Are the lambs still screaming, Clarice?

Yes! Yes, they're still screaming. They're screaming every two hours. They're waking me up all night long. They won't stop SCREAMING!

Oh, wait...that's not the lambs. It's my son!

I've mentioned before that Desi has been swaddled at night. The doctor told us that when he's ready to be out of the swaddle, he will let us know. Well...we interpreted Desi's rolling over and pitching a fit while swaddled as his way of telling us that he was done with the swaddle.

So, we did away with the swaddle.

And, I am hating life, right now.

One of the reasons we continued with the swaddle for so long is that Desi only sleeps for a couple hours at a time when not swaddled. Now that he is not swaddled at night, he wakes up every couple of hours. Usually, all he needs is to have the sucky plopped back in his mouth and he's asleep shortly after. But, then...there are the times when that isn't enough. There are the times when he absolutely wants us to pick him up. And...if we don't pick him up, or if we dare put him down again, he lets us know that he's unhappy. He lets us know this by unleashing one of the most blood curdling screams I have heard. Seriously...it sounds like he's having an arm ripped off.

At first, we figured he really was in pain. He is teething, after all. But, now...we're not so sure. We think that he's learned that when he makes that noise, we come running. So...at first, we came running.

Then, we became zombies...due to lack of sleep.

Now, we are trying "cry it out." It sucks. Seriously...he sounds like he's dying. But, he only sounds like this for about 5 minutes until he realizes he's exhausted and falls asleep, again. As of now, I haven't noticed any permanent damage. And...we only feel like horrible parents while he's screaming. As soon as he stops, we also fall back to sleep and feel much better...until he wakes up and we do it all over 2 hours later.

We've only been doing this for about a week. By next week, he'll either stop screaming, we'll change our methods, or someone will call CPS on us.

UPDATE - 8:00 AM, 5/27

Last night was almost back to normal. Maybe Desi reads the blog. We had one minor fuss at about 2:00 am, but he put himself back to sleep by snuggling up with his weird washcloth with a duck head (Shaundar calls it a lovie...but, I call it a creepy.) Then, he woke up for his regular 3:30/4:00 feeding. Then, right back to sleep.

Maybe this is the start of better nights?