The crying game

Two weeks ago, the three of us (DH, Lily and me) went to a friend’s house for dinner. I assumed Lily would sleep in the car (as she usually does) but since we picked up friends on the way, she got way too excited to fall asleep.

So by the time dinner was ready, she started acting all grizzly. Arched back. Fists clenched. Legs kicking. And then I knew it was to late….

Out came a huge, loud, monstrous SCREAM!

Who would have thought such a cute little person could produce such an awful noise?

I ended up pushing her in the pram trying to desperately get her to sleep but after an hour she was still screaming. She was overtired and therefore frustrated and fed up. So unfortunately we had to leave early.

I decided that night that I could not rely on the fitball, the pram or driving around in the car to get Lily to stop crying and fall asleep anymore. Not only were these techniques not practical for the long-term, but I also wanted to somehow teach Lily to fall asleep on her own.

So for the past 2 weeks, I’ve been putting Lily on a routine and getting her to self-settle as much as possible. I’ve also been trying to read her ‘tired’ cues a lot earlier so she doesn’t get to point when she is overtired and starts screaming.

Based on friends’ advice I tried the ‘leaving her to cry technique’  first – but we didn’t last longer than a day. I know so many people who swear by this technique but personally I found this a nightmare. I wanted to decrease the crying, not increase it…and we both just ended up being very miserable.

So the next day I decided to still put her in the cot to sleep but if she started crying I would pick her up and put her back down when she had calmed down. So after 23 times of picking her up and putting her down again she finally went to bed!

So as you can imagine, it’s been an exhausting 2 weeks. But it’s all worth it.

She is in bed by 8.00pm every night and wakes up at 6.30am in the morning. And believe me, we have both came out a lot happier after this experience – it’a amazing what a good night sleep does for you!