daddy's girl knows

Nothing breaks a mother's heart more than hearing her child cry. This is why we have not tried having J cry it out at night. First off, her room is right next to ours and we can hear her. Not easy to ignore a screaming child. Second, A cannot let J cry. Cannot. Will not. It is one of my biggest deals with A. During the day when I am home with J, she fusses, cries and gets angry. Why? Because she cannot get her way. When daddy is home, he is a pushover. Fixes the "issue" right away. He is getting better, but still - she needs to learn.

Last week, the night wakings became too much. I never ever in a million years thought I would let my child cry it out. I did. She cried, screamed and threw a fit for an hour one night. Of course we went in there every few to 10 minutes to calm her down, but I have to admit that since we drew the line in the sand of when mommy or daddy with "fix" something in the middle of the night, it has been much better.

Until last night.

It was 2:30 am and J had awoken screaming. Of course, who is the first on the scene within seconds? A. J screamed and screamed. A went to get the Tylenol because we know J is working on breaking through her fourth tooth and amazingly she would quite down. A would go back into the room and she would scream. A went back downstairs to put away the Tylenol and she quieted down. A busted back into the room to check on her. Again, screaming. After 10 minutes of him shushing her, I got out of the warm bed and told him to get out. She is fine. Of course J screamed some more and amazingly after five minutes she stopped. J was fine, but knows daddy is a pushover.

I totally understand where this comes from with regards to A. He had a shitty childhood. Understood. But I know she can sleep through the night. She has done it all weekend when he was working some overtime. J can do it. Daddy just needs to let her.

posted by Stephanie @ 7:14:00 AM