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Not Sleeping
There are various things lack of sleep does to a person. It drags on your energy and messes with your mind. Without solid REM sleep you have dificulty processing the events of the day. Without sleep period you have dificulty thinking, and other things that follow thinking, like, say, speaking, planning, focusing, tracking things. Throw in a neat medley of hormones and a baby to deal with and, well, fun!
(Actually, the baby is a lot of fun... But.)
Rosie is wanting to eat basically every two hours, around the clock... still. In my new mom's group most of the other babies are sleeping at least 5 hours in a row, many of them from 11 pm to 6 am. Rosie did sleep 5 hours in a row a couple times, two months ago, back when I was regularly pumping in the morning and Brian was giving her a bottle of that in the evening to supplement and let me sleep. Back before my incision went south. Before the push for Brian to finish writing his thesis. Back when I got four-hour blocks of sleep.
I miss that.
Rosie had her 4 month checkup Friday. Her growth is fine. She's 26 inches long, 13 lbs, 15 oz in weight, 17 inches in head circumference. Her pediatrician asked if she's laughing yet, which she isn't, although she's sort of giggled a couple times. And then we talked about sleep.
sigh.
He recommends we try to teach her to fall asleep on her own in her crib, move the crib out of our room, and otherwise practice "parental fading" when putting her down to sleep, including gradually reducing the amount of time she spends eating during the night (11 pm to 6 am) at each feeding. We moved her crib into her room Friday evening. For two nights she has slept in there, with us in our room across the apartment, with the door closed. She still wakes up every two hours, like clockwork. She's awake for 20-30 minutes, eating, then goes back to sleep. Usually she goes back to sleep easily but sometimes she seems to be hungrier than what I can feed her. Last night she wouldn't go back down after she got up and came and saw Christmas lights on the tree for the first time. Which could also be related to the fact that I stayed up during a block of time when I often sleep, which hurts my milk supply. I ended up having to wake Brian up so I could nap a bit and generate more milk. She stayed up, fussing, until I was able to feed her again, and then she went to sleep. (I tried giving her water but it didn't seem to help.)
If I can get more sleep, I'll produce more milk, and she sleeps better. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem, but I'm hoping with Brian free more of the time we can make good headway on it.
(Actually, the baby is a lot of fun... But.)
Rosie is wanting to eat basically every two hours, around the clock... still. In my new mom's group most of the other babies are sleeping at least 5 hours in a row, many of them from 11 pm to 6 am. Rosie did sleep 5 hours in a row a couple times, two months ago, back when I was regularly pumping in the morning and Brian was giving her a bottle of that in the evening to supplement and let me sleep. Back before my incision went south. Before the push for Brian to finish writing his thesis. Back when I got four-hour blocks of sleep.
I miss that.
Rosie had her 4 month checkup Friday. Her growth is fine. She's 26 inches long, 13 lbs, 15 oz in weight, 17 inches in head circumference. Her pediatrician asked if she's laughing yet, which she isn't, although she's sort of giggled a couple times. And then we talked about sleep.
sigh.
He recommends we try to teach her to fall asleep on her own in her crib, move the crib out of our room, and otherwise practice "parental fading" when putting her down to sleep, including gradually reducing the amount of time she spends eating during the night (11 pm to 6 am) at each feeding. We moved her crib into her room Friday evening. For two nights she has slept in there, with us in our room across the apartment, with the door closed. She still wakes up every two hours, like clockwork. She's awake for 20-30 minutes, eating, then goes back to sleep. Usually she goes back to sleep easily but sometimes she seems to be hungrier than what I can feed her. Last night she wouldn't go back down after she got up and came and saw Christmas lights on the tree for the first time. Which could also be related to the fact that I stayed up during a block of time when I often sleep, which hurts my milk supply. I ended up having to wake Brian up so I could nap a bit and generate more milk. She stayed up, fussing, until I was able to feed her again, and then she went to sleep. (I tried giving her water but it didn't seem to help.)
If I can get more sleep, I'll produce more milk, and she sleeps better. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem, but I'm hoping with Brian free more of the time we can make good headway on it.
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Elizabeth Pantley's No-Cry Sleep Solution books are filled with good tips for encouraging sleep at all ages, highly recommended. I think I already gave my copy away, though.
*hugs*
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Brian tried giving her formula once (enfamil) and she hated it. He said he doubted he got half of it in her, and the rest was all down her front. We could try again though.
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