Ongoing (Lack of) Sleep Saga
I am blogging one-handed again as Baby Boy takes a little snooze in my lap. The good news is, we've finally found a way to get him to sleep in his crib instead of only with us in our bed. Baby Boy has never been able to sleep well on his back, so we finally got a sleep positioner that helps him stay in place on his side. He's slept great with it, although he will rarely stay happy in the crib without a pacifier, and wakes up when it falls out of his mouth. I probably plugged it in about two dozen times last night when he started to squirm, wanting it. So the bad news is that I am not sleeping well at all...about 3 hours total last night, but that was in bits and pieces. Even when Baby Boy is doing fine, I lay awake listening to the light snores and other sounds he makes in his sleep, wondering if it's worth it for me to try to get to sleep when he'll probably wake me up one way or another in a few minutes.
Baby Boy is still nursing twice a night. He's a chubby 17 pounds, so I know he has some reserves and doesn't really need nighttime nursing, but I'm clueless how to get him to stop waking up wanting to nurse. Plus, I'm not entirely sure I want to cut out nighttime nursing, as we're currently using only the lactation ammenorhea method for child spacing, which requires nighttime nursing to be effective.
But something's got to give. Does it have to be this hard? Will I ever feel rested again? Any ideas or encouraging words will be quite appreciated today.
4 comments:
My first baby had an awful time sleeping also. She was very little and only weighed 17 pounds at a year and a half! Have you tried giving him some teas from a dropper? Spearamint and peppermint are very soothing to a baby. Peppermint also helps them sleep. I also gave up on the crib with her. We would put her in a swing and she would rock all night long. IT worked like a charm! The swinging motion helped soothe her fussiness and she slept longer. We had no problems moving her to a crib later on. BY then she was used to sleeping through the night and it was just routinge to her. MY heart goes out to you. IT is so hard to go with lack of sleep and it makes it harder to function through the day. The Lord and I had some really great talks in the wee hours of the morning! He will give you strength. Before you know it this stage will pass and you will start to enjoy life more! Take all the help that is offered to you, don't be shy!
*sigh*...memeories :-) I remember the "pacifier game" well with my first one. My second one never took to a pacifier though.
I successfully maintained lactation amenhorea for 8 months after my last pregnanacy (my goal was 12). But even once I got my period back, I was ovulating only every other month.
I found the advice of the book "breastfeeding and natural child spacing" by: shelia kippley to be very helpful. I highly recommend you read it, it doesn't cost much off Amazon.
I rarely suffered sleep deprivation with my last newborn, we slept together on the couch and in such a way that he had access to the breast all night long. I slept and he slept and ate and everyone got plenty of sleep.
You may want to set up a seperate bed for you and baby...I would normally put baby to sleep around 9pm (after a nice big feeding) and then go to bed with my hubby and then baby would get up around 12am-1am and he and I would sleep on the couch until hubby left for work, then we'd hop back in the bed. This way everyone was happy...the marriage bed was kept warm, I didn't ovulate and I was getting plenty of sleep :-)
We did this for the first 4 months and then we weren't sleep well together anymore, we kept waking each other up. That's when I knew it was time to move him into his crib, in his own room. I would feed him only once a night, and increased the feedings during the day. If he woke up more than once a night I'd simply lay him back down each time and tell him "night, night". It took only 2 nights for him to get the idea and then he and I were both sleeping good again.
It worked good for us and I plan on doing the same thing when my newest blessing is born :-)
oh yeah, I almost forgot. I didn't start feeding my little guy solids till he was 8 months old...that was also the time I started ovulating again. Coincidence? I think not :-)
When you do decide to feed solids, checking out the section at the back of "Nourishing traditions" called "Feeding babies"....they have excellent advice :-)
I really recommend that you try to get the baby on schedule as Candy and Stephanie suggested. With my first two I nursed them on demand all day and night and I had no problem with them making their own schedule. However, with my last baby, I did the same and it went horribly. I had (and still have) problem with her waking at night wanting to nurse and also wanting to nurse very fruenqtly throught out the day. NOw that she is 20 months I can just tell her no it is not time to nurse, but that did not work when she was younger. But I would try to start the schedule as soon as possible.
Also, I have always done lactation amenhorea, however, I ALWAYS got my period at 4-6 months after the baby was born. So I don't think that works for everybody.
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