Last night was quite a learning experience. I fed Charlotte a jar of apples mixed with rice cereal, bathed her, rubbed her with lotion, got her in pj's and nursed her before putting her to bed about 8:45. She went right to sleep, no problems. But then about 10:30 she woke up and wouldn't go back down again.
Around 12:30 I finally decided I'd had enough. Not only was I up unexpectedly, this unpredictability was turning into a pattern that I didn't want to repeat. I started to get overwhelmed by everything - the spit-up, the drooling, the biting, the hourly nighttime feedings, and the fact that Paul is required to work so much overtime I feel like I have to do it all on my own.
I didn't know what else to do so I called the nurse advice line at my pediatric clinic thinking they'd tell me that this was just part of being a mom. Surprisingly the nurse that called me back from Legacy had lots of really great ideas on how to get my sanity back (besides the usual hard drugs and drinking method :-P).
For biting, she said to scream bloody murder when she bites me, stick her on the floor, and walk away without looking her. I haven't tried this yet, but I know how my baby hates it when I scream, so I know this will probably make a difference.
For the hourly feedings she asked what I was doing with her. I said that I had her in a co-sleeper. When she wakes up and starts grunting at night I pull her in to bed with me and feed her. If she fusses when I put her back, I usually just keep her in bed with me. The nurse told me I was developing the bad habit of her sleeping in bed with me. Especially since she did sleep through the night before. So she told me to have a bottle of water on hand to feed her knowing she wouldn't like it for when she wakes up.
I followed her advice and gave her the water probably four times through the night. She gagged on it and then I gave her the binkie and she went right back to sleep. Around 6 she woke up and I gave her the water. She started gulping it so I knew she was actually hungry and I fed her.
I couldn't believe that this worked! Not only that, she slept in her co-sleeper all night with the side up. I didn't think she'd go back to sleep if she couldn't see me. Hopefully this is the ticket I needed to a full night of rest!
The moral of the story is, I probably should have called the nurse help line weeks ago. I tended to not bug my midwives when I was pregnant either knowing they had very long hours and busy schedules. But I could have probably saved myself weeks of sleepless nights if I'd called as soon as she started teething.
Liam has been drooling/gnawing/fussy for about a month now, so I can totally relate to that crankiness. He has a tiny bud of a tooth through on the upper gum but nothing downstairs as of yet. At first people sort of scoffed at it, like, oh he's too young to be teething! But you know what you see, right? That sucks about the sleep. Liam is a terrible napper (well, he has been pretty much the whole time) and only naps in arms or in the Moby. Night times, he's ok—last night he was down from 8:30 ish to around 3 am (score!) but that's not the norm.
ReplyDeleteIt sucks when people just say, "Oh, that's just part of being a Mom." Like, suck it up and just wait for her to outgrow it! But you know that that's not going to work for you. You have to try things and see what works. I'm glad you found something!
Yeah, to a certain extent I feel like the previous generation accepted the "suck it up" advice. It seems to me that babies cry for a reason, they sleep in the patterns they sleep in for a reason, they like what they like etc.. I'm not willing to accept that I have to be miserable to be the mother of a baby!
ReplyDeleteI hope you can figure out Liam's naps, I'd offer advice, but I'm sure you've probably tried everything I can think of and you know your baby better than I do.