Yummmm. I just finished a mixture of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and chocolate chocolate fudge (with a bit of peanut butter mixed in- I guess I was craving something sweet AND salty).
It's been a while since I last posted and a lot has been happening. First let me start with a description of one of my favorite moments lately (minus the ice cream bliss mentioned above): Will is finally asleep, I place him in his crib (my back aching from minutes of walking and bouncing which is the only way he'll fall asleep). I walk out of the room, quietly close the door and....freedom!!!!!
Until...25 minutes later...
A cry is heard on the monitor. I'm home alone tonight so I'm taking turns with myself (atleast until Rodney gets back from poker). Yeesh. I walk into the baby room, pick Will up and start the back-achy process anew. If I'm lucky it should only take a few minutes. It does. Yesssss. The other night it took 40 minutes to get him back to sleep during one waking episode.
Rodney was gone this past weekend on a bike trip with his dad and brother and I was able to do quite a bit of reflecting and reading regarding this whole sleep situation. After 4 straight months of not getting any myself, I'm ready for things to change. In my reading I found that if a baby is not sleeping through the night on their own by 3 to 4 months you need to take certain steps to encourage it. Things like set bedtimes and naptimes, a sleep routine (i.e. bath, storytime, prayers, lullaby), and napping in the same place as nighttime sleep. Also, babies Will's age are capable of going atleast 6 hours without food, so the idea is that you should try to soothe them with other things when they wake instead of feeding them. I knew this would be the hard part. You see since we saw the lactation consultant a month ago we were feeding frequently and on demand, which meant nightly feedings of every 3 to 4 hours. Well, now that things are going well with breastfeeding, this is no longer necessary. I decided I wouldn't do anything different until Rodney got home as far as nighttime wakings and I would just get through the weekend. But I did decide it was time to move Will into the nursery and start the napping and bedtime schedule/routine. This was actually fairly easy because Will has already gotten himself into a predictable rhythm. He has one short morning nap, a long afternoon nap, and occasional late afternoon nap, and he goes down for the night at 8pm.
When Rodney got home on Sunday night, we put the baby to sleep in the nursery and plugged in the monitor. The plan was to take turns with Rodney doing the first shift and me on the second. The first few nights were hard because I actually had gotten used to just pulling the baby into bed when he woke in the night and nursing him with the side-lying position so I could get some rest. So after feeding him at 7:30 and putting him down at 8, our goal was to get to 1 am before feeding again. Doesn't seem like a great stretch, but for Will it was. Rodney and I took turns trying to get him to get close to 6 hours and after 3 or 4 tries he got to 5 1/2. By the fourth night he went 7 hours (between feedings) on his own and one night he even went 8 1/2. Yay. The past two nights we haven't had to do any prodding and we've actually eliminated one night feeding. I suppose we could continue on this thread and get him to go the whole night, but we've heard excellent things about the Ferber method and we decided to do this in a couple of weeks if he's not already sleeping through the night on his own. The great thing about Ferber is that it also teaches them to soothe themselves to sleep, so when they wake up between sleep cycles, no back-achy rocking and bouncing. Oh, how I look forward to it...
With a plan in place I feel so much better. I've really been enjoying Will during the day lately (when he's not a complete fuss-bucket). He's at a fun stage where he can actually play independently for 15-20 minute stretches. I put him on his back in the activity gym and he plays with the dangling toys.
Also, we started using the exersaucer since he's gotten fairly good at holding up his head on his own. He gets frustrated after about 10 minutes, so that's as long as we leave him in it.
It feels like Will is growing up in the past week. I guess this is because I've been saying, "O.K. Will, time to grow up- you're not a newborn anymore!" This is a bittersweet feeling for me indeed. I'm ready for the independence that this stage will bring, but it also means he's growing so quickly already. One day he will be a big boy, then a man.
And then I'm sure I will ask myself, what was I so worried about?
4 comments:
Wow, it's hard to believe he's growing so fast isn't it?
I just had to share my all time favorite sleep book, in case you haven't read it, is called Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. Very, very good!
Good luck with sleeping through the night! Having a plan is the biggest step... it's the trying something different every time you're up and parents not being on the same page that is the killer. When you sit down and make up a strategy you both can live with during the light of day, it's so much easier to be consistent during the long nights when all you want to do is get him to sleep! And self-soothing is the best sleep aid there is!!
Keep us updated!
I too would recommend Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child...it was a life-saver for me! Donnie was having some sleep issues, or maybe it was more me, with sleeping through the night and this book really helped a great deal.
Good Luck! Sleeping through the night makes life sooo much easier.
Happy Sleep Habits Healthy Child is wonderful!!!! My first child was "difficult" and didn't sleep all night until almost 9 mo. despite the many methods we tried. Dan and I would take turns, walking and bouncing and walking and bouncing... day in and day out,but this book had some great tips and
she eventually turned into a great sleeper. Keep with it, it works...hopefully sooner than later!
Amanda
I can relate to the sleep deprivation...Rowan still doesn't latch on the first time, so when he's sleepy in the middle of the night, I've had to try to get him to latch on for 1/2 hour or 45 minutes at 3am! It is nice to get a full night's sleep, but I'm not going to be getting one of those for a while. :) That's OK, though, because I know how fast time flies. I can't believe Ingrid is 2 and Rowan is already 3 weeks old! I hope things go well for you. The Healthy Sleep.. book is one I have also, though Ingrid was a great sleeper and I actually never read it. I hope I'll be as lucky with Rowan! We'll see... :) Love you, girl! Love, Lizzie
PS. Also, the Anne Lamott book I wanted to recommend is called Operating Instructions. Look for it!
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