10/22/2009

My Dilemma

If Isabel goes to bed peacefully between 7:30 and 8:00 with the other kids (like she did the last two nights), then she wakes up at 3:30 am and goes right back to sleep after I feed her. (I tried letting her cry for a bit to see if she'd go back to sleep, but no luck.) I really enjoy having some down time in the evenings, but I really don't like the 3:30 wake up call.

If Isabel screams her head off like she did most evenings before these last two (from 8:30/9:00 until 10-10:30), then she sleeps until 6:15. That is fabulous, but the late evenings can be a bit stressful.

I contemplated waking her up last night around 9:00, just to let her scream it out, but I was hopeful that she would sleep through the night. (We do feed her at 10:00 pm but she barely wakes up for that.) However, after two nights of the same thing happening, I figure I have a decision to make: either suck up the 3:30 feedings for a while or wake her up and deal with screaming for an hour or so at night before I go to bed.

Any thoughts?

3 comments:

Jennifer Clark said...

I would always take waking up in the middle of the night over an hour of screaming, but that's also probably because all I heard was screaming and I couldn't take anymore! It's no fun to wake up in the middle of the night, but you can always try to think positively and realize that you get to go back to bed for ___ hours!

The Rakows said...

I agree with your friend Jen...
the crying would rip out my heart... :(
What I also did, successfully, with K was a "top off feeding" when I went to bed... wake her a bit (tickling feet, change her diaper, etc.)...feed her for a little bit, even if you have to keep stimulating her to eat...and that should sustain her for awhile longer than an early morning wake up call... :)
I did the early morning feedings for awhile and LOVED this time in the middle of the night with Katherine... It was the most precious time...
But, I also didn't have two other little cherubs who needed me at a certain hour of the morning... :)

...and hooray for her to sleep like a champ right now! :)

AO said...

Oh man do I wish I had a book of sleep answers. I was doing a certain 3:30/4 a.m. feeding until the Tzarina was practically a toddler, probably too long. ;) But it was so worth going from 9p.m.ish til then for that long stretch.