Ruby has always been such a good sleeper at night but I feel like it has been changing... And maybe I'm somehow enabling bad habits?
This means I do things like lock myself and Ruby out of the house/car in near 20 degree weather. Forget the names of people as I chit chat. And even notice the wrinkles on my nose more than I ever have before. I'm 27 people. WRINKLES! (I'll save the silver hair for another post. I've had those for years now).
Time to invest in wrinkle cream I guess.
And then there's the constant debate on letting Byron
I'll tell you what though. I'm really , Really, REALLY ready to start sleeping through the night so any advice will be welcomed at this hour of the night. 3:30 am people. And this is the SECOND feeding.
*the Internet stinks at our new place so pics take forev to load. I'll post some soon though. You'll die at how big ruby is. And she better be after these night time feedings ;)*
11 thoughts:
I'm so sorry! Nighttime feedings are so not fun. We got Iris off those when she was just 3 or 4 months, but somehow they came back (really, probably us enabling) so we had to ween Iris off those again when she was 6ish months by slowing decreasing how much we'd give her (but we're bottle feeding, so no clue on if that's really possible with breastfeeding?). We decreased by a half ounce every few nights, and it did work, until she would only wake occasionally just wanting a sip of water....that rarely happens now though. We used "The Baby Sleep Solution" to kinda map out what we needed to do the 2nd time around. I don't know if any of that is helpful, but good luck! I hope she gets on track to sleeping well again soon!
I don't have any advice.
Parker STILL doesn't sleep through the night. He will wake up several times and we have to walk him back to bed. Colette on the other hand slept through the night at like three weeks old! So every kid is different. I didn't do anything special with Colette, she just liked to sleep! =)
It's amazing what you can still accomplish when you have such little rest, right? I totally feel you about the forgetfulness and you feel like a total ditz most days, but still your life does go on pretty normal for sleeping so little.
I have been there, and I'm sorry. I would just make Richard wake up with me and keep my company when I felt so lonely. haha. rude, I know, but at least I felt like we were in this together, even at 3 am. He could at least rub my back while I fed the kid or he could change the diaper or something. Byron seems like a nice guy... tell him to need to up to take care of YOU not Ruby. =)
Hey Brianna! Congratulations on your adorable little baby. You seem like such a great mommy already! Sorry to hear you've been having a hard time with her sleeping, maybe a growth spurt? With both of my kids I read the book Baby Wise and that program worked amazingly well. It's meant to be incorporated since birth but there is a chapter in the back about late starters. Anyway, good luck! Take fish oil to help your brain for now. ha. Oh and congrats on getting to be a stay at home mom! That is really exciting!
-Erin (Dickman) Geddes
tell him you* need him* to get* up to take care of YOU not Ruby. =)
{see? ditzy moment... writing a sentence and leaving out half the words!}
I am so happy you get to be a stay at home mommy - I hope you enjoy every minute of it!
I am probably not the best one to give advice on this subject since Pais has never been a very good sleeper. But around 9 months when she wasn't sleeping well I researched the subject and asked alot of people (including the Doctor) and it pretty much came down to letting her cry it out. By that time she wasn't needing anymore night time feedings and was solely doing it for comfort or help to get back to sleep. Because I was promoting this it continued to get worse and worse and pretty soon a couple of nighttime feedings became 5-6 nighttime feedings! (I was a total zombie).
We finally caved and made her cry it out and after 3-4 nights she slept through the night and is much happier in the day - not to mention my level of sanity!
This may not be right for you at this time but it's what I have to offer.
Good luck!!!
oh, and I know I just left a way too long comment - but just a few tips if you do let her cry it out. I never let her cry for more than 5 minutes without going into comfort her. And if you can get your hubby to go in to comfort her that's even better because than she knows shes not getting any of the "good stuff". Again, it may not be good for you - just a few tips that have worked for us :)
Sometimes if you give them a little rice cereal, or formula before bed they don't get as hungry so they don't wake up as often. But I think the biggest thing is breaking the habit. Let her cry for like 20 min. its SO much harder on mom than the baby, but sometimes its just a habit that you need to reprogram. Good luck! I'm sure you'll figure something out. And take lots of naps! Collin is 18 mos, and anytime he's sleeping I'm sleeping!
Love the advice from Babywise on sleeping. Worked for all three of my kiddos--to varying degrees. But they are all bottlefed so that made it a ton easier for Matt to help. And dude, there is no reason Byron can't help during the nighttime! You both have full time jobs during the day!
Let Byron sleep. You can nap with Ruby. A happy husband is a happy marriage. As long as you are feeding her at night. She will wake up. Sierra is six and still wakes up once a night and asks me to get her a drink of water when I don't remember to leave one by her nightstand. I didn't eliminate her night feedings until I wheened her. Good Luck. I have no advice. The only advice I have is that sleep is overated and limit your unfufilled expectations, which are worse than no sleep. Embrace the world of zombies. I have lived her for going on seven years.
Even after three kids, I am still no expert. Seriously, they are all different. However, the thing that has helped me through it the most is Baby Wise. I'm not as crazy-militant as the book says to be, but I have read the whole thing and done my own take on it, and this is how it goes: Eat, Wake, Sleep. All day long. In a cycle. Eat and Sleep at night, and then straight back to back. Try to not nurse before Ruby goes to sleep (although I break this rule all the time when I'm desperate, especially at night.) During the day, I keep my baby's play or wake time very bright and involved. Somehow, this is supposed to trip their natural nighttime sleeping habits, and even though my first and third were throwing me some doozies, they caught on within a few weeks. At night, I keep the room as dark as possible and try to show love by touch rather than talking. Keeping it as non-stimulating as possible is really important, at least for my kids. I have nursed all three of my kids and started this program at different times in all of their first six months. There is so much to say on this whole thing, but these are the basics. Give me a call! I would love to talk about it if you have more questions. 937.231.9941, in case you don't have it. Good luck! I sure know that middle-of-the-night craze that comes.
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