Sleep: The Follow-Up

The mournful pleas from a tired mommy weren’t really successful in their call for help. Although I did get a lot of camaraderie from other mothers who had been there and are still there, there were only two suggestions from the last blog: let Sully cry it out and try playing music. 

As for crying it out, I’m a little leery. I see that more as a “going to bed” solution, rather than a “wake up in the night” solution. I’m worried that an early morning wail session might lead not only to an exhausted mom and dad, but a tired and grumpy six year-old. While Scarlett does manage to sleep through most of Sully’s midnight feedings, I’m afraid that his prolonged crying would wake her right up. I also think it would make her feel bad for Sully. We tried this method a couple of times when he wouldn’t fall asleep in his crib. Even though we had prepared Scarlett for this method by explaining that Sully was okay and that we would check on him and soothe him along the way while he learned to fall asleep on his own, she looked at me with a pained expression as he wailed from his room and asked “Are you going to save Sully, Mommy?” That just about broke my heart. I haven’t had the desire to try that again in her presence. 

The other suggestion wasn’t quite as pervasive. Sound is a constant in Sully and Scarlett’s lives. I’m not proud of it, but we’re television people. We don’t necessarily use the TV to placate our children (although I think it has its place); we just function most days with background noise. Sometimes it’s music – more often than not it’s music from the music channels on television – other times we listen to sitcoms, the news or cartoons. We try our best to have moments when we don’t turn on the television, but most of the time we cave. Negative connotations aside, Sully is used to hearing some sort of sound throughout the day. So, having Sully fall asleep to music is a great idea, and one that we already utilize occasionally. 

What we ended up with was something very much out of our comfort zone. We got Sully some amber teething beads. I personally have a natural skepticism of homeopathic healing. I don’t think that it doesn’t work for some people; I just don’t really believe that it would work for me because I don’t believe in the general idea. However, we have several friends that use teething necklaces on their young’uns’ and they’ve all raved about them. So, I took myself down to the neighborhood natural parenting store and bought a set.

The idea behind amber being a soother for teething pain isn’t a new one. It’s been used in folk medicine as a healing agent/crystal. Apparently, the amber resin warms with the body’s temperature and releases oils, including succinic acid. This acid was historically used to treat aches and pains and is now used as a sweetener in food. 

In conclusion, Sully has slept through the night for almost a week now. Coincidence? Probably. Do I care what it was that finally worked? Nope!