Charlie – good at eating, bad at sleeping (for us, at least)
A few people have asked me offline to give an update about how the grain-free thing is going. I’m down 12 lbs so I’d say it’s going okay! There have been challenges – like the one I talk about here – but overall, I feel like my blood sugars must be more stabilized by eliminating grains because my energy is more consistent throughout the day. Also, I no longer find myself feeling absolutely famished in the middle of the afternoon. One cup of coffee now does the trick, while I was needing a venti black eye in the am and an afternoon cup to get through the day before. Some lingering digestive issues are completely gone, too. I will keep posting here when it’s relevant to Partum Me, but you can also get more of a blow by blow on my personal blog.
Eating for Charlie is also going quite well, as you can see above. What’s not going well these days? Sleeping. Here’s the situation: Charlie started off in a co-sleeper (an Arm’s Reach that was not attached to our bed but sits right next to it). He slept quite well in there by himself in the early months, even when we were getting up in the night to nurse. When he got too big for the co-sleeper but was still nursing, we switched him to a pack n play in our room. That was all working out quite well until he got sick a few weeks ago. He was in horrible pain with ear infections and coughs, so we let him sleep with us. And before anyone shakes their finger at us, I should say that a) I fully support responsible bed sharing if it’s done safely and b) I am of the belief that co-sleeping and bed sharing do not create “bad habits.” There are many, many ways to get a child the sleep he/she needs – no judging, here!
Anyway, we’ve been wanting to transition Charlie to his crib in his room for a while now because, before he got sick, he was quietly sleeping through the night. We figured he was ready. But ever since we transitioned him back to the pack-n-play in our room after he got better, he has woken up every night between 2 and 3 pm and cried…a lot. At first we worried that letting him feed himself dinner was causing him to wake up hungry, so we beefed up his dinner meal and bottle routine. Nope, not the problem. We started bringing a bottle to bed with us to feed him when he woke up. He loved it, but still cried when he was done. We snuggled him until he fell back to sleep, but he was up like a periscope the second we put him back down. And yes, we let him cry it out but man, that kid can really wail. For looooooong periods of time! The only thing that stopped the crying was bringing him into bed with us, the antithesis of what we want out of this situation.
We own a few books on the subject, namely Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child or whatever it’s called. I plan to read the relevant chapters over the next few days. (Who has time to actually read an ENTIRE book at once these days?!?!) But I’d love to hear some practical, real advice from parents who have had a similar situation to ours. What did you do? How did you do it? And how long did it take before a) you and your partner got your bed back and b) your little one was getting the good sleep that he/she so desperately needs at this stage of life?
Nicole
March 6, 2012My 16 mos old daughter just went through a phase of waking up EVERY hour and crying! It lasted for about 6 week, but has finally started to pass, it does get better, one night it’s horrible and then comething clicks the next night and they will sleep fine!
Amie Olson
March 20, 2012We have tried cosleeping at times with 3 of our 4 children (when they were babies) and have found that while they sometimes slept betntuter, my Husband and I slept far worse. Our children’s noises and breathing and especially their movements woke us repeatedly, despite our queen sized bed.
Eventually, they end up back in the portable or regular crib and that works best for us. Good naps, a bedtime snack, and a bedtime massage or bath and story seem to help transition them to bedtime. A fan for white noise helps as well.