Thank you for checking up on me! No, I haven't started a new thread, it's just that tearing my hair out is so time consuming
I'm actually totally at a loss of what to do but I feel like I'm just repeating myself, so don't really want to bother everyone.
Buuuuuuut I will anyway
DS just can't decide what he wants. I know, I know, he's not even 5 months old. But that's what it feels like these days.
I started walking around with him for 10 min after his bedtime feed to get the gas and spit up and various juices flowing before BT. Some nights it helps and he doesn't do his 40 min scream fest. Other nights he still needs major hand holding to get to sleep. The biggest issue to me is still the swaddling. I've tried every swaddle method and technique out there. I've tried hands in, hand out, hands out, totally unswaddled. If his hands are in he wiggles and squirms and elbows and grunts and wont relax. If one hand is out he goes straight for his face and pacifier. He pushes it out, chews on his hand and then gets irritated that some jerk took his pacifier. If both hands are out he goes into tapdancing mode and gets more and more restless and starts to cry furiously. I just don't see a way out. I end up trying various things throughout the evening and night and then just getting exasperated and swaddling him so tight that he can't wiggle at all. That ends up calming him down enough to fall asleep, so you'd think that would be the solution. But if I start the night off like that, watch out. Oh, he's also a super sweaty baby, so swaddling him up like that causes him to sweat...which guess what? wakes him up.
I also have absolutely no idea if he is waking to feed or from habit at this point. Usually if he wakes up anytime before 2 I assume it's not food related and give him a paci, or adjust how he's sleeping. At a certain point he doesn't go back to sleep with that tactic so then I assume it's food and he usually goes straight down. Here's the pickle... If I feed him one side, he will usually wake up again around 5/6. If I offer both sides he will sleep through to 7, but then eats much less in the morning! And of course if he doesn't get a large enough feed for breakfast, he resists his nap and the whole cycle begins again. He's been having of 2-4 NWs per night, and that's not including before the DF.
DD has also started waking up from nightmares. Usually this is right around the time that DS falls back asleep. Because you know these kids coordinate. I'm grouchy and angry all day from my lack of sleep, and end up snapping at DD and feel terribly guilty. I'm also barely getting anything done, which just adds to the frustration. How did I go back to work with DD? I can barely keep my house from looking like a tornado hit it, I can't even imagine looking like a person and going to work every day.
So that's how I've been. Aren't you glad you asked?