Sleep? What's Sleep?!

Well, maybe not that dramatic, but Cael's nighttime sleep stretches are slowly whittling away. He's up at least twice a night, crying. Sometimes it only takes me minutes to put him back to sleep, other times, it may be an hour and a half before he goes back to sleep. I don't know what happened. But it sucks, that's for sure! For instance, last night he was up at 12:30 and 3 am. He went to sleep within 10 minutes of being awake at 12:30. However, 3am was a different story! He was screaming and crying and fussing. I'd calm him down for a few minutes, then he'll start crying again. This cycle continued for about an hour. I gave him Tylenol, which didn't really help. He did fall back to sleep for about 10 minutes, in which I crawled into bed, thinking all was good. Nope, 10 minutes later he was awake crying again, and I was up out of bed. Again. I tried comforting and consoling him. I left him to cry for a few minutes. It was actually horrible. Four o'clock came around, and by this time, he was trying to latch onto my shoulder again. He was making the rooting motion with his mouth/head, and would keep screaming when I tried to give him the pacifier. Finally and reluctantly, I gave in and fed him. I just stayed in the nursery holding him, and fed him that way.

After 5 minutes, I stopped, gave him the pacifier, and held him until he burped. He seemed very calm and went limp after a minute. I figured he was asleep, or well on his way, so I laid him down in the crib, and went back to bed myself. It was 10 after 4. Well, 5 minutes later, just as I was starting to doze off, he woke up and started crying again. I went back to trying to comfort him, but he wasn't having it. He seemed to still be hungry, so I gave him the other breast for another 5 minutes. He was much more limp and relaxed after this feeding, and fortunately, he fell right to sleep. And stayed asleep. He was then up at 6:40 to eat again, and up for the day at 7. It was a long night.

The 2-3-4 nap schedule has been working out great during the day. And when we first started the new schedule, his stretches at night got longer. But now they're getting shorter again. I don't know what's going on. It seemed so perfect at first, but now it's getting worse. I guess we'll just have to keep trying, and stick to our guns about not feeding him during the night. Hopefully he'll get the idea that he's not getting food, and he'll either stay asleep, or put himself to sleep as soon as he wakes during the night.

2-3-4 Summary

To sum it up, the 2-3-4 nap schedule is a life.saver! Period. The End. Cael has been doing much better at night, and during the day. He's still teething (I'm sure his bottom right tooth is starting to work its way up out of the bone), so sometimes it's touch and go with his fussiness. But for the most part, everything is much better all around.

The night before last night, Cael woke up at 11:30pm, and didn't go to sleep until around 12:45 or 1am. He was screaming the entire time, except for when I would pick him up to calm him down. Then he was up again at 4:15. I gave him Tylenol both times. Around 4:45, Matt came out of the bedroom, rubbed my back, and asked if I could give him something. I honestly thought he was coming out to go to the bathroom, and was apologizing for him being so cranky and me dealing with it. But nope. He asked if I could give him something, anything, whatever he wanted, so that he would stop crying. He said he really needed to get some sleep. I hesitated, and then reluctantly brought him into bed and fed him. Matt said he realizes we're trying to not feed at night (or in this case, early morning), but he really needed sleep. I was afraid that this would re-start the bad habit, but I don't think it will. He then went back to sleep, I put him back into his crib, and he slept until 8!

Last night was a much better night. He was in bed at 8, and he slept until 5:30am. I tried to get him to fall back to sleep and gave him some Tylenol, but he wasn't having it. There was no calming him down, and I could tell he was hungry. I wanted to put off feeding him until a little later, but I thought it would be cruel. I could tell he wanted to nurse. So I brought him to bed, fed him, and put him back in his crib. He had a little difficulty falling to sleep. I think it was around 6:30 that he finally fell asleep, and he was up an hour later.

There have been only a couple other early mornings where I've brought Cael to bed to feed him. I didn't want it to become habit, but maybe it's what he needs. By 5 or 5:30, it's been about 10 hours since he last ate, so I would imagine he'd be pretty hungry. And he usually falls asleep right after for at least another hour or 2. I guess at some point, we can eliminate that feeding too. But it's baby steps. We've made a lot of progress so far, I feel. Getting up to feed Cael at 5am is nothing compared to getting up every 2 hours. I can deal with that, and then I'll ask about the early morning feeding at his next pedi appointment.

Night 6/Day 5

Tuesday Night/Wednesday Day

I'm not exactly sure how long I'm going to be blogging about Cael's new sleep schedule. However, since we seem to have been making great progress, I may stop tomorrow, since that will be one week. He seems to be getting up only once a night/early morning, and for the most part, he has fallen nicely into the 2-3-4 nap schedule. So I probably won't feel the need to blog about it. But I figured if anyone was following my blog, and having sleep issues with their little one, then maybe they can see how amazing the 2-3-4 worked for us, and try it themselves with the same luck.

Last night, despite the crappy naps the day before, Cael slept from 9pm to 5am. Another 8 hour stretch!! I must say, I can really get used to this. HOWEVER, we had some false alarms with the AngelCare monitor, so that woke me up about 2 times prior to Cael waking up. After checking him (of course), I determined they were false alarms because 1) he was still breathing; and 2) he was all the way over to the side rail, and up a little bit on the mattress. So tonight, I will make sure I put him more towards the middle of the crib, this way even if he rolls over to the side, he'll still be in the middle, which is closer to the sensor.

So he woke up at 5am, and was fussing a little. That turned into crying/screaming, so I gave him some Tylenol. But after only about 20 minutes, he was fast asleep. I climbed back into bed myself, until Cael woke up at 7am! I brought him into bed with me to feed him (which I've been doing), and we fell asleep until 8:30! I was in heaven. And I love the morning snuggles with my little man, especially since I don't let him sleep on me anymore. I'll take any snuggles I can get! I was worried about his naps would play out for the rest of the day, since we slept so late. Usually, he'd be ready for his first nap by 9:30 or so.

By 10, he was ready for his first nap. Not quite 2 hours, but then again, 2-3-4 isn't an exact science. He fell asleep by 10:15, but was up screaming at 11. Great, another 45 minute nap. But he wasn't too bad after I picked him up. Turns out, he had peed and pooped, and it had leaked out, so he was soaked. I guess that would wake me up too. But there was no falling asleep again for him, so he was up. We went out and did some errands. He was pleasant, and continued to be so throughout lunch time. He sat in his play nest on the kitchen floor while I ate lunch, and kept himself occupied.

He went in at 2 for his second nap, so that was almost 3 hours. Not bad, and right where I'd like it to be time-wise for his bed time tonight. Currently, it's 10 minutes to 4, so I'll wake him up at 4:30 the latest. That would be a nice 2-2.5 hour nap for him, and he'd be ready for his bath at around 8. I will update after he's gone to bed, as to what the rest of the evening was like.

Update (10pm)

So I woke Cael up from his afternoon nap at around 4:30pm. I fed and changed him, and then we went to the park - since it was such a beautiful day. He seemed really tired around 6:30, constantly putting his head down on my shoulder, and fussing. But there was no way I was getting him ready for bed that early. We ate dinner, in which he was really cranky during, so we brought him upstairs. In the end, we started getting him ready for his bath around 7:15 or so. He was in bed asleep by 8pm. He went RIGHT to sleep. He was really tired. We'll have to see how the night goes.

Night 5/Day 6

Monday Night/Tuesday Day

Last night was not bad at all! Cael slept from 8:15pm-ish Monday night to 4:15am. That's an 8 hour stretch! However, it took me about 45 minutes to get him back to sleep, but he was asleep by 5am. I honestly can't remember if I gave him Tylenol or not, but he was screaming loudly. So much so that when I got back into bed, Matt was asleep with a pillow tightly over he head. But honestly, if that's the only time he got up that night, it's definitely an improvement, and not bad at all!

Once again, Cael had crappy naps today. He only took a 45 minute nap in the morning, and about a 40 minute nap in the early afternoon. However, by 4:30pm or so, he was tired again, being cranky and crying. I decided to let him take another nap, since he had horrible naps earlier in the day. He probably fell asleep around 4:30-4:45, and was up at 5:30. So another 45 minute nap. But that was ok, because I was going to wake him after an hour anyway, so that his nighttime wouldn't be too messed up. He didn't start showing signs of being tired again until 8 or so, so we started his bath at 8:15, and he was asleep by 9pm. After a day full of crappy cat-naps, I'm hoping tonight won't be a bad night.

Night 4/Day 5

Sunday Night/Monday Day

Last night was a little bit of a regression. He was up a few times last night. First he was up at 12:00am, and it took him about 30 minutes and Tylenol to fall back to sleep. He wasn't just crying - he was screaming this time. They he was up again at 4:30. He was screaming like he was in pain again, and it had been 4 hours, so I gave him more Tylenol. Then he was up for a third time at 5:20am. This time, he seemed like he was really hungry. I tried to get him back to sleep, and even tried picking him up and rocking him, but he tried to latch onto my shoulder. He became frustrated when I put the pacifier in his mouth, because it wasn't my boob. After about 15 minutes, I realized that I wasn't going to get him back to sleep without feeding him, so I brought him into bed and nursed him. He fell asleep, and instead of leaving him in the bed, I put him in his crib. He stayed there asleep until around 7am, when the barking dogs woke him (those bastards!). He ate again, and we stayed in bed until around 8am.

His whole day was thrown off, though, because I had to drive up to Binghamton. I tried to time it so that he could take his nap in the car, but he only slept for 40 minutes, and was awake before I even stopped the car. The same thing happened on the ride home, which would have been the time of his afternoon nap. He only slept for about 40 minutes, and again, was awake before arriving home. So basically, his naps and the 2-3-4 schedule went to hell today. I'm really "afraid" of what tonight will be like. He was overly tired around 4:45, so Matt and I decided it would be best for him to take a little nap, and just wake him up after an hour. We would then try to get him ready for bedtime around 9 or so. Well, he woke up on his own after less than an hour, which worked out well. However, he was extremely fussy and tired again by 7. So we started his bath at around 7:30, and he was asleep by 8:15. I was still nervous for what the night would bring. We shall see.

Since the recent development of Cael cutting a tooth, I'm not too sure if the horrible sleep patterns he started were due to teething, or a poor nap routine/poor habits. Either way, it looks like we're heading in the right direction.

Night 3

Saturday Night

More progress! Last night was another good night. He was asleep by 8pm, and slept until 3:15am. That's about a 7 hour stretch! He's getting better. He was a little fussy and crying, so I gave him some Tylenol after trying for 10 minutes to get him to settle down. His cries were pain cries, so I figured his gums were bothering him. In total, it only took me about 30 minutes to get him to sleep. And I sat on the floor next to his crib, out of sight, for the last 5 minutes. So he put himself to sleep, which I'm so proud of him for. He was whimpering while dozing off, and I felt so bad for him. I just wanted to pick him up and cuddle him, but that would have done more bad than good. He was doing good soothing himself with his pacifier, so the last thing I should do is interrupt that. He then slept from 3:45 am to 6:15am. We stayed in bed until 7, so I considered that his wake-up time, and based his naps off that for the rest of the day. So far, so good. Keep up the progress, Cael!

Night 2 Of 2-3-4

Friday Night/Saturday Day

Last night was the second night after we started Cael's new nap schedule, following the 2-3-4 idea. And today was day 3, technically.

Last night was another success! Even better than the night before. Cael was in bed asleep by 8:30pm. He only had 2 naps yesterday, which was the goal. His first nap, I woke him after 2.5 hours, and his second nap, he woke on his own after 1.5 hours. So, here's the awesome news: Cael slept from 8:30 pm to 6:45 am!! It wasn't strait through, but it might as well have been. He woke up twice, but for no longer than 10 minutes, and there was no screaming involved. He first woke at around 1:30am crying, but not screaming. I went in, gave him his pacifier back, and he stopped crying. He fussed for about 5 minutes, but eventually fell back to sleep. Without really getting into a full-on crying episode. Then he woke again at 4:30. I did the same thing - went in and gave him his pacifier. Except this time, he fell right back to sleep. No crying. It was amazing!

I feel so lucky to have heard about the 2-3-5 nap schedule. I posted in our Facebump group about it, and now another SP is trying it out. She wanted to drop her baby's third nap, so hopefully this will help her out. So far, I'm loving this nap schedule, and I'm convinced it's the answer to Cael's sleep problems. Thank.You!

His days have even improved. He would always be happy and cheerful in the morning, and as the day went on, he'd get fussier and crankier. However, since the new routine, he's been surprisingly pleasant throughout the day. It just seems too much of a coincidence to not be a result of the new nap routine. Hopefully the progress continues!

Revamping Of Sleep

So we started a new schedule for Cael's sleeping patterns yesterday afternoon. After researching the 2-3-4 nap schedule, and reading positive reviews about it, we decided to do that as closely as possible. Cael didn't really get a "real" morning nap yesterday because we were out all morning for his appointment. But he was ready for his afternoon nap by 2 pm. He slept from 2-4:30pm, in which we woke him, as we don't want him sleeping too much past 2 hours. He was surprisingly pleasant. Going by the schedule, 4 hours later would be his bed time, which would be 8:30. However, as each baby is different, you have to adjust the schedule accordingly. Cael didn't make it to 4 hours, but was ready for bed 3 hours after waking, at 7:30. We started his bath at about 7:10, got him into his jammies, read him a story and got him into bed. He was asleep by 7:45.

Notice how I didn't mention that I fed him. He had carrots at around 6:30, and nursed after that (I know, tsk tsk - he should have nursed before the carrots. I have to get used to that). Because he had eaten at that point, we decided to just get him into bed since not a lot of time passed. Cael slept for 6 hours! Let me repeat: Cael had a 6 hour stretch of sleep. Something that I can't remember the last time happening. He woke up at 2 am s-c-r-e-a-m-i-n-g. Although it will suck for Matt and his brother, who is right above Cael's room, we decided it's best to follow the pedi's suggestion, and stimulate him as least as possible when he wakes in the night. So after an hour of shhsh'ing, stroking, singing, rocking, patting, and non-stop screaming, he was asleep by 3am. And I did not feed him! I climbed back into bed, thankful, and Matt rolled over telling me I did a good job.

But it didn't last long. He was awake 10 minutes later. And he remained awake - and screaming - until 4am. This time, I limited how many times I picked him up, and just kept giving him the pacifier. I even just let him cry for a few minutes at a time, out of his sight, sitting on the floor. It was loud, and I felt bad for Matt, but he eventually put himself to sleep, while I was sitting on the floor.

Now, ideally, I would have climbed right into bed and went back to sleep. But unfortunately for me, I started urinary tract symptoms at around 2:30am, after going to the bathroom. I was so uncomfortable, that I couldn't sleep. I spent about 25 minutes just sitting on the toilet, because that gave me the most relief. I even contemplated bringing in the fold up table, putting my pillow on it, and falling asleep WHILE sitting on the toilet. But I didn't. I grabbed a pillow instead, put it between my legs/knees tightly, and eventually fell asleep (in bed) at 5:45am.

Cael, on the other hand, slept from 4-6:45am. Not a bad stretch, I guess. I figured he was up for the day, so I brought him into bed with me to feed him laying down. Well, he fell right back to sleep, so I did too. We slept until 8. Not a bad night overall, I guess. Yes, I had to deal with 2 hours of almost-non-stop screaming, but it beats being up every 2 hours throughout the night. I just hope tonight is the same, if not better.

So he was up at 8, meaning his morning nap should be around 10. I had made a doctor appointment for myself, because by the time we got up, I was peeing blood. So much blood, the toilet water was red. And when I say red, I mean red. So my appointment was at 10:30, and I really didn't want to mess around with his naps, so luckily, Matt's dad was home upstairs. I laid him down at 10 for his nap, and he fell right to sleep. He slept until I woke him up at 12:30pm! We're off to a great start for the day. I fed him and got him ready to go out to Walmart. I needed to do some food shopping, since I was away for 1.5 weeks, and Matt doesn't do food shopping. By the nap schedule, Cael should be ready for his afternoon nap by 3:30, so I had to keep him occupied so he didn't get tired and cranky before then.

Cael did really well between his morning and afternoon nap. He really does enjoy going out. He seemed tired at 3, so I laid him down, expecting him to fall asleep. But after some fussing and whining, he eventually fell asleep by 3:30. I took this opportunity to take a nap too, instead of doing the overflowing mountain of dishes that have to be cleaned. Cael was happily awake at 4:30, and since he wasn't crying, I stayed in bed until a little before 5, and then we got up.

We were planning on Cael being ready for bed between 7:30 and 8:30. After nursing and carrots for dinner at 6:30, he happily stayed in his high chair while we ate a late dinner, until 7:30! He was just happy. Matt asked Cael who the new baby was, and told him that it was nice to not have him fussing like he normally would be at that time. Cael had had about enough by 7:30, and started crying, so we got him ready for his bath. I fed him again (hopefully that helps tonight), and he was asleep by 8:15. Now we just have to see what the night brings.

So far, I've noticed a change in Cael's attitude this afternoon. He seemed more happy, especially after napping. I will update tomorrow about how the night goes tonight.

Failure

We had Cael's 6 month appointment today. He got 3 shots and his last oral vaccine. This visit also made me feel like a complete failure as a mother, since it appears everything we've been doing is either "wrong" or backwards. ::sigh:: And I thought I was doing a good job. My anxiety has now increased remarkably after this appointment. Xanax anyone??

So for starters: 1) Cael was 15 pounds 14 ounces, 26.5 inches long, and HC of 17.5. His weight is in the 19th percentile. I had posted about 2 months ago that Cael dropped to the 5th percentile from the 50th. I was misinformed, and at that point (4 months), he dropped from the 50th to the 25th. The doctor was slighted concerned at that point, but not horribly. Now as of today, he's still falling off his curve, and is down to the 19th percentile. But the pedi continues to not be horribly concerned, since Cael is "ahead of the curve" and "developing wonderfully and very alert." We go back in 6 weeks to check his weight again. I know it's not a supply issue, because that's fixed now. I actually get engorged from time to time now.

2) Spin-off of #1: We were feeding Cael 4 tbsp of cereal twice a day. I'd feed him the cereal first, then give him the boob. Turns out that I should have been giving him the boob FIRST, then giving him cereal, so he doesn't fill up on cereal. According to the pedi, they get most of their nutrition from breast milk/formula, and that the cereal is more for iron, and to get baby used to texture, taste and eating off a spoon; and that cereal isn't really a nutrition/weight gaining aid. Therefore, if they get more cereal and less milk, they start to slow in the weight-gain department. He said Cael's the 6th baby he's seen this week who is falling off the charts, and the common link is that they're getting more solids, and drinking less milk/formula. Makes sense.

3) Going off of both #1 and # 2 (hehe, I said #2): I got the impression from the pedi that it's not important to be starting Cael on fruits and veggies at this point, especially since he's not gaining as much as he should be. Goes back to the "getting more cereal/solids and less milk..." thought process. He said solids too, aren't entirely for nutritional purposes, and that it's more important to be getting milk/formula at this point. I asked him when solids become for nutrition, and he said 1 year old. All this from the doctor, as I got a side-eye from the nurse when I told her he was only getting cereal at 6 months old, and not fruits. "Is that because he told you not to, or..." was the nurses response. I told her it was for personal reasons, to which she replied, "oh (enter pause)...ok". Made me feel real good. But I'm glad the pedi didn't make me feel like that, and supported what we had decided at his 4 month appointment - to wait until 6 months, at least, to start fruits/veggies. SO, he said it's our choice whether we want to start fruits/veggies now or wait a little longer, that it's not something we need to do right now. Just as long as he's nursing enough. That's what he stressed most. We may start out 1 tbsp of a veggie once a day, just to get him started, but I will make sure he nurses first.

4) Cael's sleep patterns are ALL OFF. According to the pedi, he has the sleep schedule of a 2 month old. For the past 2 weeks, Cael has been getting up every 3 hours MAX at night, starting at 12:30. And oddly enough, it's ALWAYS 12:30 on the dot. Before that, it was every 4 hours or so. I was told last month by the pedi not to feed him at night, because he doesn't need to eat at night at this point in age. But Cael still wakes SCREAMING bloody murder, and it takes me about 45 minutes to get him back to sleep (holding, singing, rocking, sleeping on me, anything), and he's still up 2 hours later anyway. That's when I feed him (usually around 2:30am) because at that point it's been 6 or so hours since he's eaten, so I thought he would be hungry. That's a big no-no. Unless of course, the pedi said, that we enjoy getting up every 3 hours at night, and don't want sleep. We've (or more I, since I get up with him) have gotten Cael into a horrible sleep pattern, and we have to break it. Turns out he sleeps too much during the day, which could also be why he's waking at night, although he's still clearly tired. I also have to NOT feed him at night, and break him of that, too. Completely. He said it's going to be hard, and that parenting isn't easy, but it may take 1-3 weeks to get him onto a more "normal" schedule. He should be napping 2 times a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon; not the 3 naps for 2-3 hours each that he was doing. And here I thought I was doing good because I had a "good napper". WRONG. So it's not only going to be hell getting him to stay asleep at night, but it's going to be hell keeping him awake during the day, when he would usually take his 2nd nap. Ohandplusalso, he said that he shouldn't be napping before he goes to sleep, and that he shouldn't get solids before going to sleep.

I've heard of the 2-3-4 nap schedule (although I was so overwhelmed by everything the pedi was saying, that I didn't ask him about it), so we may give that a try. I did more research on it after his appointment this morning. Basically, it says that 2 hours after the baby wakes up for the day, they get their first (morning) nap. Three hours after waking from that nap, they go down for their afternoon nap. Four hours after waking from that nap, it's time for bed.

He said that Cael's driving the car now, and that I need to be driving the car, and not let him decide to do what he wants. That we should develop a schedule; especially a better sleeping schedule. Oi veh. I have a long road ahead of me. I told Matt that I feel horrible about doing everything wrong, and his response? "Everyone messes up with the first child. Why do you think we are the way we are." We laughed at that, but still.

I know every pedi is different, and every baby is different, and that some of what my pedi told me may go against what other pedi's say. I guess there's no one perfect way to do things, and that they vary based on the baby. But I trust and love my pedi, so I'll be trying to do what he recommends.