I’m woken abruptly by the sound of my daughter’s cries coming through the monitor that’s charging next to my wife’s side of the bed. Our girl’s a little over 6 months old, and we have recently started trying to get her to sleep in her crib in the nursery. This has been a transition for all of us. My wife and I had grown accustomed to the sweet sounds of her sleeping in her bassinet next to our bed. Now she’s on the other side of the house, and none of us are happy about it.
Another scream pierces through the fog of my half consciousness. OK, I’m up now. I get the feeling I was dreaming about something. Something serious maybe? Who knows. I can’t even keep a single thought in my head at this point. When she cries, all I want to do is rush to her side and soothe her. But we’re sleep training. She and I both have to wait. I glance at the clock, 3:01 am. Now, Dr. Ferber says I should wait 10 minutes then check on her. I’m tired, I have work in the morning, that ain’t happenin. We’ll go for three minutes then see what we can do. I close my eyes and hope she can self-soothe before one of us has to get up to check on her.
Her cries continue. I suffer through and try to track the time in my head.
More screaming, more crying. It’s getting more intense by the moment. Finally, surely, the time has come. I squint into the blinding blue light of my phone. 3:02 am. Wtf.
Somehow I make it through the next two minutes and feel immediate relief when I see it. 3:04. We can go soothe and get this family back to sleep! I nudge my wife, “can you go check on her?”.
“What? Are you serious?”.
Well it was worth a shot. I’m far too tired to argue about whose turn it is, and to be honest I don’t even know at this point. The sooner she’s back to sleep, the sooner we’re all back to sleep.
I pull myself out of bed and stumble through the house, rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I go. Following the sound of her cries through blurred vision. In what seems like an instant I arrive at her door and push through to the otherside.
Now that I’m in her room the cries are so loud it hurts my ears. I rush to the crib and, shushing, lay my hand on her. I feel her calmly breathing and gently sucking her pacifier. Wait, what? She’s quite literally sleeping like a baby.
The cries suddenly turn to laughter. A cackle even. Then silence.
Now I’m standing here in a pitch black nursery next to my sleeping baby. Confused, frightened, but no longer tired. Part of me wants to grab my daughter and run out of here, then turn on every light in the house.
The other part of me is wondering if this is all some kind of dream.
Either way, I’m currently stuck and afraid to move. The house is quiet now, but how can I leave my daughter alone in here with what I’ve just experienced? I’m sitting in the rocker and think maybe I’ll just sleep here tonight then evaluate everything in the morning.
Thanks for listening to my late night ramblings. Any advice would be greatly appreciated