Yes. A terrible movie pun but that should let you know how tired I am. :( After sleeping (mostly) through the night for the past couple of weeks, Quinn has decided to go back to waking up every 1 1/2-2 hours. Yes, we have let him cry (much to Eric's dismay since he always has to work in the a.m.). We have let him cry and cry and cry. Yes, we have tried adding cereal to his bottle. Yes, we follow a routine. No, he does not have his days and nights mixed up...he doesn't sleep during the day much either.
What is going on? Anyone have any helpful hints that we haven't tried? (Besides the Benadryl or whiskey route?) I am exhausted and currently am SOOO thankful I do not work! I would be a walking zombie. If you have suggestions, I promise to read and try EVERY one of them!!! :)
1 comment:
Sounds like a growth spurt. Not much to do but wait it out, and personally I am with Eric on the not letting him cry thing, though not for the same reason, at least not for more than a couple of minutes. Recent studies have shown some ptretty interesting things about leaving babies to cry it out. Actually if you leave them alone to cry it out they produce a lot of stress hormones because they are scared and if they are left to cry it out frequently for long periods of time it can actually cause delays in brain development. The interesting thing is that this only happens when the baby is left to cry it out alone or with an unfamiliar person. If the baby is with a parent or regular caregiver the baby can cry as much as it wants but it isn't crying out of fear and so it doesn't produce the stress hormones that can cause developmental delays. (I think they talked about this on The Doctors show not that long ago, but I heard about it first at a conference where Dr. Jim Sears (of The Doctors show) brother Dr Robert Sears gave a talk about it.
Also, as you have discovered, it is a huge myth that babies sleep better if you give them rice cereal right before bed. If he is going through a growth spurt or teething or having tummy problems it won't matter one way or the other, he will still wake up just as frequently. Fortunately growth spurts and teething at least usually only disrupt sleep for a few nights in a row, and if you think it is teething you could try giviing him some baby ora-gel and some tylenol right before bed.
One other sugestion... We have a twin matress on the floor of Luke's room made up into a bed for those wakeful nightes. I take him to bed with me there and then as soon as he wakes up I can nurse him back to sleep so that way he doesn't get the chance to start screaming and wake up all the way. I have found that gets all of us a lot more sleep, Luke goes back to sleep while eating and I can fall back to sleep easily too. You could do that too by keeping the bottles of formula handy and made up already.
Good luck and I hope that these wakefull nights don't last too much longer! (-;
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