Habits

Some time last week Topher went to bed at 8ish, as usual, and then woke up at midnight, 3am, 5am, and 7am. That night really really sucked. I woke up and fed Topher each time, cause I thought for sure that something must be wrong. He was sounding a bit nasaly and congested, so I figured the best thing for him was breast milk. Right? Right?...



The next night was more of the same. Then the night after when he woke up at midnight squealing like a baby pig, I decided to medicate him. I am NOT fond of medication, for myself, and even less for my babies, so it took me a while to come to this decision. I figured it must be his gums/teeth again so we gave the little man some meds, more breastmilk, and then he was off to Snoozeville. Till 5am. Praise the Lord!



Then the next night we were back to square one. Now I know you are supposed to let the babies learn to soothe themselves. And to get them to sleep through the night you shouldn't touch them a whole bunch and you should never feed them. Blahblahblah. That's fine when you have one baby. But two is a totally different story. A few times already we have had different combos of babies waking other babies up- Sungu woke Lily up once, Lily woke Topher up another time, Topher has woken up Lily, and Jeehon, and Sungu, etc... There are too many people living here right now for me to just let Topher cry it out.

Until now. Jeehon is in Cali with Sungu and my mom left yesterday. So I should be letting Topher learn how to soothe himself by crying and crying and crying. Easier said than done. My number one fear is Lily. If he wakes her up, will she stay awake? That is unacceptable. Whether it's 4am or 7am. I do not like for Lily to wake up a second earlier than she is ready to wake up for numerous reasons. And there's always 'The Tired Policeman' who needs his sleep, and I definitely do not want Topher waking Chris up, especially since he has been working the night shift the last two days.

But here's a question for the ages- why did this horrible 'waking up 20 times a night' thing become a pattern? Topher slept for about eleven hours straight three days in a row a few weeks ago. Why didn't THAT become a pattern?!?

So I guess I am hurting myself now and in the long run by not letting Topher cry his guts out. Whereas if he learns this lesson now, and wakes people up a few times this week, he shouldn't do it ever again. Right? Right???!? Well, it's hard to see 'the long run' at 3am. Or at 5. Or 7 if you had to get up at 3, and 5...