I'm not going to lie, its been rough around here lately. Brian started a new semester at school just recently and that leaves me home by myself Monday nights, Tues/Thurs 7a-7p, and part of the day on Fridays. That basically means that I have to do wake up to bedtime by myself. It probably wouldn't be as challenging if I were getting a good night's sleep. We've had some sleep regression in the past few weeks (and even worse the last few nights) which is leaving me completely exhausted and drained.
Two nights ago, Oliver was up 5 times between 7pm and 6 am when he got up for the day. Elliott also got up at 6am! The night before that, Evy was up at 1am (Oliver was also up a few times that night.) I feel like we have gone back to the newborn days. When the boys were newborns, it was predictable. I KNEW they would be awake and had mentally prepared myself to get up a bunch of times. Now I expect them to sleep. I do a few things before bed and go to sleep a little later.
Oliver's behavior was not normal for him, so I called the Pedi and talked to a nurse. After chatting for a few minutes, she thought he should come in and get his belly checked out. I couldn't get in with our regular doc, so I saw the one that was available. She checked him out to make sure he wasn't sick, that the acid reflux wasn't bothering him, and that he didn't have any weird infections. She concluded that he had gotten into the habit of waking and that he needed me to help him get back to sleep and that perhaps I should let him cry it out.
I think we all have our own mommy gut feelings, and my gut feeling is that "something" is going on. Not sure what, but the cry in the middle of the night is not just one of "please give me an ounce so I can sleep." I've tried just giving him a pacifier, so if he just needed to suck, that should do the trick, right? He spits it back out at me, drinks a couple ounces and eventually goes back to sleep. I really think his tummy is hurting, so hopefully the swallow study next week will tell me something. Until then, I'm just going to hope he doesn't wake up so much so that I can get some sleep! We have all come down with colds too, so that isn't helping anything either.
9 comments:
Hugs, my friend. I'm so sorry. Sleep deprivation is the worst. I've had 2 sick kids on and off since August 13, been to the doctor 7 times with Benjamin. I haven't slept more than 2 hours at a time in a month. Walking a fine line over her...
Sending so many thoughts that this rough patch smooths over soon. Colds. No sleep. Solo parenting. All incredibly hard things!! Hang in there!
My son sleeps through the night, but there was a time where I'd have to go into his room and offer a pacifier. Sometimes I think he had nightmares. We did switch to a more gentle formula for a period of time. Do you burp him over the shoulder or where he is sitting up? My husband can get the burps out of my son over the shoulder no problem, but I have to do the sitting up with my son, because my torso is short and it just doesn't work right for the over the shoulder burps. I hope you get some results back and it helps you and your son to get more sleep. Sleep deprivation is a horrible thing. Hugs.
I'm sorry Amanda :( Its rough when they are sick and don't sleep! All of mine have colds, so I'm thinking that's the culprit for us. I hope your kiddos are okay! Haven't seen any updates on your blog in a while! :) Would love to hear what's going on with you and your family!
I guess I just burp him sitting up? Sometimes they burp these days and sometimes not. Perhaps I should remember to do that every time. Thanks for the reminder!!!
Thanks, Amanda! I'm so jealous your little cuties are sleeping all night!! What an amazing thing it is.
My youngest has very severe reflux. We went with the pediatrician until she was about 1 year and then we consulted a GI doctor and then we felt very bad. She screamed for the first year of her life and I mean she screamed all the time, she did not sleep for more then 20 min at a time. The GI doctor doubled her meds when we saw him and with in a week it was like we had a different child. She is 2 1/2 now and still on medicine. She has been stable for a few months and so we may be weaning her in December. Just thought I would share, maybe the medication is not the right dosage? Also she never responded to Zantac. We use prilosec (omeprazole) and it is the compounded kind. Our GI doctor will not prescribe the premixed prilosec. Also my girls both could not handle solids until between 7 and 9 months, sometimes it is too much for their system. My youngest had a very hard time with them.
Thank you for your comment! I'm so sorry to hear about the rough time your little one had :( It is just heartbreaking.
We meet with the GI doc for some type of a swallow study/upper GI next week and I really hope they can tell us something. We are using the compounded prilosec that you mentioned. We were at 2.5ml/ once daily, but after I called to say that it wasn't working they switched us to 2ml/twice daily and it has really helped. I'm also happy to know that someone else's baby has a hard time with solids too. The kid just won't open his mouth! When I took him to the doctor, she couldn't even hardly get it open to look in there! :) I'm going to hold off on the solids for a little bit longer and see if that helps any. Someone said, "Food before one is just for fun!" So, I'm going with that!
You're welcome :) I find that if he doesn't get burped still enough throughout the day that he suffers with gas at night.
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