Ugh, see... this is why I never post. You guys have so many new posts in this board and I feel like I am wasting your time. Sorry!
Last night was awful, the worst we have had in a long time. He was cranky and whiny by 4pm, but we stuck it through and he went down at 7:30. Who knows how the night would have gone if his stupid, stupid fan (white noise) hadn't broken at midnight. Of course it didn't break by dying... it broke by squeaking and squealing loudly. I lay there for a few minutes trying to figure out what the heck the sound was and then ran in to turn it off. He wasn't crying but as soon as I turned it off I heard "Mommy? Hug?" from the crib. Gave him a hug, tucked him back in, and left. About 10 minutes later the whining started. I figured ok, fair enough, he is used to sleeping with a fan and may want/need that noise. So I went in and fumbled around turning on his ceiling fan, and of course I screwed it up and turned on the overhead light. Got that fixed, and realized that the fan was nearly silent and wasn't going to do any good. I was fumbling around in the dark (note to self: buy a nightlight for that room) trying to turn on his radio to static when DH came in to "help". I love that man, but I was angry that he came in. Nathan immediately starting crying for his daddy and hugs, so I soothed him again while Scott fixed the radio properly since he knows how to use it better than me. I also medicated Nathan with pain meds then, just in case. DH went back to bed and I proceeded to do WI/WO with a now OS and wide awake Nathan for another 30 minutes. He really was freaking out, so I was going in every 20 seconds to comfort him and leave again. After about 30 min he calmed down so I went back to bed, but lay there until 2:30am (yes, 2-freakin'-30 AM) listening to him fussing and whining and mantra crying, trying to go back to sleep. Now DH and I are usually ones, I admit, to run in right away at night and put him back to sleep. With #2 on the way, though, I really want to work on this and increase his abilities to self sooth at night. I mean, half the time he just needs lovey or to be tucked back in. So I lay there and listened. DH and I had a fight in whispers about him coming into the room to do the radio when he knows that is a no-no if I am already in there, and why I am not going in to resettle Nathan immediately like I usually do (DH is so anti-CC/CIO that it has become a bit of an extreme; he won't even let him cry.)
Anyway, at 2:30 (after 2.5 hrs total) Nathan started crying in earnest so I gave in and went in with milk. I am mad at myself for that, because we don't feed NW around here anymore. But I was so tired and needed to sleep that I did what I knew would work (and would have worked that whole time, to be honest) so I gave him the warm milk and sat beside the crib while he drank it and tucked him in AGAIN afterwards. That worked and we all went to sleep until he woke us up at 7:10 (unheard of).
Sorry about the novel. I am a wreck this morning. I am tired and mad that #2 is coming and I didn't get him to settle himself but had to feed him. DS is in a fantastic mood, tearing around the house and playing. I am sitting here with my stupid half-decaf trying to figure out if both of us will last even 6hrs until naptime. I am glad that he slept in, but I know it was just because of sheer exhaustion from that NW.
So my plan is, I think, to keep him up for 6.5 hrs but watch him carefully for signs that he needs to go down at 6 hrs. Because he slept in he has made up some of that missing night sleep, so he isn't OT; he should be fine for 6.5 hrs I think. I won't let him sleep longer than 2 hrs though, and we will do a slightly pushed out bedtime of 7:45/8:00 (depending on how the nap does go).
All because of that stupid STUPID fan. Oh well, at least he didn't get up at 5:00. And I am definitely napping when he does. Of course, DH and I chose to stay up until 11pm last night watching a movie.
