Well you're never gonna get it
Who needs sleep?
Tell me what's that for
Who needs sleep?
You're happy with what you get
There's a guy that's been awake since the 2nd world war.
- Bare Naked Ladies
Today Lillian is 3 weeks and 3 days old. We've had almost 3 weeks of nights at home and let me say... that is not enough to have figured out a sleep routine! Our first night home Lillian stayed awake crying and fussing from the time we tried to go to bed until about 3:45am (at which point I went sobbing into our room and woke up Michael (as well as my mom with the commotion)). Michael assembled the bouncy chair in record time, but as seems to be the protocol with Lillian, as soon as we called in the reinforcements (mom) she went down for the count and slept a good four hour stretch with mom keeping watch while we slept.
The best nights are those where she sleeps between feedings giving me roughly 2 hours of sleep between our time awake. The worst are those where she doesn't go back down and I trouble shoot her issue for so long that the original issue, hunger, resurfaces and I have to start again. Her cries these days start suddenly and are of the fog horn variety where she instantly goes into a full blow wail, red face, tears in the eyes, un-phased by pacifier.
We started out with...the pack and play in our bedroom; swaddling with blankets; a paci in the mouth; bedtime around 10.
We evolved week 2 while Michael's mom, "Nana", was here (L's second week of life)...swaddled with a light blanket under a SwaddleMe 'straight jacket'; Nana stayed up with L after that 9 or 10ish feeding trying to burn off some energy during that wake time cycle; pack and play RIGHT beside our bed; L sleeping in the 'newborn napper' of the pack and play; my hand outside the covers holding a paci in her mouth a majority of the time (enough that I started sleeping in long sleeves because my arm was getting cold).
Week 3 we tried...lighter swaddle with a thin blanket & a heavier blanket on top of that packed around her in the napper; still with the paci; her hands free. This worked well for a few nights... So well I thought I had the magic combination...Then, the fussy evenings began. Come 6 or 7 ish L cannot be consoled. She spent 2 nights screaming bloody murder, hardly sleeping and pushing my paci-holding hand out of the way with her two arms I'd conveniently left free for her.
Currently we're back in the SwaddleMe's; in the newborn napper; earlier to bed with no paci to fuss with at bed time.
As I told Ninny the other day on the phone, nights aren't just a matter of staying up, they're like staying up taking a test of 'what-does-my-baby want'? It's that stress and mental strain that make this so challenging b/c I/we have no clue what I'm/we're doing. We'll continue to play with the formula and in the meantime she's getting older and I can live on nights that she does well, nights we have reinforcements (or nights Michael is my reinforcement), and other sleep when I can get it.
Who needs sleep anyway.... when else would I blog?
3 comments:
Natasha - I know how you feel, especially the "i have no clue what I'm doing" part! Hang in there. It has gotten so much better for us, I know it will for you too! Have you tried the Happiest Baby On the Block tactics? That works for us a lot of the time. Just another suggestion, although I'm sure you get more advice than you want. :) Can wait to meet Lillian!
For the first few months, I couldn't put K down, which led to the sling wearing co-sleeping arrangement we had going. She would only sleep if she was getting some kind of mama warmth. Does L fall asleep/stay asleep easier with you holding her?
hang in there! you're doing a great job! it's always trial and error- i think i've told you, but the best way noah slept was double swaddled (2 blankets), in the bouncer (with two rolled up blankets on each side of him to create a tight space) in the pack n play next to our bed. ha! high maintenance? yes! but so worth it for the 3-4 hour stretches of sleep!
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