Progressing Backwards?

Last night was not good. I think I jinxed myself by asking for 6 or 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. We switched Dahlia's formula yesterday because we just can't afford to keep her on the liquid kind. Oh I wish we could. So we went from Similac Sensitive RS to Similac Sensitive (no RS). She drank it just fine and had minimal spitting up in the night which was great...but she only slept for about TWO HOURS AT AT A TIME! What's up with that? She would wake up screaming & hungry - well, one time there was a messy diaper.... I thought I would lose my mind last night. Steve had the "night off" as he was exhausted and I was up at 11:45 (went to bed at about 10), 1:30 til 2:20; 4:00 til 5:20 and 6:30!!! WTF? It was awful. My mind is so mushy when the sleep is that little that I get aggravated at her and I know it's not her fault. It is just so hard to go for so long with so little sleep. I fed her at 6:30 and brought her into bed with me...I put her on her tummy (next to my head) and she slept off and on for a couple hours. I caught a few zzzz's but was so paranoid about her being on her tummy that it wasn't that relaxing. Now she's sleeping like a champ in the bouncy - slept through my shower, blow drying my hair, getting ready, etc. What gives?

I'm reading the Health Sleep Habits book and it suggests starting at 6 weeks to put your baby to bed in the crib EARLY - at 7pm early and the more sleep they get the happier they are - obviously they will still wake up a couple times to eat. Well, we tried that last night with ZERO success. She screamed bloody murder so I feel like a failure. Of course she is a little off I think developmentally because she came a bit early. I guess I am impatient! *sigh* Parenting is hard.

Comments

fruey said…
Hi Carrster

I read your RSS feed and don't necessarily come in all that often to the site, and I suddenly realised I don't think I congratulated you for Dahlia's arrival already. Shame on me! Love the pics, she looks like a real sweetie.

It's hard (I remember with Nathan all the sleep lost) but really, babies take a long time to get used to day and night, and a routine. The most important advice I got was to try not to sweat it (easier said than done), and make sure you keep the same routine all the time as much as possible. Make a bedtime ritual, keep to the same hour. Oh, and try to keep as little light as possible at night when baby is awake.

Hang in there, Carrster !
10:47 AM
Cellomama said…
Sorry to hear the sleeping isn't going well. I wish I could tell you it would magically get better soon, but that all depends on the child (NOT the parent!!!). I have friends whose 8-week-olds are sleeping for 6 hours straight, but I was doing well to get 4 hours by 3 months. What you describe was very common for us until about 7 months. I think that was a big reason I didn't survive going back to work - I wasn't getting more than 90 minutes at a stretch.

It is hard, but it does get better. Now Kate goes down for 11 1/2 - 12 hours solid and it's hard to remember how tired I was.

One day at a time is all you can do (and I'll say it for the umpteenth time - sleep yourself whenever possible).
1:03 PM
Kate said…
I love you Carrie, and hang in there! You aren't progressing backwards at all, you're learning and so is she. (Not fun learning, but learning nonetheless.)And any learning is forward momentum. Sleep whenever you can. Don't worry about cleaning the house, doing the dishes, you need to take care of you, too.

Love,
Kate
4:42 PM
Meigan said…
I'm surprised the book says to start her down so early. We always tried to keep them up as late as possible so they'd sleep for a large chunk when we wanted to sleep - 11 till 2 or 3, whatever we could get.

Is she in your room or her own room? That's another thing that helps - keeping her in her own room (and keeping the monitor on LOW!).

Hang in there, babe. She'll get there. Just keep at it.
8:54 PM
Nanette said…
I'm not a mommy so I can't give any advice, but I do want to send some hugs your way - ((((Carrster)))
9:46 PM
Anonymous said…
I can't remember, but isn't there a 6 week growth spurt? That's what her getting up so much during the night sounded like to me if she wasn't particularly refluxy. (((HUGS))) Seriously, it DOES get better. I promise! Otherwise, people would have stopped having kids long ago. ;)
11:06 PM
Test said…
Claire was doing the same thing and didn't settle into a longer sleep pattern until nearly 3 months.

You are NOT progressing backwards. Ms. D is trying to find a rhythm and so are you. It takes time and can be ever so frustrating. You want to have some sort of 'schedule' so you feel like you have some order in your life but the babes are learning so much so quickly it's hard for them.

And Pete has to tell me nearly every day. A book does not always have the answer. I have tried to use them to explain what is happening with Claire (between her 7.5 week gestational vs. actual age thing it can be a pain in the ass) but he reminds me that not every kid acts like they say in books.

Your doing wonderfully. And FYI. We used to pull her into bed and have her sleep next to us or on us as it was the only way we could get her to sleep.

Hugs to you.
8:45 AM
Anonymous said…
As my mom said when I was trying to tell her what I read in that same book "Throw the damn book in the garbage" I think you read stuff and take out what works for you and then the rest just falls into place...eventually.
10:00 AM
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