Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

(sigh)

We are exhausted around here these days.

Mikail normally sleeps 12 hours through the night. (Yes, we are incredibly blessed). This all went awry since Daylight Savings Time hit us. I think it is a combination of a few things:

  • Daylight Savings Time and badly needing a darkening shade on his window. (note to self: add this to the 'to do list'.)
  • Being on the cusp of crawling and pulling himself up and walking. Soooo close, but no cigar.
  • Experimenting with language. His brain must be reeling with sounds and words constantly. How do you shut that off?
  • Just getting over being constipated. Poor sap. We tried everything under the sun to get him to poop anything but pellets. Finally we have some progress. Who would have ever thought that 'poop worries' would be near the top of the list of parental worries in babies. ha
Last night was the worst night in a loooong time. He slept from 7:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. and then decided he needed to practice his crawling stance. He did not go to sleep until 2 a.m. TWO A.M. Finally I took his squirmy self into my arms and held him so he could not squirm and would hopefully relax and sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat at least 100 times while rocking him in the rocking chair and finally...

SLEEP won...

...until 7:30 a.m. and then it was up with the crawling and standing practicing again.

(sigh)

We have one very tired boy on our hands. I hope his little brain can rest enough to get some decent sleep today and tonight.

Patience is so difficult to practice when you as a parent are exhausted to the point of tears but you don't want to let on that you are because babe will read the anxiety in you and feed off of that making all matters worse.

(sigh)

Here's to a new wave of energy and patience and wisdom as to whether we need to change nap and night time schedules or whether this is just a phase.

11 comments:

Monica said...

We dealt with this kind of stuff until our children started school. I'm not exaggerating. It's exhausting and I hated it and we're still in it with Kalem. We get months of respite and 12 - 13 hour nights and then it's up every night for months. I have no advice or suggestions, only empathy.

Iris said...

I kind of figured that this is just 'the life of a parent', but then thought I might be missing something and how terrible it would be if there were a simple solution.

One thing I forgot to add to the mix is that he is teething as well. Tylenol has not helped though. I just hate to get in the habit of rocking him to sleep when he has always put himself to sleep. I rocked him to sleep last night at 2 a.m. and then both naps today = rocking after he cried for 20-30 minutes. He was fast asleep within less than 5 minutes of rocking, but still, we didn't want to start this.

Thanks for the empathy, Monica! I felt it thru the miles ;)

Monica said...

I asked a friend why her kids always slept through the night and she told me it's b/c there was he** to pay if they woke up. Spankings, etc.

Another friend of our just took their kid into bed with them. They found they slept more and so did the kid.

We've made floor beds in our room, slept in their rooms with them for parts of the night, slept in the lr, basement, etc. It works for awhile, but it's still not a great night of sleep.

At our house it's compounded by my sensitive sleep situation. If I get up with them, chances are high I won't get back to sleep. So if I'm in an insomnia cycle, Dale will sleep elsewhere and the kids know to go to him at night. Love, love, love, love him for doing this. And he (almost) never complains. I HATE, HATE, HATE it when we are in a cycle like this and not sleeping together. But it works, kind of.

I hate it that it's not perfect though.

Unknown said...

OH those tiring times! Despite everything that your little man is going through, there are a few things that worked for our girls. DARK room. ROUTINE. Bath, story, snuggle, cup, bed...etc.
Try taking him outside for some fresh air, then the bath and see if he stays awake!
We never let our girls "have fun" at night, kept them in one room, quiet etc. Sometimes let them cry when there were no "issues". Only had to do that a few times and we were resting again. If I didn't do that, we wouldn't have survived the daytime trantums!
You are the boss. Dark, routine, fresh air. lullablies. Plumb Blink is great!
here's to a restful sleep!

Iris said...

I wrote a huge long comment and it disappeared, so I will leave it at: Some great ideas there. Thanks, ladies.

Anonymous said...

You can get those three-fold cardboard things that people usually use for school projects at Michael's, and they apparently fit a window perfectly, and blackout the room. You may want to check it out....plus, they're only $4 vs the $20+ for a good blind :)

Iris said...

That is a great idea, Olivia. Thanks.

Kristy Jason said...

Gah, I just posted an̶ ̶e̶s̶s̶a̶y̶ comment and it disappeared. Suffice it to say that we're going through much the same. (2 nights ago I got 3 hours of sleep, since somebody thought she needed to nurse every 2.5 hours.) So, last night J was on call and I went and slept at the other end of the house. Avery had a good cry session, but we decided she wouldn't nurse until at least 2am. She gave in at 1:50 but then slept till 5, fed and slept till 8. It's so hard to deal with, but we hope she'll stop night nursing so much. The kicker is that at 7 weeks of age she could sleep 7-9 hours straight regularly. I wish I had answers for you but unfortunately I'm in the answers hunt myself. All I can offer are prayers and virtual hugs.
Kristy

Kristy Jason said...

Oh, and I had to add that a few nights ago I was to the point of tears too and was bawling my head off as Avery nursed. The little stinker looked up at me and grinned the hugest grin. Of course, it just made me cry harder.

Iris said...

Thanks Kristy. It helps so much to know that we aren't the only ones in this, hey?

The cry session was me a few days ago. M is "schlemich" (do you know low German? haa) or fussy all day long now. Up until a few weeks ago he was the easiest, happiest angel baby ever. Now? Whiney and screechy and teary. One afternoon I was to the point of 'Baby if I knew how I could help you I would' and I joined him in his cry fest. He looked at me. The tears stopped and he had this big grin on his face. Grrr. Made me cry even harder.

That is so sweet of Jason to be on call and let you sleep. Isn't it great to have such wonderful husbands? My Jason is the same.

Ruth said...

Sometimes Advil works better than Tylenol because it is good for inflammation. Also teething tablets from a natural foods/ vitamin store do the trick for some. As for sleeping through the night we are so not there with Johanna - I sympathize with you!