Frostina is doing really well these days. Now that her colic has gone, she has revealed herself to be a happy, sweet, and very content baby. She's a joy to be around and I feel very blessed to have her in my life.
A few weeks back we started weaning her onto solids. I've jumped into this with two feet and am making my own baby foods. I've got this super cool steamer/blender combo machine and have been making lots and lots of baby purees. So far she's been a great eater and will happily try anything we give to her. Her favourite so far is mango.
As a result of adding solids, she has started sleeping through the night without needing to get up for a bottle. Not every night just yet, but quite a few so far. You would think this would have me jumping for joy,,,, right? It would if she was actually sleeping all night. But she's not quite there yet. As a result, I'm getting up more often with her than before,,,, and Mama is tired!
She wakes up at the time she would want a bottle (2 or 3 am) and I go into her room and pop the dummy/pacifier back into her mouth. If she's not hungry then she will go back to sleep, sometimes on the first try, other times it takes 2 or 3 tries.
On the nights that doesn't work I get up and feed her a very small bottle. Some nights she doesn't even finish that which reassures me that she doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night anymore. It's just a habit to get up and want to eat.
Regardless of whether she eats or not, we now have a new habit. Frostina will then wake up and start making noises every hour after that until it's time to get up. So if she first gets up at 2 then I will have to go back in and give her the dummy/pacifier at 3, 4, and then several times from 5-6am. That last hour is awful but I refuse to get her out of bed until 6am which I think is still pretty early.
It's driving me crazy and obviously affecting my sleep. I can't figure out what's going on. She might be teething, but she doesn't wake up unhappy or crying. I don't want to give her pain medicine every night "just in case" either. I want to only use medicine if she actually needs it.
I'm starting to wonder if maybe she just enjoys my company in the middle of the night?? Perhaps she's figured out that Mommy will come rushing in whenever she squawks and she's making a game out of it?
I am considering doing some sleep training, but they say not to try and sleep train when babies are teething. So since she's 6 and a half months old and no teeth yet, it's likely that she is teething.
But how do I know?
Dealing with the loss of a child is never easy, but it's even more difficult when you are an expat living far from home. Life will never be "normal" again and so now the challenge is to find my new normal. I am now back in the USA and the proud parent of two daughters, born using two different egg donors. "Frostina" and "Olea" are the loves of my life and I feel so grateful for the amazing women who donated their eggs and made my family possible.
I'm always reticent to give advice on other people's babies, but you did ask, so I'm thinking it's ok.
ReplyDeleteI think you would know if she is in pain, or even uncomfortable. You say "making noises" and not "crying". I think you should trust your instincts - mothers are usually right!
What you do about it is another question!
I agree with Iota, I think you would know if this was an uncomfortable cry. Or, at least, I think that her poor sleep would coincide with irritable-ness at night if she was teething. Personally, I would trial one night of giving some Advil at that 2am wake up just to see what that does. I think one dose of Advil would be less of a problem then doing sleep training with an uncomfortable baby, and would be very helpful in helping you really get a grip on what the problem is.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I would say, is to read the different theories before you try any of them, there is a lot of misinformation floating around out there.
Another thing you might consider trying, would be to one night leave five or six pacis in her bed. Maybe if it is easy for her to find, she will just pop it in on her own?
You mentioned that she was getting more solids during the day, and eating less at night. Try to see if she will take a little more formula during the day. Fruits and veggies don't have nearly the same amount of fats and calories as formula, so she may actually be a little hungry at night (even though I can see you are trying to rule that out by giving her the paci and bottle if she really asks for it - awesome idea, btw). So, maybe just try to add an ounce or two to her current bottles during the day, and see if that helps.
I think you are doing great. You are really trying to figure out your baby, instead of just doing knee jerk reactions of "cry it out" and feeding, and I think that is wonderful.
No advice here. Our 10-month old used to sleep through the night (for months!) and now he's going through sleep regression. He's waking about twice a night and will only go back to sleep if breastfed. It's not so fun...
ReplyDeleteI can only guess we're dealing with separation anxiety as he is very cuddly when I pick him up. That, and he's crawling and pulling up on everything and making more sounds everyday...
As for your 6-month old... she could be learning so much that sleeping is hard for her? Staying awake because her brain is overstimulated?
Who knows though. Babies are a mixed bag.
As I type this, B won't go down for a nap (despite being exhausted and showing all signs) and is crying in his crib. 100% guaranteed he's standing up.
Sigh.
My first thought was... Maybe she just misses you. Have you thought about just bringing her to your bed? I bet you would both fall back to sleep no problem. It's rough. I'm up all night still at a week short of 4 months for feeding and such n I know tired. But I also know its not forever, they grow out of it and so I roll with it easier because of that. Sending sleep vibesv to you and baby.
ReplyDeleteThinking of you and Happy 2013!
ReplyDeleteShell
http://lovingleiagrace.blogspot.com/2012/12/31-days-of-paying-it-forward.html
My experience: She's waking because of the pacifier. I've been through the same with two babies, and once I sleep trained to get rid of the pacifier, those wakings stopped.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, Mama! You're doing an amazing job.