A fellow on his blog asked as an aside
Speaking of which, if anyone has any tips on getting a six-month old baby to stop waking up every two hours at night I’d sure be thankful.
To which one reply was
As far as the baby goes, if you get up and go to him when he cries in the middle of the night, you are encouraging him to cry for attention. It can be difficult but try to let him just cry himself to sleep. It takes a few days / weeks to train him but once you do, your life will be much easier. Promise!
Sweet Jesus on a ferris wheel.
You call yourself a father, Private Pyle!?!
It’s a baby, not a dog. You’re raising a human being not crate training a puppy. He’s not crying for attention you, unremarkable stain, he’s crying because it’s dark and he’s alone and he’s scared. He’s an itty bitty primate and loves to be cuddled and held and sung to.
You want life to be easy? The moment your sperm lanced into her egg it stopped being easy and became a lifetime slog of burps, barf and heartache. The only consolation is to see your children grow up into self-sufficient adults.
This is what it’s all about.
I saw this as no particular expert in anything. I’m not the world’s best father and I frequently fall short of my own expectations in that regard; I have a bad temper, at times I have absolutely no patience with them.
But with all my faults I know that you don’t train babies to lie still and alone in the dark you hold them and love them.
Aside to Daily Brief readers - I had to get this off my chest - thanks for reading. Now back to your regularly scheduled Briefing.
Cross posted to Space For Commerce.
LOL - Brian… speaking as a mother whose kids didn’t sleep through the night until they went to first grade (thus I did not get a full night’ sleep for about 10 years as they were 4.5 years apart in age), I must say I could never just let my kids lay there and cry. Simply couldn’t. I guess people may think I “spoiled” them, but there it is.
As they are both grown, out on their own, and doing very well - I don’t lose any sleep over it now.
Comment by Teresa — 20071212 @ 2144
From what I remember, when my kids cried in the night, I would wait a minute or two to see if they went back to sleep. If I heard terrified screaming, I would get up and go in to comfort them. If I heard “whimper, snort, sigh”, I would poke my head in the door of their room to check on them. Usually they had gone back to sleep. As they got older and had bad dreams that woke them up, I would go in to comfort them when they needed it.
My advice to fellow blogger: Mom usually knows best, even if she’s a first timer. Let her at least go stick her head in the room where the baby is, to check. If the baby sleeps in the same room with them, take his lumps & check on him/her yourself. Sorry he can’t sleep, but if mom’s too tired, he needs to do it.
Comment by grasshopper — 20071213 @ 0811
Gonna have to agree with you Brian. On a side note, as a parent of 4, one of which is 7 and the others are 19, 20 and 22 the best thing is watching them come to realize I am not an idiot. Kind of nice having intelligent discussions with my kids now.
Comment by Joe — 20071213 @ 0913
Well, there’s crying and then there’s crying. As a baby (under a year) Blondie and my little brother might fuss for a little while - under fifteen minutes for any of the following reasons: hungry, wet, gas in the tummy, bored and/or lonely etc. and taper off and go back to sleep within a minute or two after these conditions being remedied. Concerted and energetic howling for more than fifteen minutes at a stretch was ususual. I only remember that happening once with Blondie.
Comment by Sgt. Mom — 20071213 @ 0917
Gosh, once upon a time ‘conservatives’ were completely convinced that ‘permissiveness’ completely ruined the baby boomer generation.
‘Course the right wing was made of sterner stuff back then. None of this cuddly little primate crap for Spiro Agnew and his cohort of wingnuts!!
Comment by JohnMcC — 20071215 @ 2324
Read a book called “baby wise” it explains baby training and how it is good for them and you
Comment by Jay — 20071216 @ 1125
Gosh, once upon a time ‘conservatives’
I love how people will insist on dragging politics into a situation where there isn’t any.
Comment by Brian Dunbar — 20071216 @ 1432
You can love it, Brian - I think it reeks.
What I’d do with the little guy… well, der Frau had the baby monitor on MY side of the bed, since I was the lighter sleeper of us both. I’d go in, check and see if he were yellow or brown, change if necessary, then sit down in the rocking chair with him, for 100 slow rocks… then I’d gently put him back in the crib.
If it were a feeding time or close to it, and he wasn’t wet or dirty, I’d sing silly songs to him while warming the bottle. (My favorite one was about baby stew… all the ingredients that went into baby formula like used motor oil, smelly socks, rotten cheese, rusty clocks…) Then I’d give him a short bottle and give him the obligatory 100 rocks… and gently lay him back into the crib.
At 5 months, he was waking up once a night. At 7, he shocked us when he slept through the night.
However, that didn’t last all that long. After he was potty trained, he’d walk down the hallway, past the bathroom, knock on the door and wait for me to get up, then without saying a word would go do his business and put himself back to bed…
Guess he just wanted company in the middle of the night! Hey, those bathrooms can be scary!
J.
Comment by JLawson — 20071216 @ 1919