Aurelia decided not to sleep last night. She was up something like six times!! Marcus and I took turns getting up with her. He slept on the couch with her at one point, because she got really angry and he let me keep sleeping. After that stretch, she came into the bed, where she tossed and turned and eventually dozed for 45 minutes or so between feedings. The sleep situation is degenerating quickly! I think that it is time to borrow some books from friends and neighbors and try to find a “method” that will work for her (and us). Marcus and I are not very structured in our lifestyle, overall, we make plans at the last minute and stay out late once in a while. We had really wanted to avoid having a rigid schedule for the baby. Then, when we were blessed with her sleeping through the night at approximately 3-4 weeks, we didn’t have to worry about any sort of direct sleeping manipulations.
Currently, I have about an hour wind-down routine with Aurelia, including a bath, changing into jammies, reading a book, a snack (breastfeeding), then a minute or two holding her in the dark and singing before putting her in bed. I’ve even gotten away without swaddling so tightly the past couple of nights. The getting-into-bed part is going smoothly – she just won’t stay there! She wakes and goes back to sleep without us sometimes; I hear her stir and then she goes back to sleep. But, when she wakes up later in the night, she is standing, looking towards the door, screaming. We can’t exactly just rub her tummy and tell her to go back to sleep at that point.
Secondly, and this may be related, I feel as if my milk supply has diminished a little. I am not able to just sit and pump any time like before and get milk. Last night I was able to draw less than an ounce after she nursed the opposite side, and I even felt a letdown in the other side when she was nursing. So, I purchased some fennugreek tea today – I’ll give that at try. I am wondering if nursing so much at night is a combination of rejecting most of her food during the day, plus not nursing as much due to being busy and distracted (she latches for only a few minutes at a time), and not having as much milk with Mommy at work, since she is still sketchy with a bottle, and she doesn’t eat that much cereal, either. She will only take a few spoonfuls of prepared cereal, and she only wants a few spoons of veggie, usually. She is eating some cheerios and the occasional full jar of sweet potatoes, but mostly, she just isn’t interested in eating. Of course, I assume that this is all my fault for not scheduling her or not producing enough milk or not prodding her with food more and more. I just don’t know what to do…
I am one frustrated (and sleepy) mommy!
Recent Comments