One of the most challenging aspects of our lives this week or so has been getting Margaret to sleep. Frequently, now, Margaret simply will find a need to scream for forty five minutes or so before falling asleep. Often, even if she does sleep, it is fitful and she easily wakes.
This impacts our lives in two ways. First, a baby screaming at full volume for that long, especially your baby, wears on one's consciousness, and makes one feel helpless. Also, it impacts our own ability to sleep which tends to compound problems.
Unfortunately, this is simply where she is in her development and is completely normal for a baby of this age. We're following the book and just hoping that we get through this "stage" (apparently, this behavior peaks at 6 weeks) in one piece.
This dynamic in our lives has made us especially excited when she DOES go to sleep. We get very excited and it has been known for us to do silent little dances around the house. SAM once even come out of the bedroom, silently shut the door, pointed to herself and whispered forcefully, "I WIN!"
I hadn't seen it as a competition up to this point, but could definitely see where she was coming from.
What has made it especially challenging is that what works to put her out isn't necessarily consistent. One day it's singing, another it's forceful patting on her back, yet another, it's the white noise we play over the stereo in her room. Sometimes, nothing works and you simply pick her up to check her diaper and when you put her back down, she falls instantly to sleep.
Essentially, we're not sure what puts her to sleep, so we cycle through everything we know that's worked in the past and see what works.
Tonight was interesting however. We've known for awhile that babies are able to soothe themselves by either touching their own faces with their hands or sucking on their fingers or hands. Margaret isn't yet able to get her hands in her mouth yet, but we've experimented with swaddling her with her hands partly out so that she's able to feel her fists. It hasn't proven effective.
Today, however, completely accidentally, we managed this.
This, if we can ever manage it again, is the perfect solution. It allows her to suck on her fists or turn her head away from it if she wants.
For awhile, she actually sucked on her fingers and hands between screams. We were very excited and hope that this might be a way to get her to self-soothe without the need for a pacifier.
Ultimately, however, this time, the hand wasn't enough. She sucked on it for about five minutes, turned her head away and kept screaming.
What worked?
We sang a Russian folk song, "Katyusha" to her until she fell asleep while pressing firmly on her chest.
Gotta' love that SAM speaks Russian. It's given us one more weapon in the arsenal to try now.
Oh, and the title today is a lyric from the song. Translated: Oh, you song, you little song of a girl.
We do love her so much.
1 comment:
Love the Russian!! I thought there was a mistake at first.
You are really in it these days. The only consolation is that this stage truly doesn't last- if you can just live through the screams that you can't fix. That's the worst part.
And then we, the voyeurs, see a healthy, thriving, beautiful baby who looks more cherubic by the second. She obviously isn't being permanently marred by these fussy times.
Hang in there! :-) M/R
PS Do you want me to bring any of your Russian music with me?
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