This is the story of a sleep deprived parent...me lah. ( See my eyebags above)
I finally worked up the courage to teach Ally to sleep by herself the hard way, letting her "cry it out" or as the renowned child sleep guru Dr Weissbluth calls it " Extinction". Gosh, even the term sounds deadly.
Anyway, the turning point really came about three days ago. Ally was waking up every hour in the middle of the night. She had been doing this for a whole week since we came back from Bali. That Friday night, I remember, at about 4 am , the fourth time in the night she had woken up, I was so frustrated I just let out a loud shout and stormed out of the bedroom. I had to leave the room or I think I might have just hit her or something. In fact, I had thoughts of throwing her into the pool. That's how desperate I was, how frustrated I was.
It's all been building up. Thr first two months since birth when the baby didn't sleep through the night, I thought, no problem, it'll pass. For some, it does, their kid sleeps through the night at 4 months, and most at six. Well, six months came, Alison was waking up two times a night still. Eight months came and it only got worse. She woke up at least three times a night. Imagine how many months of FRAGMENTED sleep I've been having. I don't work in the day but I take care of her myself so I can't take naps. The time she takes a nap, I am just rushing to do basic stuff like bathe and eat. She's up again in no time. And it's always the "quality" of the sleep that counts. Interrupted sleep is just never restful.
To make things worse, she's addicted to the breast and to me, so only I can soothe her at night and most of the time in the day. The responsibility really took its toll. For a month, I've been falling sick almost every week and am almost always in a fog like state. I knew this had to stop. I could no longer be a mother martyr, nobly taking care of Ally alone at night.
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