My sleep angel has become such a needy “Christian the 2nd” ever since she had a fever and runny nose while teething. She used to be so good at falling asleep the minute we put her down. Is it inevitable that everything goes downhill once they derive comfort during the teething period / period when they are ill??
Sigh. Gone are the polite, gentle coughs which wake me up at night to feed. In its place are hysterical demanding shrieks which are loud enough to alarm the most restive ghouls at night. She has also taken to comfort feeding. I would offer her the boob, only for her to latch on and fall asleep within a minute. If I try to resist her cries for the human pacifier, she’d cry so piteously and I would relent upon hearing her “Meh meh maaa”.
It got so bad 2 nights ago that P described my ‘sleep’ as merely a ‘transitioning’ from night to day. I was telling him that I get so upset with her repeated awakenings and immediate demands for comfort, which lead me to sleep upside down on the bed and in all sorts of funny positions just so I can rest a bit. Nonetheless, seeing her smiles every morning releases all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings and the irritation of the night is instantly erased. He told me he could sense the venom in the middle of the night, and was slightly afraid for his daughter’s safety. Haha.
Anyway, I thought I ought to try something, and take action to change the situation. Introduced her to the pacifier again last night, thinking that she’s probably waking cos of itchy gums and perhaps chewing a pacifier might help. (I am usually against the use of a dummy but since breastfeeding is well-established already, and since she’s obviously not really requiring milk but comfort, I have no qualms in offering the pacifier in exchange for better sleep.)
Lo and behold, after all that internal justification (for departing from my principles), the princess decides that the pacifier is useless and rejects it. *sniff* I tried putting it in her mouth. She pushed it out with her tongue, explored it a little, decided to chew on the plastic portion instead, played a little with the handle and then threw it aside. I tried coaxing her to nibble / chew on it, but she kept spitting it out. I tried it about 15 times, until she started frowning and got pissed as if trying to tell me “I’m sleepy! I don’t want to play with this thing anymore!” SIGH.
Breaking the breast – sleep association is so difficult. I tried to put her on the bed and just pat her to sleep, but she keeps flipping over and propping herself up on her arms. She associates me with mum-mum, P with going for walks, and my maid with sleep. After 10 minutes of crying herself hoarse (I was thinking perhaps she might fall asleep after tiring herself out), my maid comes in and puts her to bed in 2 minutes simply by patting her buttock. >_< What are we going to do when Ida goes home in August??
Hope it works out soon! My youngest is still nursing. Getting him to end his very busy and exciting day tends to be a little bit difficult, but once he falls asleep, I'm all happy because he doesn't wake until morning now, no matter what noise there is around. *Whew*. So unlike his younger days.
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