I was warned many times about newborns confusing night and day, and we survived that stage. But now that I'm back at work and the to-do list is piling up I'm trying to maximize my sleep without torturing the poor little alien.
So, any suggestions for this situation?: The baby seems to have yet again inverted day and night. She sleeps fabulously all day. Her best nap is 9 am to 12 (3 hours! Note the posting time of 9:30 am). But, she also sleeps well whenever I take her out and bundle her up - either in a sling or the stroller, so yesterday she slept through a 2-hour meeting in the afternoon, an hour of errands in the early evening, and a 3-presentation in the evening (in her stroller, sling, and carseat respectively). And then she was up from 2 am to 6 am. I feed her every hour but she just wanted to play. Not only is it the worst time, but she also shouldn't stay awake that long.
I really feel like something has to give. Except for our naughty co-sleeping, we are following every APA guideline and I feel like if we could break any of these rules she would sleep during the night. I'm not asking for permission to break the rules, just advice on how to get around them:
- We are using the soothies pacifiers (we just started last week with the reflux). They are obviously designed not to stay in the baby's mouth, but I'm pretty sure if we gave her a regular pacifier she'd be able to keep it in
- She sleeps much, much better on her stomach. I only know because JD often turns her on her stomach to fall asleep while he sits and watches her, and then flips her onto her back after 10-20 minutes.
- She has no blankets, etc. in her crib even though she clearly prefers to snuggle next to things (i.e. us, the sleeping bag liner in her carseat, the edge of the bugaboo) when sleeping. And sadly it's way too cold/unsafe to take her out for a walk in the middle of the night to put her back to sleep.
The sleep guidelines feel like a huge conspiracy against sleeping, and I'm just wondering if there's any way to get around them cleverly without actually endangering the fusspot.
And now, a funny a story: I went to a talk yesterday night with a couple of colleagues. I thought there might be food, but there wasn't. So, when we cabbed back we had the taxi drop us at my local deli. The time was 11 pm. One of the guys in the cab offered to carry TS in her carseat while we grabbed food. I went in search of dessert (obviously) and he went to get a sandwich. And who should be in line in front of him but my dear husband on his way home from work at 11 pm? So, when TS grunts JD turns around in line to find a strange man he's never meet before carrying his sleeping daughter.* And what does he do? Very politely shakes his hand and asks if he's seen his wife. Apparently, my husband really is that relaxed about the baby.
* I was at the time less than 10 feet away but out of sight as I was perusing the pastries ...
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4 comments:
Have you tried swaddling? It's supposed to be great for helping babies calm down and then stay asleep.
They also make a special baby moniter that has a motion sensor but in to monitor breathing. It might let you get away with letting her sleep on her tummy. It is the "angel care" monitor.
As for the passifier, I say go for it if you think it will help. :)
Good luck!
And by the way, your hubby really IS relaxed!
I was going to suggest swaddling, too. If she likes to be cuddled, you could also try a sleep positioner with bolsters on either side. They're meant so that the baby can snuggle down on their back or side, and maybe she'd like the closed-in feeling.
I do really hate to suggest waking up a kid who's sleeping well, but you might consider trying to shorten her last nap of the day to see if that makes a difference at night.
JD cracks me up!!!!
I was cheering for your dinner sans baby in arms the other night, too ;o)
My assvice for what it's worth, I found that swaddling works and the studys are showing that pacifiers actually seem to reduce the risk of SIDs so I would get her different ones, ones that stay in her mouth. I would swaddle in a light blanket only as SID risks go up in winter and resist the urge to let her fall asleep on her stomach and then turn over. But my biggest suggestion is one I learned from nursing my own 4. I usually did not drink enough during the night so my babies didn't fill up well during the last middle of the night feed. It caused that drink every hour thing until they was finally tired and or full. They were never grumpy about it, but never tired enough to get milk drunk and fall asleep. So my suggestion is to really increase your fluids during the evening and when you wake up at night to nurse. I hope this helps.
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