Wednesday, October 29, 2008

How could anyone hate sleep so much?

I just have to blow off some steam. This last week has been both wonderful and ever so frustrating. When Sam is awake he has been so good and happy and just as cute as ever, his personality shining through more and more each day! But for some reason he has decided this last week that he HATES sleep! He always seems to be going through some sort of stage with his sleeping schedule but he usually, for the most part, does pretty well. He usually goes down really well for his one afternoon nap and then goes down REALLY well once it's his bedtime at night. He knows when it's time and some of the time would even ask for "night night" before I would offer.
Well for some reason that has changed and I am just hoping it's a stage. He now screams bloody murder every time I try to put him down. It doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, how tired he is, whether it's for nap or bedtime, etc. And the frustrating thing is he will act ready like he always does, and when I lay him down he even closes his eyes as if he is going to accept it, like usual, but then as soon as I leave the room the screaming starts. And it doesn't stop. He will scream and scream for about an hour before he finally falls asleep but in-between that time he will start dozing off because he is so tired, but he fights it with every ounce of his control.
And worse, he's been waking up in the middle of the night, a few times a night, doing the same thing and it doesn't matter what I do, I can't get him to go back to bed peacefully. So Dave and I lose sleep, laying there for a couple hours here and there throughout the night listening to him screaming until he cries himself back to sleep. I was laying in bed last night, listening to the shrieking, trying as hard as I could to breathe evenly and not go a-wall. It drives me absolutely insane (mostly at that time - the middle of the night when I am laying in bed exhausted) that he is so tired, needs to sleep, there is nothing wrong (that I know of), he doesn't need or want anything, but he wont sleep! He acts as though I am torturing him by trying to make him sleep!
I don't understand what has changed and there are times I think maybe it's because he is teething, but if that were the case, why would be usually be perfectly fine once he's up? Hopefully this doesn't last too much longer....who knows...maybe my patience is being tested and I am failing miserably. So, for the sake of my sanity, if anyone has any helpful advice it'd be greatly appreciated!

6 comments:

Melissa said...

My kids both did this, Raegan recently. Luckily she has GREAT language skills and she told me she was scared. I think all the Halloween stuff makes her scared and she has nightmares.

nickndest said...

I think all kids go through this. I would get so sick of him being tired during the day that I would cheat and take him for a car ride so that he would fall asleep.

Melissa said...

Raegan is pretty much doing it now, or at least off and on the past couple of months. So She is just barely 2, but Carsen was about 18-20 months when he went through it. I just would reassure them and turn on the light and they were fine. The thing is both of them did it around Halloween, I think the whole costume thing and weird decorations and stuff just overwhelmed them.

Kadie said...

I have no advice for you, but I do have empathy! Being pregnant is hard enough when it comes to sleeping! You just never get enough it seems! Then to have to deal with Sam, that must be so hard!

Unknown said...

does he have an ear infection, jen? the part about being fine when he's up. . . that's happened to me. when they lay down, thats when they feel it. :( just a thought.

Natalie said...

oh jennie i was sooo happy to hear your post, not happy for you but it was nice for me to hear because carson has been doing the same thing at naptime. it drives me crazy!!!! amen to the whole trying your patience thing, some days i really don't think either of us are going to survive. thank goodness these things don't last forever. let me know if you come up with a good solution!