Well, Dr. Weissbluth said that anything that happens to throw your schedule off will throw your sleep off, and he was right!
Daniel's family had a reunion about 2 hours away in Arkansas yesterday, which was wonderful. We got to see about 50 family members, and celebrate his uncle's 90th birthday, and that same uncle and his aunt's 50th wedding anniversary.
But for Naomi's sleep schedule, this meant problems. She took her 3 naps as usual, but each of them only lasted 1/2 an hour. I could go into more detail, but it was mostly because of schedule changes, car travel, and new environment that they only lasted that length.
So we put her in the car around 8:40 to head back home, and she was out within 5 minutes. We did stop to get gas, and that brought us home to Tulsa by 11p.m.
We changed her, put her in PJs, I nursed her and she went down in her crib with nary a fuss.
5:00a.m., she woke up. I let her cry 5 minutes (while I went to the bathroom), then went upstairs to feed her.
Dr. Weissbluth says that breastfed babies can continue to wake up once or twice a night to feed until 9 months old, around 11p.m. and around 5a.m. I'm ok with this, I just want to nix the 2a.m. waking (which she slept right through, thankfully!) and the early morning waking. I also want her to go down easily, with no crying/arching her back, etc.
She went right back to sleep around 5:20a.m. with NO problems! I began to think we were out of the woods. But, 6a.m. rolls around, and awake she came! I knew she wasn't hungry, but thought she might need a burp, so after 5 minutes of crying, I went upstairs and burped her. I put her down and she wailed some more, so I thought I'd have to wait 10 minutes, but she was asleep after 8 minutes.
Fifteen minutes later, she was crying again. After five minutes of it, I told Daniel it was his turn, and that she might need a fresh diaper. He changed her, then put her down to wail for 10 more minutes. At this point, it was close to 7a.m. (her new chosen wake-up time) and I told him to just bring her to bed with us. She slept peacefully in our bed (and so did we) until 9:15a.m. when she woke to nurse.
All in all, I think we're making progress. It's excruciatingly frustrating and exhausting sometimes, but hey, as a mommy you do what you have to to achieve the balance between your sanity and your baby's happiness. (Thanks, Jennifer, for this reminder!)
You are making progress!!! i know it sometimes seems like three steps forward, two steps back, but before you know it she will be sleeping better and YOU will be sleeping more and this will all be a distant memory. Just remember that because you are taking action now to help her sleep better, you are moving in the right direction! (I had to tell myself this MANY many times after the 4th time of rocking Lucy back to sleep!)
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