First of all, I feel like jumping up and down because last night Chase went 9 hours without eating! I know that this is a perfectly normal thing for a 5 and 1/2 month old to do, but it's something special for Chase. Ever since he was about 3 months old, he's been waking up every 2-3 hours to eat at night. If I could go back in time, I would stop myself from rushing in to feed him every time he woke up... but I had no idea that it would turn into such a habit and it's obviously really hard to just let a baby cry (no other type of consoling would work). Plus in the middle of the night, you just want to go back to sleep as soon as possible, and feeding him was the easiest thing to do. Every once in a while I'd be awake and determined enough to let him just cry for a bit and get himself back to sleep... but every time that happened, he'd just wake up an hour later and we'd start all over again! So the last few months have been pretty rough for me, sleep-wise. I started reading books, trying to find a "sleep strategy," which is really something I never wanted to do. I wanted everything to just come natural and not force some kind of schedule or "training" on him. But since that wasn't working I decided to read LOTS of books. The one that I like the most is "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. I definitely agree with her overall parenting philosophy, but in the end the strategies didn't work too well for me because it seemed like I was doing everything she suggested with no results. I'm beginning to think that Chase's TWO new teeth have a lot to do with how much he wakes up. It's not that he's hungry, he just wants some comfort. So now that both teeth have broken through, he's been sleeping a lot more. Plus, one thing that I've learned is that you really have to work hard at putting a baby in his crib while he's still awake. You hear this advice from a lot of people, but it's not the easiest thing when your baby always falls asleep nursing... so I never really gave it much thought. But the last week or so I've been very conscious about feeding Chase way before naptime or bedtime so that when I put him in his crib, he can kind of teach himself to fall asleep. Anyways, last night was great. He went to bed at 8pm as usual and woke up at 11pm as usual. I quickly fed him then, mostly because Eric was on a business call and I wanted to keep things quiet. The next time I heard Chase crying was 3am. He wasn't crying really loud and I decided to just lay in bed for a while and listen to see if he'd go back to sleep, which he never does, but last night he DID! He was only awake for a few minutes! So I fell back asleep and woke again at 5am. This time I was sure he would need to eat, so I got out of bed and walked to his room. As soon as I got to his door, he stopped crying. I kept waiting for him to start up again like normal, but he didn't... and he slept until 8am! It was a miracle! I'm probably jinxing things by getting so excited and writing about it on my blog, but hopefully not! We'll see how things go tonight. I wanted to post something about this anyways because lately I've been feeling like I have no idea what I'm doing. I told my mom that it's like I'm walking down the hallway of motherhood blindfolded, and everyone else in here can see. It seemed to me that everyone else's baby sleeps perfectly and everyone else has some kind of plan for how their baby will eat, sleep and play. I know it's not true, but it's how I feel sometimes. I wanted to write all of this down so that if someone out there is reading this and going through the same thing, just know that you're not alone!
In other news, I made my first baby food yesterday. I bought a mango, cut it up and put it in the blender! Really easy. When it comes to feeding Chase solids, I don't have much of a strategy there either, although I'm working on it. At first I just went to the grocery store and loaded the cart with baby food jars. I didn't really think about it much. But after going to the library and reading a few books on baby nutrition (reading is a dangerous thing for me!), I decided to switch to all organic foods. I'm not going to obsess about it and I'm still going to use up what I have, but I figure that if I can make a even tiny difference in his health for not much money or effort, then why not? I also decided to try to make a few foods for him that aren't readily available in jars. Like mango, avocado, broccoli, papaya, and zucchini. I think Eric and I will enjoy trying some of the new foods as well. And Berkeley and Elvis. They always enjoy sampling whatever Chase is eating!
And finally, last Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary and Chase stayed with a non-family babysitter for the first time! We're lucky enough to have a neighbor who's in high school and has lots of experience watching her baby brother. She's great with Chase and it was so nice to get out for a baby-free meal with Eric! I probably worried about him a bit too much but it'll probably get easier and easier. Fortunately he's a perfect angel during daylight hours and only cries in the middle of the night!
2 comments:
I felt (and still feel) the same as you as far as the motherhood journey. Chase's sleep sounds just like my son's and I honestly don't think mine slept through the night until he was 1 year old. I hated to let him lay and cry and got up several times a night to give him a bottle. Do keep in mind that Chase is not waking up BECAUSE he is hungry (just like hunger doesn't wake us up), but once he's awake, he may then realize he is hungry. The older he gets the less you will have to worry about hunger as a factor in his not sleeping. And, it's so good that you're putting him in his crib awake. I didn't do that for the first year, either, but now I do it every night and sometimes my little guy is awake for 30 minutes crying, then jabbering, then throwing stuffed animals across the room, then taking off his pj bottoms (I'm waiting for the diaper to come off someday soon). Rest assured... you're doing a wonderful job.
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! i hope he keeps it up! tallon was NEVER, NEVER a good sleeper and I read lots of books and really struggled bc I was losing sleep but in the end I found that doing a late night feed worked well for tallon- feed him at 6 ish, again at 8 and than at 10 so maybe something like that might help Chase- each child is soo different but glad you had a great anniversary date and got some rest! and def glad he is learning to fall asleep in his crib- that was WONDERFUL when Tallon figured it out! so much easier!
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