Lauren is getting older
Monday, November 2, 2009
Sleep
I put off writing this blog cause I didn't want to admit I had a problem I guess. I know I am not the only one that has a baby that won't sleep. I know that there is many others out there that are having problems too. It just seems that there is more of my friends that have babies that sleep no problem. I don't know what it is with Lauren. I think we sort of helped the bad habits but I don't know what to do to change them. When she came home from hospital we had to wake her up in the middle of the night for meds. We also were told we had to wake her every 3 hours to eat. I didn't do this but did every 4 hours. I think this didn't help though. Now she is getting worse and worse with sleep. She did sleep from 8-5 and eat and then go back to sleep till about 7 at 3 months. Then it all changed and has got worse. Last night she was up every hour. Yes that is Every hour. I tried to ignore her for a bit to see if she would go back to sleep. Nope she just got louder and louder. She only wanted to eat a little so I know it wasn't that she was hungry. She won't take a soother so it wasn't' that she wanted that. She now only has 1 nap a day and it is only for about an hour. She is definitely not getting enough sleep at all. She is happy and smiley during the day though. I would think that if she needed more sleep that she would be fussy but she isn't. We started her on rice cereal hoping that the food would help her to sleep better but no such luck. I know that she can sleep though because when we were both sick she fell asleep at 7:30 and woke up at 4 to eat and then went back to sleep till 9. This would have been great for me if I wasn't sick too. I was up all night coughing and so it didn't help me at all. I am so tired I feel I can't do anything. I don't like driving cause it is like I am drunk and i don't even feel safe. I took her for her shots last week and don't' remember half the drive there. I walk around the house and I stumble cause I can't walk straight. I shouldn't be this tired all the time. She is 6 months old and should be sleeping better. I am not sure what to try. She doesn't work with crying it out cause she just keeps crying. I have no idea what to do. She is still swaddled at night cause if she gets her arms out then she is really awake. Lately she has been getting out of her wrap and I have to go in and re wrap her cause she has woken herself up although she must have been awake to get out of it in the first place. I just need sleep. I was so mad this morning I even told Tony that i was going to a hotel tonight and he could figure out how to feed her and get her to sleep. I don't even feel right I am so spacey in my head from lack of sleep and I don't know what to do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Oh Paige, I know the sleep thing all to well. I've decided that most moms who say their baby sleeps through the night, are lying. They're not. If you really push, you'll find that their babies ARE waking up, and either they ignore them, or they just don't include that time as part of the night.
In other news, I am now a firm believer in forcing naps leading to better nights. Even if she's not tired or seemingly so, she is. Do whatever you can to get her to nap - sleep with her, snuggle her, in a swing, nurse/bottle to sleep, wherever. Once you can consistently get her down for 2 naps a day, then focus on where the naps happen. I found that as soon as I forced these naps (and yes, they required a bit of crying and a lot of holding down, physically I mean), naptime sleep was better (not perfect, she still doesn't sleep "all night"). I still have to force naps. Our morning one is hit and miss, but Alexys is older than Lauren, so that's fair. People say my baby is just not sleepy, but instead it's that they're so overtired they can't sleep.
I also found 6-7 months the hardest. Way worse than when she was a newborn.
I also couldn't let Lex CIO fully until she was older. It didn't work for us then either. Snuggling worked best. We all got a better night's sleep if I just snuggled her on the couch just the two of us. It only last a month or two and sometimes now that Alexys is sleeping in her own crib I find myself missing those moments I cuddled her at night.
This is a novel. I'm sorry...but I just wanted to encourage you. It gets better. I'm totally finding this age (9 and up months) the best so far. It gets better!
I know it doesn't necessarily work when you're sick, but have you tried co-sleeping? I've co-slept with both my boys during the toughest stages and it helps me function much better. I usually bring Micah into bed around midnight when he wants to feed and Corey takes him back to his bed when he gets up at 4am for work. (((HUGS))) anyways . . . from another mom whose baby still wants to eat every few hours. I find it's easier with baby #2 since I'm aclimatized to sleep deprivation and I know (from experience) that this stage will pass!!
I should also add that Kaleb did better when he wasn't wrapped up at night around the 5-7 month mark as he wanted to roll over and sleep on his tummy and the blanket was preventing that.
I second Nicole's thought on co-sleeping...that's what I meant by snuggling, except I had a moment ;)
And I agree on the swaddling too. Let her be free! Well, at least try that option. Alexys saw swaddling as a challenge and I swear she woke up just to try to escape.
Post a Comment