My little girl Edie was a champion sleeper for the first 6 weeks of her life. She even slept through the night a few times. Then at 6 weeks (exactly) colic hit. She began crying all the time. I think she had some major gas issues going on because of the milk I was drinking and at around 3 months I cut all dairy out of my diet (not an easy task for someone who is SOOOO addicted to everything cow). This helped immensely! She stopped crying during the day and began sleeping a little better at night. But her night wakings still occurred. She would still wake up screaming in pain, or drawing her knees up to her chest, or farting so loud I was surprised it wasnt Scott. So I kept her in my bed (something I never did with Gabe) and I dont think it was the wrong decision, at all, except now I'm at the point where the gas is reduced quite a bit and she's still waking every hour to suckle; which in itself isnt unusual but she wont take a soother!
So now i'm reading up on a million different ways to get your child to sleep better and I have discovered that babies have 45 minutes sleep cycles. At around the 45 minute mark they leave deep sleep and enter light rem sleep. Those babies who are especially high needs can wake up and need a bit of help to get back to sleep. Well thats great to know but it doesn't do a damn thing to help me! I just can't take it anymore, so im resorting to the one thing I wanted to avoid...slow weaning to the bottle. Thankfully, she doesn't reject the bottle like she does the soother so now Im getting her used to using it, and when she's old enough to hold it herself I will be putting it in the crib with her! I KNOW. Apparently a bad idea. "Bad for the teeth, bad for teaching them how to sleep, bad, bad, bad". Except she doesnt sleep without my boob in her mouth so what the hell is the difference? I'll tell you what the difference is. I get to sleep. I get to wake refreshed and be the mother I want to be. So I'm sorry Edie. But I think weaning you off the bottle is going to be a hell of a lot easier than weaning you off the need to suckle yourself back to sleep at night.
And anyone out there want to criticize me for my bottle use can take Edie for the night. Seriously. Take her. Then talk to me about the Ferber method, or the "no tears method", or the miracle method created in ancient sumaria. I'm done. Screw all the doctors, they dont know shit until they've had a baby like Edie.
So little one, get used to using a bottle here and there because when you hit a year I think I will be fully weaning you. I need to sleep too!
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