I think all new moms are obsessed with sleep. Today is my second day back to work, and I am trying to convince myself that I really don’t need much sleep to function or be happy. As the saying goes, I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Now if only that’s how I really felt.
Before Evan I could barely remember what I had for breakfast by the time dinner rolled around. Now I remember (obsess) about every detail of our day, mainly his sleep schedule. I know that Monday night Evan slept from 9:30pm to 2:30am, then woke up for a half an hour feed and went back down until 6:20am. He ate for 7 minutes and then went back down until 9:30am which made my first day back at work easy peasy. I felt rested and I was able to do my on air thing without the sounds of a baby in the background. Last night Evan was not so cooperative. First of all he fought going to sleep yesterday. He fought it hard. This kid has found his voice, you would not believe the octave’s he can hit. I always thought working in radio (and wearing headphones) would cause premature deafness… now I’m thinking Evan will do that for me. When I finally got him down last night, closer to 10pm, I read my book and crashed around 11pm. Through the night Ev was up at 1:20am, then again at 3:30am and then just after 5am. As I heard him cry for me from his crib the word “why?” floated around my head. I’m better off just telling myself it’s unexplainable and convincing myself that sleep is overrated. Errrrr, but then the “why?” creeps back into my head. I want to know why he’s crying so hard when I try to put him down. I want to know why he’s waking up so much. I want to know if it’s something I’m doing and what I can do differently. I want to know that he’s okay and not… oh… possessed by some demon.
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Hi Josie, well you are not alone with the why's...My son now 17 months went through the same thing. I tried a few different things like rocking him for every nap...didn't work for very long, then I tried just putting him down in his crib...only worked for a while, the thing Brayden liked the most was Ocean Wonders from Fisher Price, we would put this on in his room and set him in his crib and he would fall asleep to the waves. I can say that this doesn't work for ever but it did for quite some time. We also tried the glow worm and that worked too. We can now set him down to bed and he might babble for while but we never usually hear from him until the morning. Now my 4 year old daughter that is a different story all together...bed time is a fight every night and she is the one getting up 3 times a night to try and crawl in with us. Hang in there I'm sure you will find something that will help!!!!
ReplyDeleteCould he be teething? Babies can start teething at 3 months yet the tooth may not pop up for months. Look for signs..chewing on his hands or toys etc. Drooling, Red Gums. Babies love to make us play the guessing game. Just when you think you have it under control they throw you a fast one. LOL
ReplyDeleteHave u heard about Baby Wise???
ReplyDeleteIt truly works... you might want to give it a try...
Here is the link for the babywise blog which is always helpful for problem solving: www.babywisemom.com/
And for the book: www.amazon.ca/BECOMING-BABYWISE-Gary-Ezzo/dp/0971453209
Hey Josie, We had many a sleep problem with Lila. Sometimes she would sleep like an angel and other times she would be up many times overnight. I researched online and found that if babies are overtired, they might wake up more at night - if he is napping fine during the day, maybe his bedtime needs to be earlier. Lila started going to bed at 630pm when she was 3 months old. Or sometimes it's just developmental... which you can do nothing about!
ReplyDeleteI hope you get some sleep this wknd! Going back to work is a big adjustment.
Allison
oh and this product is amazing, plays music for a few minutes, then slowly drifts away... couldn't live without it... check it out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=2875092&prodFindSrc=search
Allison
Before I had my daughter, I was wondering why my friend was telling me the exact schedule and naps of her baby all time. Then I became a mom and started checking the clock all the time. She's 14 months now and I still do it! My daughter took 10.5 months to sleep through the night (7-4). Like you, I tried a whole bunch of things: with or without a humidifier, with and without light, with or without constant noise, with or without a full pj, etc. Nothing seemed to work. I stopped breastfeeding her at night at 10 months, and switched to formula for a week and she woke up only twice at night then. Then after a week I switched to water, and withing 5 days she stopped waking up. I'm not saying you should do that now, but when you and Evan or ready, it's another option. It took my body a few weeks to be able to sleep for 8 hours straight again. But now she sleeps from 730 to 6 and mommy and baby are much happier. It takes time, but Evan will get there eventually.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it was too cute this morning when Evan babbled when you were on air, I think he should make an appearance every day! And I give you a solid 12 out of 10 for coming back to work so early! Good job!
Aww, he just misses you I think, little bean...
ReplyDeleteBesides, as a working mom, coffee is your friend! And 30 second naps with your head on the desk (try not to land on the type pad), shifting bedtime to 8pm a few times per week, anything really that gets you through these times of not sleeping, but working so hard as a mom and career woman. You are in a constant state of emergency now, or at least that's how I felt the first year of being a mom.
You'll be fine Josie, this will pass, he'll be fine, as soon as he is less helpless, things will slowly get easier for you all.
Big hug!
Sorry if I'm late sending you this comment but I had the same problem with my now 12 year old son.
ReplyDeleteNot to sound better than everybody else but I was blessed with this one because by the 2 week mark after having him he was sleeping through the night from 9 to 6 without waking up.
Let me tell you when he hit the 3 month mark he started waking up again every two to three hours. Well low and behold the reason he was waking up like that was not to feed but because he was teething. Maybe that's what going on with your little one. Just a thought.
I remember my friends and family telling me he was too young to start teething but one visit with my husband's grandmother confirmed it. She took one look at him and told me he was teething.