(MommyJD) The Devastation of Sleep Deprivation

According to Baby Center, and probably some moms out there, at 7 months old my baby should be sleeping through the night by now. Even I will admit that Gr was sleeping in his own bed all night when he was KJ's age, but I try not to compare my kids. The thing is, KJ has definitely been spoiled. Since my kids are 3 years apart I had at least a year and a half of getting a good night's sleep. So I've been dragging on giving that up.

At this point I'm not ready to let KJ just "cry it out," even though I know that method would only take 2 or 3 rough nights. Instead I'm trying to train her to first not feel the need to eat in the middle of the night, and then move on to her putting herself to sleep. But my baby likes to eat, and around 2am she gets the munchies real bad. If I let her cry for too long, her blood curdling screams would shock her fragile system. For those who did not read my previous post about needing a bubble, long story short is that anytime KJ catches a cold it takes a toll on her respiratory system. So for the sake of her health, I'm taking this sleep training thing slow. Unfortunately slow is not better by any means and every night KJ let's me know how upset she is if I don't let her sleep next to me and if I don't feed her before 6am. It also doesn't help that she's got two bottom teeth pushing through her gums.

Sleep training sucks. As does sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation means I do stuff like put orange juice in my cereal and miss the turn into my subdivision. Sleep deprivation means fearing I will say something unintelligent in court or falling asleep on the train and missing my stop.

This week is exceptionally difficult because my husband is out of town and my son has been sleeping horribly. We live near train tracks and now midnight trains plus every other sound imaginable wakes Gr up from his sleep.  His comes running down the steps like a wild banchee crying about something that woke him up. I try to remain calm and walk him back to his room, but there have been nights where I find myself arguing with a 3 year old at 4am.

So in addition to sharing my story, this post is a cry for help! What can I do to get my kids to sleep better?