Let me preface this by saying I adore my daughter. I could not imagine having another child. She is crazy smart. She is hilarious. She excels at almost everything she does (that whole bike-riding thing eludes her). But.
If I could ship her off to live somewhere else for a week--not Siberia, maybe just her grandmother's house--I would do it. She has absolutely no sense of how fucking loud she is. And even though we're using school language (volume 0-1), she just can't stop producing noise. Talking. Singing. Stomping. Slamming.
These are the qualities that set me on edge when it was just the two of us. And now my nerves are frayed from sleep deprivation. And she's waking the baby. Like, I can spend 40 minutes in the rocking chair with him, finally get him to sleep, and she comes bursting through the door and his eyes pop open.
I have tried rationalizing with her. I've tried putting it in terms of her needs. Such as: I know it's not fun when we're doing something and Tiny Boy needs me to rock him at night and we don't get to spend as much time together...and if he can take longer naps during the day I won't need to do that so much at night. No dice.
I really don't know what to do. I know intellectually that he needs to learn to do a certain amount of self-soothing and sleeping through basic home noises, and I also know that I'm particularly irritable right now because of sleep deprivation. But we're really at a crisis point here, and I'd do pretty much anything to get this baby to sleep for more than 20-40 minutes at a stretch. We're both exhausted.
So when another single mom friend called to see if LG wanted to come over and play this afternoon, I said yes without even asking her (this is one of LG's best friends, so it's not like I was pawning her off on someone). She's been gone for about 15 minutes, and I can't even tell you how nice it is. I've got a sleeping baby (yes!) next to me and two sleeping cats and the lullaby playlist on endless repeat on the laptop. We might just make it through the afternoon.
I feel you. I slept in the BASEMENT on a sofa bed for six months because of the reverse situation, baby crying work up toddler. For yourself may I suggest earplugs, and for the baby, white noise! You can find various MP3s online. My kids enjoyed the vacuum or hairdryer
ReplyDeleteoh god. this sounds really hard. i feel for you. am hoping that tinyboy learns to sleep better quickly and you get even 2 hours more rest and that LG learns to whisper sometimes : )
ReplyDeletehugs.
Mo
If I remember correctly, you take LG to the library regularly, right? Is there any way to instigate a Library Mode or Library Game with her, during the times you want her to be ultra-quiet? So she needs to tiptoe and whisper and be gentle with doors and so on? Maybe she could be enlisted to help make the "Shhhh" signs that she can help put up all over the house when it becomes The Library?
ReplyDeleteLove,
Maddy