Sleepless Nights

Ever since I became pregnant with Preston I realized that I would go many many nights without a good night sleep after I was awakened every night having to go to the bathroom. This progressively got worse as he continued to grow and my bladder continued to compress. On top of that were the common discomforts such as back pain, and as it got closer to and eventually past my due date the braxton hicks contractions just added to it all. But, that was a time that I only have memories of... when I could still sleep for ten hours a night because I had no one but myself to take care of. I would sleep until I felt I had an adequate amount and then get up and ready for the day. Now it's a different story.

The first night after Preston was born he slept through everything even with all those people poking at him. He even slept through his shots believe it or not.

You think after just having a baby I would have been able to rest well for the first time in 9 months, especially since he was sleeping through the night. But no, the nurses were waking me up every few hours either to take my blood pressure or to tell me to wake him up and feed him. Unfortunately he refused to wake up every time and I was just losing more of my precious sleep.

Then we got home and the first night he was up every hour which was not fun, but after that we put him in his own room and I got up with him maybe four or five times at the most.

Amazingly at five weeks old my little angel had returned and began going 7 to 8 hours at a time without getting up in the night so I only had to feed him once and then get back to my own dreamland.

Unfortunately for me that didn't last long. At three months he was cutting two teeth and once again was getting up at least three times in the night. Luckily by the end of the month he was once again going at least 7 hours in the night and a once even went 12 which was probably the best day of my life. Why all the details you ask? I'm just trying to prove a point I guess, no other reason really, so I guess I'll continue with more details, just what you wanted I'm sure.

At five months he cut four more teeth and hasn't slept well since, even though his teeth are definately not bothering him anymore. At the same time he was getting those teeth he started eating solids and started crawling soonafter. Could these developmental milestones have anything to do with it?

Here he is now. My happy go lucky almost 7 month old boy with a toothy grin. (this picture is actually a month or so old) He's always smiling and of course always getting into trouble and I'm loving every minute of my day with him, but the nights are a little bit harder. :)

However, we are making progress with his schedule I think. He's never been a good nap taker, but right when he did start to take long naps my loving pediatrition suggested that I stop nursing him to sleep so he could learn how to sleep on his own, at the same time she said that I should not be feeding him at night.

I have successfully gotten Preston on the eat, wake, sleep routine, but there are a few downsides. He is still getting up at night, and now just screams if I don't feed him. I think he's still hungry because he isn't getting enough to eat during the day when he would rather be playing. A few nights he went almost ten hours and got my hopes up but hasn't done it since. At least I know he can do it. The other downside is that he is taking short naps once again, so I can't even get a nap when he naps.

I'm trying to cut his naps down to two and day and feed him more often during the day as well. Then hopefully he won't be hungry at night. My hope is that one day, hopefully soon, I'll be able to sleep uninterupted. At least until I have another one... so is the life of a mom. :)