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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Sleep Status

Last week's development and what we assumed was progress seems to be a one-time deal, at least for now.

Each night this past week Cayden woke three times to eat. A couple of times I tried to convince him he didn't need to eat, but his screaming protests assured me otherwise. And that's fine; I'm used to his thrice-nightly feedings, and I've figured out how to get the sleep I need.

However, putting him down for bed has suddenly taken a turn for the worse in the last week. Whereas he used to get very drowsy while nursing, then go down on the first try and stay asleep for four hours at bedtime, he now does none of that. As soon as I put him on my shoulder to burp him after his bedtime snack, he becomes alert and inquisitive again. And now it takes two or three tries to get him to go to sleep: bouncing to drowsy, then in the crib ... fussing ... back out and bouncing to drowsy, then in the crib ... fussing back out and standing and swaying to drowsy, then in the crib ... You get the picture.

And the best part (note the dripping sarcasm), is that now he consistently wakes up every hour between bedtime and his first feeding! So we now do this putting-baby-to-sleep dance three or four times before midnight. Definitely a team effort between Brian and I.

We tried abandoning the swaddle again earlier this week, but we're back to using it. Even if he has almost completely outgrown it's length.

And we tried bumping bedtime up to 7:30, hoping the whole earlier-to-bed, later-to-rise baby sleep pattern would take. But the earlier bedtime did nothing but piss him off and stress us out for an hour, until he fell asleep between 8:30 and 9, like he usually does.

Uggh. All the books say to maintain hope: what seems to be a developmental setback often precedes a real leap forward.

Here's hoping for that leap. And hey -- if it doesn't come, we've only got about another month until we're comfortable with Cayden's ability to handle Ferberizing, which has turned Kyra and Avery into great sleepers, their moms tell me.

Cayden is three months, three weeks and three days old.

1 comment:

MEM said...

Oh Liz, I feel for you... Sounds like it's a growth spurt or power struggle or maybe even teething related. This time I've got nothing but HUGS and commiseration. I vaguely remember a two week stretch like this right when I went back to work (16 weeks or so). I thought I was going to lose my mind - I swear. But all of the sleepless nights seem to melt into each other and I can't distinguish one horrible sleep issue from the next. Hang in there, you're doing great. Good luck with Ferber, I've heard that it works wonders!