First of all, I have no idea why I am naming my entries what I am the past two days. Well, yes, I do. I think it is called sleep deprived. Gee, I can’t even think of the word. You know that word when you are wacky from lack of sleep?
Well, it will probably come to me by the time I’m done writing.
We took Caroline to the doctor today for her four month appointment. She was so good for the doctor and we could tell he enjoyed her. We then turned her over to the torturers nurses for her shots. The first time she had her shots (at two months) it didn’t bother me at all. I actually felt kind of bad it didn’t bother me since I hear all these stories about moms crying when their babies get shots. But I was able to steel my heart and emotions, distancing myself from it so I didn’t get emotional.
Well, today I got weepy so I guess that makes me a good mom now. 😉
Caroline was a trooper. She screamed briefly when the pain hit, cried hard briefly, and then was pretty fine. The nurses said she did better than most babies.
That’s my girl.
We also learned that she is no longer in the 90th percentile in her length. She’s 97+%. Yeesh. I can hear the college basketball recruits calling already. It truly would be ironic if she ended up playing basketball because as much as I love watching college men’s basketball I find women playing basketball one of the most boring sports known to man. It ranks right up there with golf and NASCAR. (Oh, I can see the flaming coming already! I’ve insulted three sports groups!) She’s also in the 95% in her head circumference so that brain must be growing quite well. Hmmm… Maybe basketball at a top tier school? Just kidding. I truly don’t wish that for her at all. I’m just trying to generate lots of controversial comments. 😀
Ok, about the sleep deprivation…
Caroline is four months old. She is not sleeping through the night. I sent one of my friends an email this morning that was a desperate cry for help. David and I are starting to really feel the lack of sleep. I mean, really feel it. Like it is starting to get a little a lot depressing. (And, please… if your child did not sleep through the night until 18 or 24 months, DO NOT leave a comment telling me about it. I really can’t hack it right now.) We talked with the doctor about it today and he said she probably needs more calories because she’s a big girl. (Although her weight is only 80% so she’s not chunky, just nice.) Anyhoo, we’re going to start her on rice cereal this week and put her to bed an hour later and see if we might — MIGHT — be able to get six hours of uninterrupted sleep. I’m not even shooting for ten to eleven here, folks. I’d be THRILLED with six at this point.
So, anyone want to share their silver bullet story of how they got their child to sleep through the night? Beyond practicing the eat/play/sleep cycle which we have been doing near religiously for the past four months?
And about Tarjay…
I’m not a fan of consumerism and mass marketing, but you have to really love Tarjay. Good quality stuff for reasonable prices. You can get almost anything there. And I never feel cheap or dirty afterwards like I do if I go to Walmart. (Hey, I’ve insulted everyone else tonight! I might as well make the Walmart people mad too!) So while we’re on the topic of Walmart, go check out the new poll.
Slap happy. That’s what you call it. 😛
If You Don’t Have Time To Do That Which You Love
I’ll just share what we did: We actually put our daughter to bed EARLIER (like between 7 and 7:30) after some cereal and then did a “dream feed” (just mama’s milk) at around 10 – 11, when we would wake her up just enough to top her off. That would often afford me 5 or 6 hours of sleep, which when I was in your shoes felt like 10. Maybe you could switch off who does the dream feed and the other one can hop in bed around when Caroline does. Good luck!
Solids got my little guy to sleep through the night. Like Caroline, he’s in the higher percentiles, and, like your doctor indicated, he needed the extra calories to make it through the night. Once he started packing in the cereal and then the yummy fruits and veggies his nights were much more restful for all of us! He just turned 1 this past Friday and I am still ever so thankful for the restful nights that we’re having these days.
I don’t know if you breastfeed or not. If you do, then put the baby in bed with you! When she’s hungry, roll over and go back to sleep while she nurses. If not…
Babies at 4 months sometimes still have the tongue thrust reflex (if you put something, like say, rice cereal in their mouth they spit it out- they thrust their tongue automatically.)
Get some baby bottle nipples and use a sharp knife to cut an “x” in the tip – make a bigger hole (don’t make a hole though, make an x or it will just leak everywhere.).
Don’t put her to sleep eating the cereal – aim to feed it to her an hour or so before bed (or you’ll have quite a time weaning her from her night bottle when she has teeth!)
Don’t mix it with juice or really sweet things (again, you’ll have a tough time weaning her if you start her sweet tooth, also the juice will spike her blood sugar and then make it crash later, which could wake her).
Start small – add a little bit to her formula the first night, then a tiny bit more the next, then a little more – if you hit her with a big glob of the stuff all at once you’ll have a rebellion! Not to mention that she could get an upset tummy.
Be prepared for the poopies to change. It’s okay.
And, Sallie, when she naps in the daytime… take a nap. Really. I mean it. It’s the only way to make it through. Which would make a nicer happier home, folded socks and mopped floors, or a coherent woman managing it all?
Hope this helps!
Milehimama
Mom of almost 7
Mama Says
Oh, I forgot to add – you may try adding a mashed banana to the mix. It has potassium and tryptophan in it which can make you sleepy! Plus, most babies love it. Don’t introduce more than one new food a week though.
Mama Says
Oh, how I remember what that was like. When you haven’t been able to sleep for so long you forget what eight hours of sleep feels like.
I remember at the time, with our son, telling my husband I know knew why they use sleep deprivation in POW camps.
My daughter had slept through the night at six weeks. She was a 9 lb. baby so the doctor had us start her on rice cereal because he thought she needed more food and that worked…blissful sleep…six weeks. I’ll pray…
I don’t have any advice… and I can’t comment about my kids (at least not till yours is sleeping through the night, lol). I hope you get lots of good advice and I pray that you’ll be sleeping soundly again soon.
Blessings,
Theresa
I bet solids will help. Are you “clustering” the last feeds of the day? For example, if you are on a 3 hour schedule, consider moving to a 2.5 at the end of the day in order to get more in and afford maybe an earlier last feed.
before long, she’ll be sleeping like an angel and you’ll think, “that wasn’t so bad…”!
Hi Sallie!
I remember reading a while back that Caroline’s bedtime was 6 or 7 in the evening, and then you arose to feed her in the middle of the night, between 1 and 3? Was that right? I will tell you that whenever I begin to say my child is “sleeping through the night†they are sleeping about 8 hours from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next. If you are using the hours that she is sleeping to work, it may be that it’s not she who is not sleeping, but rather you! 🙂
You seem like a very productive person, and I am sure it is hard to put work aside and go to bed when the baby is sleeping, but if you are desperate for sleep, this may be the solution. Maybe it would help if you had a late evening feeding. Around here, a baby’s last feeding usually begins at 9:30 or 10 until that baby is at least 6 months old. This makes sure that my husband and I don’t get up any earlier than the alarm clock demands.
I am sure the solids will help, too. I’ve never had to do that so young, but I am told by many friends that rice cereal can be a miracle.
Anyhow, I will be praying for you. I know what it’s like to start getting the Crazy Look in your eye! 😀
We stuffed our girls as full as possible before putting them to bed. It helped. I can totally relate to the whole sleepless thing and am praying for you.
My husband and I had twins 3 years ago. The best thing I found to do was to go to bed when my husband came home from work. I could then sleep 4-5 hours until he went to bed. Then I would take the rest of the night with the babies. I was assured a solid block of sleep and so was he. It does cut down on your time together, but it definately helped a lot. I just wish I had learned it earlier!
I don’t have children, so I can’t really offer any advice, just hugs and prayers. Sleeping when Caroline is sleeping though sounds like a great idea.
Since I’m smack in the middle of the same thing and have no advice at all – I’ll just make sure you’ve seen Shannon’s latest post over at Rocks in My Dryer about these early years and Holly’s post over at Seeking Faithfulness about kind of the same…both were so encouraging and blessed me even in the middle of my slap happy delirium.
I don’t know how to do the links inside the comments (I’ll learn someday when I have a few minutes to myself to think clearly) so here’s the links I mentioned, respectively:
http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2007/01/to_the_young_mo.html
http://seekingfaithfulness.wordpress.com/2007/01/27/dear-mom/
I won’t tell you when my first slept through the night but we had extenuating circumstance with her. My younger two, however, slept through (6 hours is through for me) at four months and 4 weeks respectively I thought I was in heaven! Anyway cereal was a miracle worker for us as well. And with my youngest we learned quite early that he slept a lot better on his stomach — I know what they say put them to sleep on their back but he just didn’t sleep that way — still doesn’t but put him on his stomach and he will sleep soundly — just like his momma!
Sallie, I think I remember you saying that Caroline goes to bed early as an earlier comment said. You mentioned putting her to bed a little later. This really worked for us. Selena, who is almost 5 months old, now goes to bed between 10:00-10:30 …. and we scaled that back from 11:30! We went to bed when she did, and she was sleeping from 11 – 5 for a while at 3 months … and then she went longer and longer. Then we scaled her bedtime back gradually (this is stll a work in progress!)
We started solids at 4 months and she LOVES them. We only introduce one new food at a time, so she has built her repertoire slowly. I think the sleeping has gotten sounder and longer since we started.
We were also noticing that Selena was keeping herself awake with her busy hands. We reintroduced swaddling, and it works to keep her sleeping soundly.
It is so hard to be sleep deprived. I really hope you find something that works for you. There have been a lot of good comments already. And by the way, Caroline is beautiful.
I got a kick out of this post! I agree about women’s basketball, nascar and target, I mean, tarjay. 🙂 My husband is a big golf fan though so we do have to watch it every now and then.
The only advice I can think of to maybe help little Caroline to sleep through the night would be to monitor her naps during the day more and shorten them or have her give up one, depending on how many she is taking. I remember this working for one of my babies. I also think starting her on cereal is a good idea. Hopefully someone gives you an idea that will help! I know how much fun sleep deprivation isn’t!
-Darcy
I have 4 children: 23, 21, 19, and 18. They all slept through the night at 6 weeks because I made them. They cried a lot the first several days but it lessenes everyday and within a week they were sleeping the whole night. It’s difficult to hear your baby cry so much and not being able to comfort them but it is well worth it. They have all been great sleepers, never any nightmares and they loved their beds. They are happy and secure adults. I highly recommend it!
Okay, I think I have nothing to add about babies sleeping 😀 except that they all do it eventually :D.
But on “Tarjay,” I looked at that word and wondered, what on EARTH is “Tarjay?” Is that some new discount store, sort of like Target?
Perhaps it’s because there WASN’T a Target in our county until a few years ago — maybe even 2 years ago or less? I have been there ONCE. It was fine. No different to me from Walmart (sorry, everyone), but probably less packed. And not too close.
And NOW I read in the paper that “plans are underway” to introduce a Target to OUR TOWN!!!???!!! Aaaaahhh!@! Think, it used to be a little country town.
Strange. Truly strange. (We also NOW have a Holiday Inn Express.) TRULY WEIRD.
🙂 Susan
Can’t coomment on Walmart as we don’t have it..although I believe they own our Asda stores. My nearest is over an hour away.I turned to formula to get Daniel to sleep. He too is a tall baby and he was simply hungry. I remember the joy of getting four hours sleep- it was fantastic 🙂
Wow. I’m so offended. 😉
I call Target, “Walmart for yuppies.” Yes, I do go there sometimes. It sure smells better, there.
I didn’t really have any problem getting any of my babies to sleep. Both of my kids are perfect…NOT!
Hope you figure out a solution soon.
Hi, Sallie. I know there are formulas out there that are higher in calories than others. Maybe you could feed Caroline the higher cal (high octane:)) formula at her last feeding and see if it sustains her longer.
Don’t be surprised one morning when you and David wake up in a terrified panic because y’all slept all night!!!
The book “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” saved my health and sanity when my third child was 6 months old. I had never read the information contained in this book anywhere else and believe me, by the time I had my third I had read a lot about getting your baby to sleep.
I am with you on Tarjay. Much better quality.
I too was going to say to sleep with her, and fill her up an hour before bedtime. My blessing’s always been tall (most folks think she’s 5 and she’s 3!) so she needed a bit more to get her through.
I have no great words of wisdom, only that I understand and it does get better. Hope you find something that helps you at this time.
Wow. I am always so amazed at the kindness and helpfulness of folks online.
A couple general things…
We’ve tried topping her off numerous times. The other night we topped her off at 11 pm and she still woke up and ate at 3:30 am. It just doesn’t seem to work.
Re: napping. I have tried to take naps… I really have. I’ve never been a good napper even before I was pregnant/became a mom. They just don’t seem to work for me.
Re: stuffing her late… She will only drink what she wants and nothing more. Tonight, for example, she would only drink 2 ounces at bedtime. Her appetite is not consistent which is like most people in reality. But we can try to move her feeding and fill her up before we put her down and she will have nothing to do with it.
We didn’t get started on the cereal today. Too much going on and we were too tired. But we plan on doing that tomorrow.
I appreciate all the other suggestions and links even though I haven’t commented on each one. I’ll read them all again I’m sure looking for ideas that will work.
We need to find a solution. I need to be able to work and right now I’m so tired and mentally fatigued that doing any kind of serious work (more serious than blogging!) is just beyond me. I am sure our ages are a huge contributing factor. We are “old”. Maybe not old as far as a lifetime goes, but old to be parents of a first child. I know I do not have the stamina I had ten or fifteen years ago. I know that this winter weather and lack of exercise isn’t helping either. That will change soon and will be helpful.
Re: Target… Walmart for yuppies… LOVE IT. Don’t know if that is original with you, Zan, but I loved that one. 😀
read your sleeping post. my boyo is 19 months, was never a good sleeper. I learned two things… one, sleep when he sleeps. and two, encourage naps during the day. More sleep in babies, encourages more restful sleep at night. Changes when they hit about 18-24 months when they are starting to give up long naps. And just so you know…it will come. 🙂