sometimes dad knows best too

Well, I'm a bit hesitant to post this because I've jinxed myself before.  But we have so far had 4 nights of Sydney sleeping through the night!  I've gone 3 months with her waking 2-5x/night and me averaging 4 hours of sleep a night.  I had glimmers of hope along the way with little fixes here and there.  Each "fix" I'd post about all happy that my sleeper was about to return...not.so.much.  But now...now... she's sleeping 7:30pm - 5am.  I call that SUCCESS.  Yes, 5am is early.  But I'll take it!

So, how did it happen?  Some great insight on my part maybe?  No.  Daddy dearest had the key to success.

Tad commented that he noticed Sydney seemed to do better the later she went to bed.  I never made this correlation.  Heck, I've been too tired to notice when I need to brush my own hair.  Anyway, I wasn't convinced this insight meant she needed a later bed time because she is always rubbin' her eyes before I finally get her down.  So I started thinking and I began to wonder if maybe the later bed time was doing the trick only because it gave her more time to digest her dinner and thus causing less aggravation for her reflux.  So I decided to start feeding her dinner early at 4:30 pm, 3 hours before bed time.  Guess what, THAT NIGHT she started sleeping through the night!  HALLELUJAH!  

While it stinks she has to eat so early and later watch us while we eat dinner as a family at 6, I'm happy we have a key to help her sleep.  I'm also happy to know I finally have an understanding of her problem.  I should have suspected that this was entirely food related because our problems began when she started solids at 6 mo.  But she also started teething at that time so I just wasn't sure.  And then I started to wonder if we had a habit on our hands.  And then I got REALLY tired, making it impossible for me to really evaluate the situation well at all.  Poor baby girl has been given many doses of motrin in hopes that she'd sleep through the night in case it was her teeth bothering her.  Well, her doctor informed me last week that motrin has been known to aggravate reflux.  Lovely.  I can't believe how long it took me to figure this situation out and here I only made it worse along the way.  I suppose hindsight is always 20/20.

The great news is the Doctor ok'd the cancellation of some additional testing he ordered for Sydney.  He feels that this is a good solution to her problems and hopefully she'll outgrow the reflux and not always have to suck on teethers and avoid dairy while we indulge in front of her.

the return of sleepless nights?

I think I'm off to bed for a sleepless night.  At five months old our baby has sadly outgrown the swaddle blanket that I believe helped her to sleep through the night beginning at such a young age (6 weeks!).  It's called The Miracle Blanket and it kept Sydney snug and warm while she slept so soundly.  We are big fans of swaddling around here; it helped sooth both of our children very well.  I'm so thankful my friend Jessica recommended the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" because it introduced us to some fantastic infant soothing techniques, swaddling being one of them.  None of the techniques are earth-shattering.  In fact, they are quite simple.  But when you aren't used to being in "baby mode", and when you are sleep-deprived, it's nice to have a great source like this book to lay out soothing techniques that really work.

So, what do we do now that Sydney has outgrown swaddling?  She's kicking her way out of blankets (even tight swaddles) so it's certainly no longer safe to wrap her.  I remember being in this position with my son too but how can I forget what I did to get past it?  I suppose I probably wasn't getting any sleep and therefore don't remember it.  Anyway, tonight I have put Syd in one of those SleepSacks to at least keep her warm, but without that snug swaddle I worry she'll not sleep soundly.  And anyone who knows me knows that Mama needs her sleep!

Wish me luck,

Tricia