Thursday, January 18, 2007

Changes

Why in the world would a 4 1/2 month old child who has been sleeping through the night since she was 6 weeks (12-13 hours a night) all of a sudden be able to sleep no longer than 5 hours at a stretch and be eating a full bottle when she wakes up crying? Since we switched to all formula 2 days ago Dorothy has not slept through the night. I find it hard to believe that it is the formula change, but I have no idea what else it could be. I was already doing 2/3 formula before the switch. She was up once night before last and 3 times last night (one of those times she was able to cry herself back to sleep). It is much harder to deal with her fussy days when I am running on empty.

I still have milk (only pumped 4 oz after a day and a half) so it may not be too late to get the supply up again, but I want to throw this pill from the highest window. I hate it. Now I feel like if I did need to switch back to breast milk and try an elimination diet for her likely food sensitivities, I can't because you can't nurse on the pill. Plus the fact that I can't sleep AT ALL. I lay there for 2 hours trying to fall asleep. And now with the baby waking up it is the same thing every time I have to get up and lay back down. I have gotten way less sleep than David in the past few days. He's in there sleeping soundly right now when I am running on 3 hours of sleep. He's even sleeping a quite a bit later than me on days that he doesn't have to work while I do pretty much everything with the baby and around the house. Thanks to the swing shift. He was helping out with the baby a lot before he switched to swing.

I'm sitting here awake, but so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. The minute I try to sleep, I can't.... even though Dorothy is actually sleeping right now.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you are right about the formula she was doing better so you are doing the right thing.
It sounds like she may be teething. Do her gums feel softer than normal, kind of mushy? Try tylenol before bed or when she wakes up fussy. Or a cold teething ring to chew on.
It lasted a long time with Cameron but tylenol helped and just knowing helped.
Hang in there and good luck. Next time David has a day off tell him you need a break. Yu don't have to be super Mom all the time. Aaron and I take turns sleeping in (my idea). Before we were like you guys and I was always getting up and it just made me grumpy and resentful.
Good luck! call or email anytime.

Catherine said...

Sounds like a growth spurt.
Common times for growth spurts are during the first few days at home and around 7-10 days, 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months and 9 months (more or less). (from Kellymom.com)
Hang in there. I don't know what you've tried, but we always mixed in a little bit of Mylicon with Sam's formula bottles to help with "formula gas." Also, she's not too old to be swaddled...might give that a try too. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Oooh my Regan loved being swaddled! She couldn't get enough of being wrapped up like a biscuit. DEFINITELY alternate sleeping in. I think my husband finally realized he needed to get up in the middle of the night when I started sobbing one night before bedtime because I just couldn't handle the thought of getting up in a few hours. While I'm sure your line of thinking is that you don't "work", of course you should be getting up with her each and every time, this method had been proven by me that it does not work! :) What we ended up doing is alternating nights of who got up with Regan. And if there was one night where she got up mulitiple times we would try to switch off so the other one wouldn't lose it while pleading with her to go back to sleep.
I think your body is not letting you fall asleep because it does not want only 2-3 hours of sleep, it is trying to tell you "WE NEED A FULL 8 HOURS WOMAN!!!" Just knowing that tonight is your husbands night to get up with her can help your body relax enough to fall asleep. And once you get over the "he's totally doing it wrong!" that every wife thinks about her husband you'll find that 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep is totally acceptable.

or at least, that's what worked for me.

Anonymous said...

it could be an ear infection. does she have a fever?

my4kids said...

I agree with Catherine sounds like a growth spurt to me. They eat different and sleep different just randomly sometimes when they are getting ready or in the middle of a growth spurt. Has she recently started eating more before this or sleeping more or seemed like she was a little chubbier? I always know (even still) when my kids are getting ready for a growth spurt because they act like they are hungry all the time and especially with Maddie still I will notice her belly bigger then all of a sudden it goes away and she is taller. They can be pretty cranky then some times to. Do you remember when you were a kid and had growing pains? Some kids have them worse. Kenzie used to get really fussy during a growth spurt and now I know she gets bad pains in her legs everytime she has a growth spurt.