Sleep Follies
So I am not surprised that Chalupa fell apart at this time, sleep wise. G did too. And if you buy into all the cutesy, crappy, feeling, mumbo jumbo parenting stuff, it's all developmental and has to do with the 19th wonder week or the 4 month sleep regression. Gag yourselves now, I know.
What sucks about his particular regression, leap forward, developmen whatever the heck you want to call it, is that it so perfectly coincides with an ear infection. That is throwing me off my game. I'm not confident to leave him to fuss because I cock my head, listen, doesn't that sound like he's hurting? The awesome thing about having ear infections as infants as that they tend to be prolonged and they don't tend to go away. We have a follow-up appointment tomorrow and I'm scared it's back and that means more antibiotics (which I hate) and more screaming during administration of said meds and more over all baby unhappiness.
He is sleeping better on his stomach. Still waking up every 4 hours and last night he woke up at 3:30 and then again at 5:30. I tried not to feed him, but he seemed hungry, so I gave in. And he slept till 8. And G got up sometime before that but I made him play in his room and I slept some more.
I was reading online about tummy sleeping and there are websites that talk about having to make a baby comfortable on his belly and it's not worth it and I squish my eyes up. I didn't have to make him comfortable. I rocked him to almost asleep, laid him on his belly, and he went straight to sleep.
The bed was hard for him to get off his belly at first, but last night he was able to roll over all three wake ups. Makes me feel better. Side effect of all this tummy time? He's almost rolling over back to front, which is going to make the whole can he sleep on his tummy question non existent.
Also, I was thinking about all of G's regressions, of which there have been a few, and one of my favorites in hindsight was the one where he learned how to sit up, and he sat himself up at night and couldn't figure out how to lay back down? Tee-hee. Poor dude. Oh I was so upset. For a week we didn't sleep. Finally I laid him down on his belly. No he I did have to teach that it was okay to sleep on his belly. I had to pat his back for like thirty minutes before he'd settle in. And then eventually, when he sat up, he'd just fall forward onto his face. Poor guy. Soooo not funny then. Funny now.
Even the 6 weeks of sleeping on the floor. Not funny then. I love telling that story now. The new thing is he's throwing up at night. Lewis thinks it's the acid reflux and we need to go back on meds. I'm not convinced. We'll see. No symptoms during the day but it's night number 2 of him throwing up about midnight.
In the development portion for Chalupa ... he really is learning a ton every day. He can bat objects with his feet, hold toys, roll over, stand (with assistance) jump a bit on his legs. He hasn't found his tongue yet (which should be soon) and I do think we'll see two teeth in the next two weeks.
But he's also congested and last night he was patting (not hitting, just touching) one side of his head. Sigh.
As a rule I hate CIO. Hate. Because babies have no memory. Memory doesn't form until after 6 months. So babies have no idea what happened this morning let alone what happened last night. They don't understand cause and effect. They don't know that crying brings you. They don't understand it. They just know something is wrong and they need you. That's it. It may not be a real big reason. It may not be super apparent. They may just be lonely or their little brain may just be going haywire and they need help calming down.
So I hate CIO. I do it with G. I'm even letting Chalupa cry more than I did with G just because I'm so tired. But fundamentally I think the logic behind CIO is flawed. At least CIO before 6 months. Babies can not manipulate you. G? Oh yeah G can manipulate. I'm tempted to think the vomiting thing is on purpose (he throws up when he's mad at me all. the. time.) but he hates getting dirty so that's making me think this is uncontrollable.
But Chalupa can't manipulate me. He can be a squeaky wheel. I think he has to be more of a squeaky wheel then G because he's #2. He has to demand more time in order to get it. I also think the night wakings are going to take a bit to get rid of, because that's his own private time. And eventually he will realize that.
Anyway, rambling as I drink my coffee.
Point is, tummy sleeping is not fool proof. He's still all over the place. But it's soooo much better than it was. And I'm getting conflicting advice. Some camps are saying swaddle tighter! And others are just saying tummy and be done. I'm going tummy. Why? Because there's motor development benefits, he's strong enough, he can get off his tummy, and because part of the issue is he just revolted against being swaddled. I don't want to do a tigther hold or better blanket or a blanket with velcro. So for the time being, I think tummy.
Also we discovered quite by accident last night that he likes sleeping to music better than he likes sleeping to ocean sounds. I hit the wrong button on the machine and the music came on and he perked up and then relaxed his head. Quite interesting!
What sucks about his particular regression, leap forward, developmen whatever the heck you want to call it, is that it so perfectly coincides with an ear infection. That is throwing me off my game. I'm not confident to leave him to fuss because I cock my head, listen, doesn't that sound like he's hurting? The awesome thing about having ear infections as infants as that they tend to be prolonged and they don't tend to go away. We have a follow-up appointment tomorrow and I'm scared it's back and that means more antibiotics (which I hate) and more screaming during administration of said meds and more over all baby unhappiness.
He is sleeping better on his stomach. Still waking up every 4 hours and last night he woke up at 3:30 and then again at 5:30. I tried not to feed him, but he seemed hungry, so I gave in. And he slept till 8. And G got up sometime before that but I made him play in his room and I slept some more.
I was reading online about tummy sleeping and there are websites that talk about having to make a baby comfortable on his belly and it's not worth it and I squish my eyes up. I didn't have to make him comfortable. I rocked him to almost asleep, laid him on his belly, and he went straight to sleep.
The bed was hard for him to get off his belly at first, but last night he was able to roll over all three wake ups. Makes me feel better. Side effect of all this tummy time? He's almost rolling over back to front, which is going to make the whole can he sleep on his tummy question non existent.
Also, I was thinking about all of G's regressions, of which there have been a few, and one of my favorites in hindsight was the one where he learned how to sit up, and he sat himself up at night and couldn't figure out how to lay back down? Tee-hee. Poor dude. Oh I was so upset. For a week we didn't sleep. Finally I laid him down on his belly. No he I did have to teach that it was okay to sleep on his belly. I had to pat his back for like thirty minutes before he'd settle in. And then eventually, when he sat up, he'd just fall forward onto his face. Poor guy. Soooo not funny then. Funny now.
Even the 6 weeks of sleeping on the floor. Not funny then. I love telling that story now. The new thing is he's throwing up at night. Lewis thinks it's the acid reflux and we need to go back on meds. I'm not convinced. We'll see. No symptoms during the day but it's night number 2 of him throwing up about midnight.
In the development portion for Chalupa ... he really is learning a ton every day. He can bat objects with his feet, hold toys, roll over, stand (with assistance) jump a bit on his legs. He hasn't found his tongue yet (which should be soon) and I do think we'll see two teeth in the next two weeks.
But he's also congested and last night he was patting (not hitting, just touching) one side of his head. Sigh.
As a rule I hate CIO. Hate. Because babies have no memory. Memory doesn't form until after 6 months. So babies have no idea what happened this morning let alone what happened last night. They don't understand cause and effect. They don't know that crying brings you. They don't understand it. They just know something is wrong and they need you. That's it. It may not be a real big reason. It may not be super apparent. They may just be lonely or their little brain may just be going haywire and they need help calming down.
So I hate CIO. I do it with G. I'm even letting Chalupa cry more than I did with G just because I'm so tired. But fundamentally I think the logic behind CIO is flawed. At least CIO before 6 months. Babies can not manipulate you. G? Oh yeah G can manipulate. I'm tempted to think the vomiting thing is on purpose (he throws up when he's mad at me all. the. time.) but he hates getting dirty so that's making me think this is uncontrollable.
But Chalupa can't manipulate me. He can be a squeaky wheel. I think he has to be more of a squeaky wheel then G because he's #2. He has to demand more time in order to get it. I also think the night wakings are going to take a bit to get rid of, because that's his own private time. And eventually he will realize that.
Anyway, rambling as I drink my coffee.
Point is, tummy sleeping is not fool proof. He's still all over the place. But it's soooo much better than it was. And I'm getting conflicting advice. Some camps are saying swaddle tighter! And others are just saying tummy and be done. I'm going tummy. Why? Because there's motor development benefits, he's strong enough, he can get off his tummy, and because part of the issue is he just revolted against being swaddled. I don't want to do a tigther hold or better blanket or a blanket with velcro. So for the time being, I think tummy.
Also we discovered quite by accident last night that he likes sleeping to music better than he likes sleeping to ocean sounds. I hit the wrong button on the machine and the music came on and he perked up and then relaxed his head. Quite interesting!
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