Trying something new new
So, sleep has not improved despite denying myself dairy. Kind of crappy but oh well.
So I've been trying to figure out what else I can possibly do. I just don't know how much longer I can go on getting no more than an hour or so of sleep at a time. I have absolutely no problem getting up in the night to feed my child. But getting up 6 times over the course of 8 hours to be his mommy pacifier? Yeah...that sucks. I don't care who you are. And it's not like it's just one bad night...it's every single stinking night. I could do getting up 2, 3, even 4 times. But 6 is just crazy. No way he's getting the sleep he needs. I'm definitely not.
Another thing I've been thinking of is our day time routine. Right now I'm home alone with Ben while Brian is at work, D is with him (at football practice), and the other three are at preschool. I can nurse Ben to sleep for an hour if I need to, the house is perfectly quiet with no one coming or going. Once we move, that changes. How in the WORLD am I going to get him to sleep with other kids to watch who are probably being loud and needing stuff from me?
The kid basically will only be soothed when he is nursing. I tried CIO two nights now, the first night he cried for 5 minutes, was quiet for 5, then cried for about 5 more, then went to sleep (yay!). I thought, well, I can do this! No biggie! The second night he cried and cried and I cried and I just couldn't do it anymore. I suck. But bouncing, pacifying, swaddling, etc. - none of that stuff will get the boy to sleep. Ever. Well I guess except sometimes he'll take a pacifier to sleep if you are wearing him and bouncing him etc. But obviously that doesn't work unless you want to continue wearing him.
My thought is if we can get him to sleep without nursing him to sleep, maybe he won't wake up so much at night. Wishful thinking probably but? Worth a shot.
So tonight I gave him a bath (he just sat in the bath tub and smiled, not at me, but I felt like he was smiling because he was happy! It was so sweet!), lotioned/massaged him, diapers and jammies on, nursed him, then held him for a few minutes and laid him down in his bassinet on his tummy, in the dark with his noise machine on. And I patted, and patted, and patted his back. He cried, a lot. But he finally did settle, he's been asleep for 35 minutes (yay!). I think I could do this for nap times too. I'm not sure if I'm just creating a new monster, a baby that needs to be patted every hour instead of nursed every hour. I guess we'll see. I'm going to try really hard to be consistent, and maybe if he gets used to it then I'll have to pat less and less then by the time we move he will mostly be going to sleep by himself after maybe only a few minutes of patting. I just don't know. Everything I'm reading says to wait until they are 6 months old to do CIO, and we would go by his adjusted age which is still only 3.5 months.
Well he's awake, it's been 30 minutes. Time to go pat I guess. ---- Fifteen minutes, back to sleep. We'll see how long this lasts. I'm trying not to get discouraged and reminding myself BE CONSISTENT! It's so easy to give up after a short amount of time when you aren't seeing the results you think you should be seeing.
Uh, so anyway. At Ben's 6 month appointment he was almost caught up in head size and length to be on the growth chart for his ACTUAL age - yay! Weight gain wise, though, he is not really close. He isn't gaining on the growth chart but he is following the curve. So, It is what it is I guess. Also they took his iron, and he was anemic (his level was 8.2 and they want it to be 11). I read that full term breast fed babies get all the iron they need from breast milk, but they also have great iron stores in their own bodies that they got during the 3rd trimester. Ben of course missed out on almost all of the third trimester. So anyway we have to give him these iron drops. I tasted them and they taste just like metal. Yuck! Anyway so I'll pump and give it to him in a bottle. And I'm also going to fortify that bottle with formula. So that way he's still getting all the breast milk I make but then getting some extra calories too. He weighed 11 pounds, 9 ounces at his check up.
Also, random thought - isn't low iron supposed to make you more tired???? Come on, Ben! Be normal for once! ;)
So, I fixed Miss M's hair again, this time with braids and orange and yellow beads (last time was a two strand twist with pink beads). The last hair do held up for almost 2 weeks. It's way way easier to spend an afternoon fixing it than it is to try to comb it out every day and fight with her (she doesn't like it to be combed). I think it looks pretty good but I really would like to learn how to do corn rows.
Just got back from my 3rd patting session in an hour and a half. Next time he cries I'll nurse him. Going to try to see if I can get him to sleep all night in his bassinet...wish me luck!
So I've been trying to figure out what else I can possibly do. I just don't know how much longer I can go on getting no more than an hour or so of sleep at a time. I have absolutely no problem getting up in the night to feed my child. But getting up 6 times over the course of 8 hours to be his mommy pacifier? Yeah...that sucks. I don't care who you are. And it's not like it's just one bad night...it's every single stinking night. I could do getting up 2, 3, even 4 times. But 6 is just crazy. No way he's getting the sleep he needs. I'm definitely not.
Another thing I've been thinking of is our day time routine. Right now I'm home alone with Ben while Brian is at work, D is with him (at football practice), and the other three are at preschool. I can nurse Ben to sleep for an hour if I need to, the house is perfectly quiet with no one coming or going. Once we move, that changes. How in the WORLD am I going to get him to sleep with other kids to watch who are probably being loud and needing stuff from me?
The kid basically will only be soothed when he is nursing. I tried CIO two nights now, the first night he cried for 5 minutes, was quiet for 5, then cried for about 5 more, then went to sleep (yay!). I thought, well, I can do this! No biggie! The second night he cried and cried and I cried and I just couldn't do it anymore. I suck. But bouncing, pacifying, swaddling, etc. - none of that stuff will get the boy to sleep. Ever. Well I guess except sometimes he'll take a pacifier to sleep if you are wearing him and bouncing him etc. But obviously that doesn't work unless you want to continue wearing him.
My thought is if we can get him to sleep without nursing him to sleep, maybe he won't wake up so much at night. Wishful thinking probably but? Worth a shot.
So tonight I gave him a bath (he just sat in the bath tub and smiled, not at me, but I felt like he was smiling because he was happy! It was so sweet!), lotioned/massaged him, diapers and jammies on, nursed him, then held him for a few minutes and laid him down in his bassinet on his tummy, in the dark with his noise machine on. And I patted, and patted, and patted his back. He cried, a lot. But he finally did settle, he's been asleep for 35 minutes (yay!). I think I could do this for nap times too. I'm not sure if I'm just creating a new monster, a baby that needs to be patted every hour instead of nursed every hour. I guess we'll see. I'm going to try really hard to be consistent, and maybe if he gets used to it then I'll have to pat less and less then by the time we move he will mostly be going to sleep by himself after maybe only a few minutes of patting. I just don't know. Everything I'm reading says to wait until they are 6 months old to do CIO, and we would go by his adjusted age which is still only 3.5 months.
Well he's awake, it's been 30 minutes. Time to go pat I guess. ---- Fifteen minutes, back to sleep. We'll see how long this lasts. I'm trying not to get discouraged and reminding myself BE CONSISTENT! It's so easy to give up after a short amount of time when you aren't seeing the results you think you should be seeing.
Uh, so anyway. At Ben's 6 month appointment he was almost caught up in head size and length to be on the growth chart for his ACTUAL age - yay! Weight gain wise, though, he is not really close. He isn't gaining on the growth chart but he is following the curve. So, It is what it is I guess. Also they took his iron, and he was anemic (his level was 8.2 and they want it to be 11). I read that full term breast fed babies get all the iron they need from breast milk, but they also have great iron stores in their own bodies that they got during the 3rd trimester. Ben of course missed out on almost all of the third trimester. So anyway we have to give him these iron drops. I tasted them and they taste just like metal. Yuck! Anyway so I'll pump and give it to him in a bottle. And I'm also going to fortify that bottle with formula. So that way he's still getting all the breast milk I make but then getting some extra calories too. He weighed 11 pounds, 9 ounces at his check up.
Also, random thought - isn't low iron supposed to make you more tired???? Come on, Ben! Be normal for once! ;)
So, I fixed Miss M's hair again, this time with braids and orange and yellow beads (last time was a two strand twist with pink beads). The last hair do held up for almost 2 weeks. It's way way easier to spend an afternoon fixing it than it is to try to comb it out every day and fight with her (she doesn't like it to be combed). I think it looks pretty good but I really would like to learn how to do corn rows.
Just got back from my 3rd patting session in an hour and a half. Next time he cries I'll nurse him. Going to try to see if I can get him to sleep all night in his bassinet...wish me luck!
Could you give Ben the iron/formula fortified bottle at bedtime? There is a difference of opinions as to whether formula REALLY keeps kids asleep longer than breastmilk. But we could certainly tell a difference in our kiddo!
ReplyDeleteGood luck! You are doing awesome!!!!
I agree with the other 2 for advice from experience. I would nurse and then supplement (right after nursing)with formula bottles at naptimes and bedtimes. Or you could nurse to sleep and you could have a formula bottle ready for the first time he wakes up and give it to him then. I did it both these way to help keep my milk supply up. This seemed to give my baby the extra he needed and he slept. Feeling your tiredness :/
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go with him being hungry. And it takes usually about a week to successfully learn how to CIO. By four months both my babies (who are not biologically related so it's not like I can just say, 'oh, it's in the genes!' ha) went down for naps and bedtime wide awake. It's so so so important for them to learn to self-soothe and he can't do that if he's hungry. I'd give him formula + breast milk.
ReplyDeleteJust my two cents.