Starting Over

The sleep training has gone to Hell. By the way, I prefer to call it sleep training. It sounds more humane than Cry It Out. Anyway, we are on vacation. Well, not really vacation, since that implies actually relaxing.

We spent last week with my in-laws. Need I say more?

They don't understand this sleep training thing, and frankly, I don't really expect them to. But I do expect them to let us parent our children as we see fit. Boy was I wrong. Not only did my dh have to take a lot of grief for our allowing Maura to cry a bit, but he had to deal with it all on his own since they would not speak English (a recent problem that I've yet to mention). So they gave him a lot of grief. They argued. Paul tried his best to explain. I told them that her Pediatrician even suggested this solution.

But they didn't agree. And at the first opportunity, they went in. They went in!! Dh and I had to run to the store to pick up formula and such, and they went in. They held her, calmed her, and she eventually fell asleep. The next night, she screamed. They didn't understand why. They couldn't understand that they taught her to cry and scream until someone went in to pick her up. We talked to them about it all over again, ahem, dh talked to them about it. They wouldn't speak English.

Eventually, she fell asleep. I stood guarding her door as the grandparents paced and paced. But she fell asleep. So dh and I went out for coffee. They went in again. They friggin' went in again! And they were stupid enough to tell us when we got back!

So they've pretty much blown any chance that they had of babysitting straight to hell. I can't trust them. They completely disregard our wishes. This time it was sleeping. Another time while I was there, I caught them feeding her food that she's not supposed to be eating yet. What's next? I don't want to even find out.

This is going to be a problem. You see, they are moving into a house just a couple of neighborhoods away from us after the new year. There is no way that we can hire a babysitter when they live here. So we will never get to go out. And they will notice. The shit will hit the fan.

So when we get back home at the end of this week, we will have to start the sleep training all over again. Meanwhile, my baby cries herself to sleep in my arms every evening, and wakes up crying at least once after that. She is so tired and confused.

And to make things worse, Maura seems to be suffering from her first headcold. My Poor Baby. I hope that she feels better soon, both after this cold and the sleeping issues. She's just not herself these days.