The Wait It Out Method: Definition of Insanity

We have never been able to let our kids cry for long. Surely tears are to be expected throughout childhood. But we never could seem to ignore them much. Maybe for fear of scarring our children with abandonment issues, or simply because the shrill screeching is so fucking annoying. Either way, wasn’t our cup of tea. So we snuggle. We rock. We talk about our feelings. We get frustrated and end up saying “I’m sorry” to a toddler more than I am proud to admit.

So here we are, almost four years into this parenting gig and I have been #blessed with another child that loves middle of the night check ins. And I have been rocking my 18 month old for 72 minutes now. It is 4am. My flowy-earthmother-empathy-driven parenting quickly wanes after the 60 minute mark. What the fuck gives, kid?

Sure, there are a million ways to train a child to sleep. But they never fit our puzzle pieces. For those of you that managed to sleep train a 6 month old into full nights of glorious sleep- while I am unequivocally jealous of your well rested eyes- good for you, not for us.

I’ve used every excuse as to why my kids won’t sleep-oh it’s a sleep regression, teething, stuffy nose, full diaper. I could sleep through a tornado induced earthquake at this point, so I’m thinking the real excuse is I was gifted two shitty sleepers and I don’t have it in me to train it out of them. So our method of sleep training has been Wait It Out. Because this shit has to get better soon, right? But last I checked, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, while expecting different result. I digress…

So from someone shamefully still in the weeds of sleepless nights, how do you survive? A shit load of coffee. And patience. And the nicest swivel glider your budget can allow. Oh and naps. They make you less crazy.

With Bean she suddenly decided at 15 months old that sleep was no longer the enemy. She now sleeps a solid 11 hours without interruption (unless her crazy child imagination tell her the “6 Block Monster” is back, which I have no clue what that is but heartily agree is sounds fucking scary). As for the baby, whom I need to stop calling a baby- jury’s out. She’s a shit sleeper. So we rock, nap, cry, and bargain with any deity that will listen. And until then, we wait it out. You can’t stay awake forever, right?