Night #2 of battling with Elijah for bedtime. I am pretty sure this is developmental. I've read lots of things online that say right around 4 months babies often go through a sleep regression. All of a sudden he notices the whole world around him, and there are much more interesting and fun things to do that do NOT involve sleep. That sounds about right. Just in the last week we've noticed a huge growth spurt in his development where he is playing with toys and interacting with the world much more. So, I've got it diagnosed. But I don't know how to fix it. I have a few ideas, but I'm afraid to try any of them because if they don't work then we may end up with a night of even less sleep than we've gotten the last few nights. But I've made a few observations that give me some clues for possible solutions.
First: he still needs to be swaddled. We have been using the velcro SwaddleMe blankets for about 6 weeks now, and they work great. Without them, Elijah wiggles out of his swaddle almost immediately. He is very close to outgrowing his current blankets so I thought it was time to move up to the bigger size. So I went to Target and bought bigger swaddle blankets. We put him in the larger one and I think that it wasn't tight enough for him. He got his hands up and on top of his belly. Halfway through the night, he just wouldn't go back to sleep. I went upstairs and his eyes were wide open in his crib. I took him out of the large swaddle blanket, put him back in the smaller size, and he went right to sleep. Out like a light. So that tells me that he still needs to be swaddled.
Second: he might be outgrowing the rocking to sleep routine. We did our usual bedtime scenario. Daniel bounced him and shushed for a little bit, and then I took over. After a few minutes I sat down and rocked him in the rocking chair. It seemed like he just couldn't get comfortable. His eyes were closed, he seemed asleep, but he was still squirming and arching his back every few minutes. I thought he wasn't swaddled tight enough so I laid him down on the changing table. Boom. Asleep. Stopped squirming, deep breathing, spit out the pacifier. Daniel gently lifted him up and put him down in the crib and he was down for the night. Maybe it's time to just swaddle him up and lay him down. I think I might try that tonight.
Third: he needs to eat enough during the day so that he's not hungry at night. I have been watching closely how much he eats, and I think he needs a good 30 oz of milk in a 24 hour period. He usually gets 25 oz before bed, and then one bottle in the middle of the night. I'm wondering if we dream feed him another 3-5 oz before we go to bed, if he might sleep all the way through the night. It's worth a shot right?
There's one other strange sleep habit that has come up recently. Elijah talks through his sleep ALL NIGHT. Last night from his wake-up around 2am all the way until he woke up at 6:30am, he made noise. His teachers at day care noticed it too. They said that during his naps, they thought he was awake a few times. But when they went over to pick him up, he was still asleep. Usually, persistent noise means he's awake. Last night after over an hour of listening to him I just figured until he starts actually crying I'm going to leave him in his crib. Unfortunately, I couldn't go back to sleep. I just kept waiting for him to wake up and start crying. I put in ear plugs around 3am and that helped me sleep all the way until my alarm went off at 5:45. So I was up from about 1:30 (when I got up to pump) until about 3. Yuck. But, his sleep talking is kind of a good thing. It's training me to learn that every little noise does NOT mean he is going to wake up. I have to learn to let him whine a little, roll over, and go back to sleep on his own. Daniel is very good at this. I am not. I'm such a light sleeper, and I assume that every little noise is the beginning of him starting to wake up. And since we've been bottle feeding him, I want to get up and warm up a bottle before he starts screaming. (Daniel doesn't mind making him scream while he warms up the bottle). I think ear plugs will be very helpful the next few nights. I know I will be able to hear him crying through the ear plugs, but they are just enough to block out a little whining.
I hope this sleep regression passes. Until then, we will need to once again re-learn how to deal with bedtime and nighttime. As a working mom, sometimes I feel like the entire extent of my mothering happens in the middle of the night. Which is not fun. I am learning for myself the truth behind the statement I have heard many times from other parents: as soon as you get the hang of parenting, your child changes and you have to start all over again.
No comments:
Post a Comment