It would seem that the first year of parenting is a blur of restless nights. I'm sure there are some lucky parents out there who have kids that don't make a peep from 8pm to 6 am. Sofia however is not one of those and never has been. From the moment she was born she has had trouble sleeping. She will only fall asleep if she is dead tired. She just loves being awake and active and wants to keep going. She's either awake or asleep nothing in between. This makes it very difficult to deal with when she wakes up in the middle of the night or 30 minutes into her naps. Nap times I will say are getting better. However nighttime is getting worse mainly for me. We are co-sleepers and love it. But lately Sofia has become a fish out of water. She moans and groans and cries and flip flops all night. She wants to nurse like 10 times a night. For some reason I have recently become a human pacifier.
I've been reading a lot of AP forums and searching the Mothering forums and have found many other mothers with similar problems. Yesterday, I found a great article about breastfeeding and co-sleeping. It gave suggestions on how to night wean. I've decided that 10 times a night is a little too much for me. Four times a night I understand, but 10? How can she need to eat 10 times between 11pm when I come to bed and 6 am when she gets up? I'm waking up groggy and sore. I don't feel quite yet that I'm losing to much sleep. But I think it will catch up with me. I've been taking hour long naps with Sofia in the afternoons, due to lack of a good night sleep.
That being said, we are going to try gradually night weaning. Sofia is the type of personality that would scream all night long louder and louder until you couldn't take it anymore or the cops came to see what was up. So I'm going to take the advice from this article and try closing up shop from 11pm to 6 am. I know the first few nights will be horrible, but hopefully she will slowly realize that a hand on the back or a gentle stroke on the head, is just as comforting as a breast.
If any of you mamas have experience with this or advice please leave a comment!
good luck. you know how hard it's been for us - and our sophia sleeps in another room!
ReplyDeletejust keep at it - sometimes i think they just develop habitats that are hard to break...
hi, same problems with my son. especially falling asleep. i recently found out that a small pillow close on each side of his head helps him. he cuddles his head on them and probably believes it's me. sleeping like a baby since then.
ReplyDeleteyou might try that out.
good luck,
anja.
Anja, thank you for the suggestion. I'm willing to give anything try.
ReplyDelete