Whomever said this is as simple as replacing milk with babies’ herbal tea, and then gradually thinning it till it’s water – probably has no idea what the word “stubborn” means.
“What on earth is she talking about?” You’re thinking.
Let me explain. After bedtime, Thia has been waking up after 4 hours of sleep to get her waaay-past-midnight-milk-fix. And being the night-owl that I am, I only go to bed an hour before that happens. So I am barely entering my dreamworld when I’m snapped out of it by my crying baby. That’s fine. I’ve had no problem with that so far. She gets her fix and goes back to sleep for another 4 hours and so on till she wakes up in the morning all nice and fresh. Problem is: Doc asked me to wean her. i.e.: eliminate that mid-night fix so that she can sleep a solid 8 hours and eat better during the day. Sounds simple – right? (All mommies out there know I’m in for trouble.)
What’s been happening the last few weeks is that she wakes up and I give her herbal tea instead of milk. The first few times this happened – she completely rejected it and insisted on milk instead in order to go back to sleep. And I gave in after maybe 15 minutes because I felt terrible. Then maybe the 4th or 5th time she accepted her herbal tea and went to bed and slept a good 4 hours before waking up again. This was quite encouraging because it assured me she’s waking up out of habit rather than hunger. And this happened for about 5 nights in a row. Phew. That wasn’t too bad huh.
Wrong.
Now she drinks her herbal tea and refuses to go back to sleep. She just lies there in her crib staring at the ceiling as long as I’m holding her hand. If I dare let go, she bawls her eyes out. She’s lasted up to three hours like that (several nights in a row) till I finally give her a milk fix. In those 3 hours I’ve tried rocking her back to sleep and holding her, and walking around and singing a lullaby and stroking her hair. I’ve even tried to let her cry it out a little. Nothing works. She just won’t sleep. She often closes her eyes and I would disillusionally think it’s over. But no. Sleep just won’t come.
I’m dying here! I’m the one who ends up sleep deprived! Help??
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