on being right...

My baby is screaming bloody murder right now, for no apparent reason. He is supposed to be sleeping, but he is not. He also only took an hour and a half nap today instead of the normal 3 hour one. I think he is exhausted and therefor beside himself.

Something you should know about my child is that he is not one to be coddled or snuggled. He does not want help being put to sleep but rather to be left alone. This is great on a normal night but on those off nights when he has trouble sleeping it is not, because he thinks that he wants help getting to sleep and yet he REFUSES to let you at the same time. It can be very confusing and aggravating.

This is how it usually goes. You hear the child scream so your natural instinct is to run into the room and snatch him from his bed. This will (and has many times) turned out badly. Because he then thinks that you are there to stay... forever, even though he really needs you to leave so he can get to sleep, and he SCREAMS when you try and sneak out after attempting and failing to help him sleep. Confusing...yes. Frustrating...yes! Especially at 3am.

So what to do? Well you let him cry for a minute and usually he goes right back to sleep. If that doesn't work you go in make sure nothing is wrong give him his binkie and say "go to sleep" and leave. This will work only if done properly and quickly. It is all business, you DO NOT pick him up or pat his back or give any indication of staying. He occasionally will let out a cry in protest when you exit and you wait 5 min (watch a clock and make sure it 5 because 1 minute can seem like 10 when you are listening to your baby scream). GO back in repeat the above and leave. In the early days of this method you double the time you wait before going back in until the child falls asleep on their own. Usually we don't go in more than twice. It works like a charm. Except when you don't follow it precisely.

We put our child to sleep at 8:20. At 9:00 he started screaming. He cried for a little while and then my husband said he would go in. I repeated the above rules to him because he is known to cheat. He went in and when he left the screaming began again. He can downstairs but almost immediately turned to go back up. I told him to not go back in, he had just barely left, I told him it would go badly if he went back in and if he tried to put him to sleep it would only get worse. But he didn't listen. At 9:05 he entered the baby's room all was quiet until 9:15 when my husband decided that it wasn't working and was tired of trying. The above bloody murder screaming then ensued. As my husband came back downstairs he seemed tensed for the lecture he was sure to receive from me about how I was right wasn't I. But I am tired and not wanting to start a fight I held my tongue. At 9:25 (with no one in the room) there was silence.

I am being a good wife and not rubbing it in but just for the record...

 I was right.