5.9.09 Sleep and More Sleep

I'm humbled everyday as a mother. I think that I know how things should go but they don't go the way I planned them or even the way I think I need them. Once again I am talking about sleep. Oh wonderfully precious sleep. In the last ten days both kids and I were sick. Again. Noah was sleeping very poorly so we decided to let him cry. Again. It worked for a while but I think it was only because Noah was sick. I tried letting him cry during nap time. He normally sleeps forty minutes at nap time so I was trying to lengthen them by leaving him up there until his total in bed time was one hour. All he did was cry and a cry. I didn't accomplish anything except for having a very up set baby. I felt terrible but I allowed the crying to continue for three days. Then he was getting so hoarse from all the screaming it was obviously not working. It turns out that he was getting sick. The day after I stopped leaving him in his crib for one hour he started to sleep double naps once a day. I really didn't believe it was because of anything that I had done. I was right. He slept better because he was sick. Now he's well and sleeping very very badly. He is getting an upper front tooth and with out ibuprofen he is a wretched wreck. Biting and crying and crabbing all the time until a half hour after I give him the medicine and then he's just biting and crabbing and not usually crying.

Last night was terrible. I put him down to sleep like I always do. He immediately popped his head up and started complaining. He was so very much on his way to dreamland that I was totally taken off guard by his waking. I let him cry for about twenty minutes and then went in to check on him to see if he had flipped himself over and couldn't get comfy. No he was on his tummy just screaming. I put in his pacifier and shushed and patted him until he was asleep. He woke up as soon as I stopped patting. I did it again. He woke up again. So I let him cry himself to sleep. He slept until 11:30. Pretty good. Then woke again at 1am. Not so good. I let him cry and turned off the monitor. I could still hear him, as I was sleeping in the guest bedroom. I slept on and off. I then went into him around 2:30am. I nursed him and rocked him and put him back down. He fussed for a while and I finally picked him up gave him some ibuprofen messaged his legs and tummy. He fell asleep so I laid him in his crib and continued to message him. He slept until 4am. I was totally done. So I laid down with him on the double bed in his room and gave him more milk then held him close. He slept until 6:20. Poor baby. He is in so much pain. What else can I do. I know this.
Crying it out helps Noah to sleep longer.
His weight has nothing to do with how long he will sleep
Teething does interfere with his sleep.
He doesn't know how to self soothe.
Sleeping with Noah doesn't help him or I to sleep any longer. It only works for a day or two and then he wakes every hour or 15 minutes as it gets closer to morning.
Solid food doesn't help him sleep more
Sleeping on his tummy doesn't help him sleep more.