Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Waging War, Fighting Battles

So, the past few weeks have been pretty horrible in terms of sleep - particularly the last week or so. We have been forced to wage war and every night is a battle. We went from having a baby who slept decently...not great...but decently, to one who wakes up every 2-3 hours. It is miserable for all of us. We've tried different methods and strategies and so far, not much is working. The kicker - he wakes up happy and smiley every single morning and we wake up feeling worse by the day.

I'm about to break down and call the pediatrician for more ideas and I've seriously considered breaking the bank ordering books on sleep. Our sweet kiddo is S-T-U-B-B-O-R-N when it comes to sleep. I've read differing perspectives over the last several months and we've tried pretty much all of them with seemingly little success (and yes, we try them for longer than one night :)).

Our doctor would like us to start phasing out his last bottle (between 10:30 and midnight) but we aren't even close to doing that (though we were the last time he had a check-up) - I'm just trying to not feed him in the middle of the night. We are having some success with that; he does go back to sleep and doesn't seem really hungry, just bored and lonely. Did I mention that he's very social? :)

Anyway, I'm a little sleep deprived - I think Andrew and I are averaging 4-5 hours of interrupted sleep a night. I think it's worse than when he was a newborn. We are praying that consistency will pay off and he will start to sleep like a champ or at least give us a good 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. No wonder I've been taking a nap almost every day.

Oh and I should positively note that naps have gotten better - he is, for the most part, taking longer than a cat nap. Although, perhaps it is effecting his nights? Let's hope not. And on one final positive note, our other boys have been sleeping great! You may remember that we have one that sleep walks and we've just generally had trouble with one or both getting up at night, so we are thankful to only have one kid not sleeping well!

Sigh...I know we will get through this and we will probably/maybe forget how hard it's been. We had one other son that had serious sleep issues and I think I've pretty successfully blocked out that challenge. In the mean time, I'm catching zzz's whenever I have a chance and reviewing the books with chapters on sleep. :)

6 comments:

Mama10EE said...

Does he have a Fisher Price aquarium or something in his crib that would help keep him from being lonely when he wakes up? Sorry I can't be of much help....this was the one area we never had a problem in (except now when she is trying to get in our bed with us every night!). Morgan loved her aquarium and I would hear it play every once in a while when she would wake up at night.

Oh...is he losing his pacifier in bed (if he has one)? That was an issue for us for a while, so I just left 4-5 Binkys in the bed and she could usually find one.

Good luck! The not sleeping is certainly the hardest on you all, who still have to care for THREE boys while operating on maybe 2 hours of sleep.

Jenna said...

I'm so sorry Alaina... no helpful tips here (I'm sure you would have tried them already)... just wanted to let you know that I'll be thinking about you.

Katrina said...

I'm sure you've probably read ALL the books on it .. but just in case... I had a friend read this book and found it a great help (they are finally getting sleep after a year of much sleep deprivation!) The book is "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Weissbluth. So just a thought! I do hope you start getting sleep soon ... :(

Charity said...

Maybe we can find a way to chat with each other when we're up in the middle of the night with our wee-ones. :) I hope he starts sleeping better soon for you!

Unknown said...

Clayton has never been a great sleeper, but around the time he was about Ty's age- he definitely got worse. Clayton was a better sleeper as a newborn than he was at that point. I just wanted to encourage you and let you know that I know how completely exhausting it is to have a baby that doesn't sleep. I can't imagine taking care of two other little ones while going through it- there were days that I didn't think I'd be able to take care of just him. I have done LOTS of reading on this as well- I was ready to buy every book that was out there in hopes it would work with Clayton. I will send you an email to tell you more about our experience.

Anonymous said...

We're pretty sure that Adam wakes up a lot during the night due to his sleep cycles (I do too) and just plays with his friends (stuffed dog, blankey bear, and the ever-popular Fisher-Price aquarium)... I suspect that the social part is very very big for Ty. He's awake, he's bored, hey, why not call Mom and Dad?
If something could happen and you could NOT HEAR HIM for a few days, I bet he'd do better. Perhaps an industrial fan to drown it out? You guys need your sleep!!!!! Maybe you could turn the baby monitor off after that last feeding and until Andrew gets up in the morning?
I'm pulling for you!!!!