I would like to thank everyone who was sent advice and encouragement following my post regarding Lydia's sleep issues. Thanks to many of you, here are the conclusions we have reached:
1.) The sleep change is normal. Whether it's a four-month thing, a teething thing, or just a baby thing, these things happen.
2.) The frustration that accompanies it is normal. As I was reminded, lack of sleep makes everything seem 50 times worse. It really does.
3.) There is no quick fix. I wish there was a single thing we could buy or do to get Lydia back on her regular sleep schedule and completely erase her teething pain. There seem to be things that help, but as so many moms (and one helpful dad) have said (and I have now realized), patience is really about it. Lydia is napping beautifully, she is eating well, she is staying super alert and happy for longer periods of time during the day (other than when she has random teething meltdowns that include pulling at her cheeks and chewing on her fingers), and we are keeping her active. Babies just do this, and if there was a magic cure, we would know what it was, and the problem wouldn't exist anymore. I keep thinking about the advice my doula gave me when I was getting impatient towards the end of my pregnancy, that babies will be born on their birthdays, and there is nothing you can do to just make them come. I think one of the reasons pregnancy is so long and filled with challenges is to prepare us for the challenges that come with childrearing, one of them being the complete loss of control. Just like Lydia was born on her birthday, she will return to her sleep pattern when she does. Now I am just trying to summon patience...
The semester I’ll grieve
3 years ago
Just some thoughts from what I'm going through (flash forward 10 more weeks) Honestly, you are right, just have patience, take it one day at a time... Lydia will definitely be wanting out of her swaddler by now and wanting to sleep face down.. Gabriel decided he was done with it at 3 months which totally sucked and his sleep pattern changed, but it quickly got better (just a few days later) Really, it was harder for me to adjust than for him because I was constantly worried about SIDS, but he actually slept so much better and longer on his own.. Lydia is getting ready to go through some major changes really soon and is definitely having sleep changes because she is so excited about everything around her.. As for the diapers, pampers swaddlers from nb to size 2 worked great and now he's in size 3 of pampers cruisers and I really have no complaints.. the poop stays inside as long as the pamper is on right and somehow daycare had times where they didn't put it on right and had blowouts.. we've had a couple of blowouts ourselves, but we try to avoid those by changing him more often.. we tried huggies and they just didn't work.. they retain the mess and it puffs out of their clothes and seeps through really bad, which I was not happy about.. I would love it if pampers in general weren't so crappy for the environment, but if you aren't doing the cloth ones, any brand is going into the environment is really how I see it.. I tried to do the cloth ones and just can't handle cleaning that mess up.. haha.. Gabriel has had sleeping issues all summer, waking up at least 1-2 times at night, but I'm used to it by now.. I figured out that he has a pattern of waking up times though and if I beat him to it, he stays asleep longer.. it's amazing, but putting him to sleep 30 minutes earlier than usual really keeps him sleeping a lot longer at night and when he does get up in the night, Simon checking on him and sssshing him and making sure he's not wet helps him go back to sleep really well without me having to get up or feed him.. I read that little trick in one of my magazines and it has worked good.. I'm hoping to keep that up when work starts again.. having a few sleep through the entire night nights has been one of the rewards I've had several times.. :D alright, sorry this is long, but just let me know if you need to know anything crazy.. I'm sure Gabriel has already done it or is doing it right now.. :D p.s. Happy 4 months Lydia! :D
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