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Thursday, October 21, 2010

What not to do....


The sleeping saga continues....Isla June slept from 7:30 til 5:20 on Tuesday night. I was elated; we had been battling having her up at 3 am every week night, and even worse on the weekends. I finally resorted to putting her in bed with me because I was tired of getting up with her on Saturday night. Mimi says that it's because she misses me and needs this physical closeness to make up for the time I am away during the week (thanks for the guilt, right?), and it also seems that she takes this opportunity to revamp my milk supply. But, after rereading Elizabeth's sister, Allison's blog, I had decided to try our own version of "Baby Bootcamp".

Jeremy and I decided that we probably needed to put our foots down about this whole sleep thing. I have been, up to this point, nursing Isla June whenever she wakes in the middle of the night because I am under the assumption that she is hungry, and.... it works... It always settles her down and puts her back to sleep. But, I know that I need to break this habit. I don't nurse her before naps, so I know that she can fall asleep without it. And, I think she really can go all night:

  • We are past our growth spurt time, she doesn't eat more during the day (still 4 ounces in a sitting and I've tried to increase this to get more down her) or more frequently (except for when I'm home because I think she enjoys nursing.) So, she's getting plenty during the day and she doesn't need more at night
  • She's done it before! The ENTIRE month of August she was sleeping between 9 and 12 hours at night.
  • Physically, she is at the point where she is able to fast during the night. Trust me, she's not going to waste away.
Now, I know some of you out there think I am being a mean mommy. Trust me, sometimes I think I am too. But, I've tried the nice way, and I haven't had a decent nights sleep in over a month, and now that I'm back at work, I need it! I think IJJ is at the point that she is very aware of reinforcements, so the nursing is becoming a habit instead of something that is needed. Plus, I've heard that this is typical for babies who slept through the night early on to regress and need some "sleep training".

So last night, Jer and I decided that if IJJ woke up before 5 am we were going to let her fuss and see if she would put herself back to sleep. She went down at 7:30 and woke up at 8:15 fussing. I fed her again, hoping that this was the problem (she had fallen asleep while nursing earlier), so I knew that she had plenty in her belly to get her through the night. Jer and I went to bed @ 9:00 (we're old fogies, I know), and around 3:30 am, we heard baby start to get fussy. We agreed that we wouldn't let her fuss past 4:00 am. She wasn't hysterical, just fussy. It only took her 6 minutes to calm down, I was so proud of her. But, then I made a huge mistake....I went in her room to check on her. I was worried that maybe she would have an arm or a leg out of the crib. She had kind of scrunched herself down into the bottom of the crib, so I moved her back into the middle. She immediately opened her eyes, looked right at me and began to cry! Ahhh! Then the hysteria started. So, I waited to see if she would settle down again, but no such luck. I then decided to send Jeremy in to try and calm her down (but not offer her food, which is the habit we are trying to break). She became even more hysterical. She did NOT want the paci and she did not want Jeremy. It was now 4 am and she was screaming bloody murder. I decided to throw in the towel and just brought her into bed with me. She nursed off and on for the next hour and a half. So, yes, she was hungry, but I think she was more upset. I still think we can do it, so we;re going to try again tonight....this time, no going in. Oh, and an organic crib bumper is on it's way to our house....

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