked to sleep and wakes up during the night. Ugh! I'm freaking out! I'm thinking it was caused by a desperate Hubbs trying to find his own daytime routine with Monster, or the fact that Monster wants to spend as much time with me while I'm home that he can.

Since Hubbs and I are both working full time and are full time parents when were off work we don't have the energy to fight with Monster and his terrible new sleep habits. I've resorted to bringing Monster to bed with me when he wakes in the night rather then interrupting my sleep completely why rocking him back to sleep. I will pause for the shocked cringing! I need sleep! I've started a new job, and need a well rested brain in order to learn my new routines and study for my licensing exam on January 5th.

I don't want to be a co-sleeping parent and I don't want my marital bed to become a family bed. That is why I'm dedicating my Christmas holidays to sleep training. I have 5 days off starting December 24th and I plan on righting this wrong before I create a total bedtime Toddler-Monster!

Now, I'll have to find the right technic for our family quick! Any suggestions for this naive mommy are more then welcomed!




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Seventh Month Review

Back when Monster was five months old I wrote a blog post regarding the fact that the 5th month of Monsters life so far had been my favorite.

Right now, I have decided that the 7th month has been the most trying. It really has nothing to do with Monster meeting and surpassing his infant milestones, or growing more and more into a little person but the fact that so far this month we've had a few interesting things to deal with.

Monsters first infant cold hit him early this month, and lasted for approximately a week. We spent that whole week with sleepless nights, sleepy days, and relieving his discomfort as best we could by saline rinses, steamy baths, and Vicks Vapo Rub.

Just when we began to get Monster back into his routine severe teething hit. Luckily teething comes and goes with him so he might have a bad couple of hours every few days. I can handle terrible infant teething because usually it just presses on my mommy patience during the day light hours. Like I said, teething is a Monster I can handle.... 

However an infant with an ear infection is a whole other ball game! Just when everything started to level out around here Monster was diagnosed with an infant ear infection and so far has been awake at least once every single night. It makes me really feel for the parents who have not had the opportunity to experience a full nights sleep since their infants were born. Monster started sleeping through the night by two months and never experienced the 4th month sleep regression. That means for the last 5ish months (at least) Hubbs and I have had any where from 6-12 hours per night of silence.

Oh how I wish for those days to return... Infant sleep training might be the next challenge on my plate, in order to get Monster back into his nighttime routine.