Cuddling Your Baby to Sleep

Posted on October 9, 2007 in Parenting by little mochi

Finally, the baby is able to sleep 4 to 5 hours straight at night.  He’s now a little over 3 months old and we’re finally getting into the rythm of things around here.  It’s been really fun watching him grow and develop the last few months.  He’s now able to see and is starting to recognize people.  He turns his head towards sound and smiles and laughs with you.  Is he actually responding to us? 

Waking up to his smiles always make my day.  Sometimes, he’ll sit there in his crib and babble in baby talk, with his thumb in his mouth, and kicks his legs up and down.  He’ll do this until we wake up and greet him.  Once he sees our face, he’ll smile at us.  What a wonderful morning greeting.  It melts my heart every time.

It’s too bad he’s not like that all the time.  Is there even such a “smile and laugh all the time” type of infant?  Many times, he’ll burst out crying at 2 a.m.  I’ll rush to him, pat lightly on the butt and hope that he goes back to sleep.  Yes, sometimes, it works, but other times, he cries even harder.  It’s those times that seem to test my patience.  

“Oh no,” I think to myself.  “Is he colicky? He can’t be.  Something is wrong.”  I check his clothes to see if he’s wet them.  Nope.  And he cries harder. Check for a wet diaper.  Nope.  He cries even harder.  I pick him up to see if he needs to burp.  Nope.  He cries so hard by now that he can’t breathe.  I look over to at my husband.  He’s still sleeping.  Still sleeping!  Can you believe that?  How can he sleep through all that crying?  I’m not pretty darn frustrated and wish he was up to help me.  He can either calm me down or calm the baby down so that I can calm down. 

Forget it…let him sleep.  Perhaps the baby had a nightmare.  So I just hold him close, cuddle him, and try to rock him back to sleep.  He stops crying almost immediately.  He opens his eyes to check if I’m still there.  Yes, I am.  So he closes his eyes and fall asleep.  “That was it?” I ask myself.  I hold him for 10 more minutes before putting him back into his crib.  I let out a sigh of relief and crawl back into bed.  It was now 3 am.

It’s really frustrating to see your baby cry and you don’t know what is wrong.  Sometimes, I’ll feel the urge to yell at him or even shake him.  But I know better not to.  Other times, I just want to leave him there and let him cry.  But that’s not a good idea either.  Especially when he starts to get hysterical. But I have come realize that sometimes, when he cries, all he really wants is just for me to cuddle with him until he falls asleep again.  For him to feel secure.  To feel loved.



Comments

One Comment to “Cuddling Your Baby to Sleep”

  1. Julia on October 15th, 2007 12:26 pm

    Yeah, a lot of the times, baby just misses the mommy and/or daddy. He/she just wants a hug. I know many people use the cry-it-out method. Maybe because they don’t understand the need of hugs. I personally love hugs and be held by my husband. I love being married, I can always go to my husband and say, “I want a hug.” So, I understand if my baby just want to be hugged or be held. I just teach her that “crying” is not the way to request a hug or be held. “Holding out her arms” or “saying ‘hug’” is the appropriate way to request a hug or be held. =)

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