I am tired. We sleep trained Coco a few weeks ago, to great success, but the brief trip to NYC really did us in. She’s back to waking up again every two hours or so and I just don’t have the energy to let her cry it out right now. It’s so much quicker to just go to her, nurse her for a few minutes and then get back to sleep. The alternative? Listening to her cry for an hour? So not on my list of things to do right now.
Adding to the problem is this most awesome sleep monitor. I am so paranoid about rebreathing (thanks so much, Dr. Morgan… note the sarcasm) that I can’t get rid of this thing. It has a feature that you can turn on that sets off an alarm when it stops sensing movement… like breathing. And ours? It goes off. A lot. Like at the least once a night. And it wakes me up. I run to Coco’s room, feet barely touching the ground, to find that she’s just inched her way into a tight corner and so the monitor just can’t register her that far away. She is still breathing. But she’s awake now. Yippee.
My husband tells me every time to get rid of the thing. She’s almost seven months old. She knows what she’s doing. But the mama in me just can’t do it. I need that security. Because… what if?
Alas, I have to admit that my response time to the alarm has gotten much, much slower. We’ve been through this drill so many times now and she is almost seven months old…
And I am tired. And sick of loading up on coffee during the day to help keep me going. And the worst part? When I’m sleep deprived, I get really, really stressed out. By the dumbest little things. And when I’m really stressed out? I eat. Anything. And so that goal weight I was so close to? I am really worried that it’s going to start slipping away from me. I need to get control of this whole situation, and fast. And so I know what I need to do. I need to put away the monitor. And then sleep train Coco again. And then go to sleep myself. Yay.
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I have the Angel Care with the sensor… I absolutely love it. Except at my house it had a lot of feed back on the monitor part so I use the sensor pad but have the Fisher Price Ready 2 Wear monitor that you can wear on your arm, very convenient.
As far as the craziness of the sensor pad, it does go off when she gets into the corner but luckily I can usually grab her feet and move her back to the middle without waking her (she is 3 months old and thankfully sleeping through the night right now 8-10 hours). And I have always kept the tic option off… that would drive me crazy!!
I am not as paranoid as I thought I would be as to the whole “is she still breathing” thing, but I figure it’s better to know that there is something wrong in seconds when something can probably be done than to wait hours and have it be too late.
I laughed when you said that your response time is slower now. I am already to that point, I usually give it a sec to see if she moves and quiets it on her own, which she usually does. The first time it went off I shot up like a bottlerocket, now I’m more of a turtle… luckily Daddy is often to the rescue when she does get up, thank goodness for breast pumps…
hugs
Hi! I totally undertand about sleep deprivation! I thought I was going to die at certain points in the last year! I tried it all – cry it out, co-sleeping, nurse all night, absolutely everything! In the end I just felt I needed to go with the flow, and do what ever I could handle! If you need to be certain your baby is OK I totally understand, but to be honest I always found moniters very disconcerting! They would keep me up and I would jump even with the smallest movement! I found sleeping with all our doors open, sleeping with my baby, or moving a mattress into his room, or as it is now, one door closed, is enough to know I can hear him, but wont wake at every sound…Dont feel crazy to do anything that makes you feel more certain, and more comfortable. We moved our beds in every position, the crib everywhere…moniters, opend/closed doors. In the end, I think everything is a phase and you do what works at the time. Anyways, I enjoy your blog! Thanks. Sorry I wrote so much. Its a problem I am trying to work on. Good luck! Angie
It is much *much* more important for you to be well rested and alert than to use a monitor such as that.
Give yourself a break. No, I’m not a doctor, just a mom.
Wow. I’m just sitting here contemplating what to say and what I’d do with a monitor like that…I can just imagine how frazzled you must be!
Good luck with everything, I’m happy I found your blog here, Such a pretty one too.
*hugz*
-Tia
When we had our fosterlings, I used a baby monitor with them & they were 2 & 3 & my husband thought I was nuts, but I wanted to hear if they got up in the night. I didn’t even know that breathing monitor thing existed- that is so cool. If we get a baby when we start fostering again, I am SOOOO getting that.
HUGS & sleep to you!