[flagsurrender]

OK, I'm going to start with a disclaimer. I am exhausted. It's going on 7 am after losing an hour of sleep for DST but really... Grace didn't sleep AGAIN last night. And I am just feeling at the end of my rope with this. So forgive me if I complain more than anything else. [sadashamed]


So, last Saturday night was pretty much the same. I posted about that in the Gripe Forum. But after considering everything, we took her to the doc last Sunday and sure enough she had a sinus infection. Her sleep this week *has* been better, slowly improving and then the last night or two, just getting ridiculous... waking up every hour, half hour... two hours at most. [whatwacko]

I know the antibiotics she was on were causing problems with her tummy. She hasn't been regular this week but she did finally have a BM just the other day.

In the meantime, sweet girl is teething her 4 incisor teeth. Those have been a doozy. One is in and I don't think should be causing discomfort. The other 3 are slowly pushing through still. So that could have a lot to do with it.

But I just don't fully understand. I mean... why won't she go back to sleep?? Here's the timeline from last night and what happened/didn't happen. :cry:

7:30 - start bedtime routine
8:30 - I leave her room after having nursed her for at least 20/30 mins
10:30 - She *FINALLY* falls asleep
(during those two hours DH and I each have turns in there, consoling her, either rocking or leaving in her crib. I tried nursing again. Doesn't sleep till 10:30ish. Some of the time she was happy and just talking/playing in her crib.)
12:00 - She wakes up crying-crying (not just whining). So I go in there, nurse her back down, and she's out in minutes.
2:00 - She wakes up again, crying-crying. Again, go in there, she's back asleep in minutes.
2:30 - Wakes up, crying-crying. I am exhausted. DH goes in. She quiets down but is wide awake.
3:30 - I'm not sleeping, Grace isn't sleeping, Brock isn't sleeping. So I figure try some medicine in case it's her teeth. Give that to her.
4:30 - She is *still* awake. Just nursing. At which point, my nipples are irritated and I'm getting so tired from sitting in the rocker and nursing. I put her down in her crib, sit next to her, and even leave for awhile. She plays some but pretty much whines/cries. [crysad]
5:30 - She is *still* awake. I can't justify keeping her on the boob when she's awake and it's just making me cringe. :( Bring her downstairs, offer food. Not interested.

And here we are... somewhere in there the time changed too.


What are we doing wrong?? [sadashamed] I just feel like either I'm not being a good mom or something isn't right with Grace. This type of pattern just isn't normal, is it?? I mean, if it happened once or twice in a few months, OK, sure. But for this to be happening more and more often... I don't think so.

I don't mind BFing her still *IF* it's helpful. But I am starting to feel like it's not anymore. DH would prefer she be weaned by the time Charlie is here. I just wonder if that is too much change for Grace though. Get her off of BFing only to see a new little guy doing it all the time on her mommy... Am I overthinking this one?

Prior to the last few weeks she had been STTN or waking just once. I don't care about once a night waking. I can handle that. Nothing has changed in our routine, home, or schedule. So I can't figure out what is going on.

Sorry this is so long. I need to vent and stay awake while she is awake. And I just... ugh... want to know if I'm crazy... or... something? I can't think anymore. I'm going to stop typing now.

[whatwacko]

Micah went through a stage like that as did Lydia. Actually Lydia just came out of a phase like that, falling asleep at about 9pm just for her to wake up at 11pm and be wide awake until sometimes 4am!! So I feel your pain. But it lasted a few weeks and now we are back to her going to sleep at 8pm-ish and only waking in the middle of the night to feed. It could be a developemental stage or all of those teeth coming in at once. Lydia had about 6 coming in at the same time so that could have contributed to her waking up and stuff. It's my opinion that sometimes our kidlets go through big developemental stages or have these big changes and they just need that extra comfort. I know it's hard because you are heavily pregnant too! This too shall pass! Try and get a nap during the day if you can. Or have you thought about taking her in your bed with you until she passes this phase? That might at least get you some sleep. Lots of hugs!

Thanks Eva! Just knowing others have and are going through something similar is so helpful. When Grace was younger I was always remembered those things, like developmental milestones, as being reasons for sleep disruption. But it's true. Very possible that is it. Thanks for the reminder!

As for sleeping with us, we tried that last week. She did OK after a long time of crying and being weired out by it. DH and I don't mind so much, as long as she sleeps. I didn't try last night/this morning because she was so sensitive to anything we did, crying over very small things. And she kept pointing to and wanting us to be in her rocker.

Anyway, thanks! I did get to sleep and she is sleeping now. But now... how to recover from such a night and be on some type of normal schedule???

Oh, hon. [hug] Sleep deprivation while pregnant is awful! I would definitely go through and find the underlying issues if possible.

Being as interested as she is in nursing at this stage, it would probably be a big project to wean her in the next month. It would probably be easier to put off weaning until at least a couple of months after the new baby is born, to prevent too many transitions all at once.

I found that tandem nursing was a godsend to smooth the sibling transition.

Tandem nursing was much easier than pregnant nursing, no sore nipples and it was like having an extra hand to take care of the kids.

We've had nights like that with our kids too. Alanna has had several like that in the past couple of weeks. It is *so* hard! I think that for Alanna it's a combination of developmental (she's on the verge of figuring out how to crawl), teething (she's cutting two teeth) and we're also suspicious that having her nap schedule disrupted contributes as well (the worst nights have always been the night following a day when her morning nap was disrupted because of being at church). Anyway, no wonderful advice here, just wanted to say been there, doing that and it won't go on forever. I hope you get a better sleep tonight!

Here's hoping you can figure something out. I don't have any good words of wisdom... But I'm sure the teeth are part of it.

Also, in my experience once you have them weaned of night nursing they sleep so much better. They get used to having you nurse them back to sleep, so that is the only way they will settle down again. So it does take some time of getting them adjusted to going back to sleep without nursing. I would just rock and not nurse until the realized they weren't gonna get fed. And eventually they learned it wasn't worth waking mom up if 'she just rocked me'. I worked it down to where I would try to just lay them down in their bed without rocking.

It takes work, but is worth it. And I'm sure it would be worth working towards before the new one comes. Getting up that much with Grace and then a newborn yet too, you won't be getting much sleep!!!

I'll be praying for you both!! As you try to figure it out... these things are never easy to sort out.

Me and sleep deprivation are NOT a good combo! So I definitely feel your pain... although CANNOT imagine it on top of being pregnant. [whatwacko]


Also, in my experience once you have them weaned of night nursing they sleep so much better. They get used to having you nurse them back to sleep, so that is the only way they will settle down again. So it does take some time of getting them adjusted to going back to sleep without nursing. I would just rock and not nurse until the realized they weren't gonna get fed. And eventually they learned it wasn't worth waking mom up if 'she just rocked me'. I worked it down to where I would try to just lay them down in their bed without rocking.


I have zero experience with night weening but am very interested in it as I know we will get to that point eventually. Just wanted to also add that I read one mother say somewhere that she would give her child water when he/she woke up at night during the weaning process. The child didn't think it was worth getting up for just water either! LOL

Thanks so much ladie for all the input. Again, so helpful to know it's *not* just me, or her, or whatever. :)

It happened again last night though... Which is strange since when this has happened recently it's been a one time event, generally. Then maybe a week, at the soonest, it'd happen again. But two nights in a row??

So last night, she *did* fall back asleep as I was nursing her. That was awesome. But I could tell she wasn't fully asleep and wasn't comfortable (could be my big, ol' belly! ;-) ) I checked her diaper and, sure enough, it was completely soaked. Since we use CDs, and it was a fitted, I know that couldn't have been comfy. So I decided to change her, hoping she'd stay mostly asleep and just go back to sleep. Nope. She was awake after that. Sigh.

I did try to bring her into bed with us. Hoping she'd at least lay there. Haha! Noooo! She was just being silly, squirming, moving, talking... so DH said "OK, OK, I'm up! Let's go!" So he took her downstairs. It was 6am, so not tooooo ridiculous. ;-)

As for water at night, we've started to do that. She definitely likes to drink her water though! Even while nursing she'll stop, sit up, ask for the water, take a sip, and go back to it. I'm not sure how satisfying the colostrum is for her. LOL!

Otherwise, I did put some teething gel on her gums last night. She slept a nice long stretch to begin with. So maybe that's all it is. ?? But then I did put more on later and it didn't help her get back to sleep either.

We are meeting a new pedi on Wednesday. Her parenting/medical philosphies totally jive with ours, so I am super excited to meet her. I've been reading a lot on her website and just think it's going to be a good fit. She's a certified LC, goes to conferences for BF regularly, is a cosleeping, non CIO advocate. So I know I can trust her input on these things. Our last doc was OK but I never felt comfortable asking about sleep issues because she had told me multiple times before that leaving her to cry on her own won't 'damage' her. So I don't know...

ANYWAY...

I have managed to get some sleep. Thankfully it's DH's spring break this week. So here's to praying Grace grows out of this hard sleep issue. Poor baby girl.


Thanks again! Any other thoughts are always appreciated! :)

Ruth, again, thanks for the support in tandem nursing. Having not known anyone that has nursed a toddler, let alone tandem nursed, sometimes I feel so unsure of what I am doing! DH means well, he just wants to be able to help. He can't help if I am the only way she'll sleep. But this week we've been working on that... having him go in there too. He's been able to get her down a few times... takes some tears. But we're getting there.

As for now, I am leaning toward waiting. Let her get adjusted to Charlie and then wean. I just think if I do it now, she'll want to start up again when she sees Charlie doing it anyway. It's a natural response and it's all she's known. So yeah... that's what I'm thinking. With that thinking comes GREAT HOPE that she goes back to STTN or waking only once though...

Man can I relate, though I wasn't pregnant at the time. Oldest ds went through that for 2 weeks straight at times, clear up until he was about 1-1/2. It was a tough go. He would sttn a couple nights in a row and then right back at it, up ever 1 or 2 hours, at best, didn't like sleeping in our bed. He preferred to be with dh sleeping on the couch. It was a tough time. It would get worse with teething. I remember those days of sleep deprivation all to well. I hope things get back to 'normal' for you soon. Hang in there!

No problem, Michelle! Anytime! [hug]

When the right time comes, you'll know it. No point really to wean, just to have her ask to nurse again in a few weeks. ;)

We tandemed for about 19 months and when Hannah weaned, it was a happy and positive time. She watches her brother nurse all the time with no real jealousy. (although she does like to cuddle up against my chest still)

When we were tandem nursing, Hannah gained weight off of the newborn milk. Good thing, since she was on the petite side anyway.

This may have already been suggested.. my apoligize if I'm repeating but you may want to check her ears. If she just had a sinus infection it is quite possible it could have moved to the inner ear and that would definitely cause her restless nights! It's possible to have an ear infection with no other obvious symptoms.. ie:fever, red ears, ear pulling, ect. so don't rule it out completely if you don't see those typical signs.

Whatever it is I jope you are back to getting a good nights sleep soon! ((hugs))

Thanks Ash. Going to doc tomorrow and I'll have her double check everything since she did just have an infection. :)


But... PRAISE THE LORD! She slept 12 hours last night. Woke up once but went down again just fine! YAY!!!! She stirred and cried a few times, but I could tell she was still sleeping or mosty asleep, never fully waking up. So that was GREAT!!!!

She is in a wonderful mood today! I'm sure she feels better now! :D

Didn't read all replies thoroughly so I appologize if this is repetitious...

Have you gotten her an amber teething necklace? They are fairly decently priced and it'd be worth a shot...especially if she's teething. I have a friend at church who was skeptical when I suggested it, but eventually purchased one for her dd. She went from sleeping maybe 10-15 min at a time to 2 hours at a time!

Just Google 'inspired by Finn' and it will take you to a hyena cart website I believe.

HTH!

Hope you guys had a better night [hug]

We were chatting about cloth diapers at church one night and two of the Moms said they discovered by accident travelling on trips and using disposables that their kids suddenly slept through the night. They said when their kids reached a certain age being wet would wake them up. Maybe extra absorbency or trying a disposable might be worth a try.

Hope she is feeling better, we are going through a sleep change here with teething and sometimes missing or not getting a good nap. Hope you get some sleep.

so glad she sleeping better, hopefully it was just because she wasnt feeling better and now she will sleep better for you, I was going to ask about her napping, if she isnt sleeping much at night I wouldnt let her nap alot during the day because then it will eventually mess up her night and day, mine is 17mos old and I am having to cut down on his nap time, he used to do 3hr nap and then wasnt sleeping well at night so I cut his nap time to 2hrs and he is now back to sleeping good at night, and maybe caffeine? are you drinking anything with caffeine? maybe increased your caffeine intake? i know I am grasping straws lol I know your not supposed to have caffeine pregnant or if you must then very little, like I said grasping at straws to help you lol :)

Thanks again gals!

Grace has been sleeping better this week! I have confidence we'll make it to church this week! It seems like it's been forever! ;-)

I think it was a big mix of things. Teething, sinus infection, antibiotics, change in schedule (it was DST change), and probably even developmental.

The nights have been on and off good/not so good. But she's not waking up/staying up at odd hours anymore, so that's wonderful! :) And DH has been very supportive and helpful. I am so blessed with a great husband!

Kate, I haven't bought an amber necklace yet. Everytime I want to I don't seem to have the funds. They were even priced at a discount on babysteals.com recently and I just couldn't make it happen! I know they aren't much. Hopefully I can buy a few soon though! Thanks for ht esuggestion!


Kathaleen, yeah the diaper issue. I know a few times that was the problem. Everytime she'd wake up she'd drink more water AND nurse. So her diapers were getting SO SO SO soaked! It was crazy. I did a diaper change almost every night. We seem to be back down to no need for a diaper change and it hasn't been bothering her. Although, I know she is getting ready for potty training. She is very aware of when she is wet. It's more ME that doesn't want to deal with it yet. ;-)


Melinda, thanks for all your thoughts! So helpful! I don't have much caffeine intake. I eat chocolate. But that hasn't changed recently. ;-)
As for her naps, those vary day to day. We try to keep them closer to 2 hours. Some days I know she wants to sleep longer and I hate waking her up. But you're right... it does help at night!