Good afternoon,
I have cut and pasted my postings from other boards as there is so much going on I have posted in a few places lately.
Wednesday
We are having a bit of a trying time of it. My little girl can not seem to pass the 2 or 3 hr mark for sleep unless she is very ill with a fever and even then it rarely makes it past the 3 hr mark. 2 hrs is the norm for night and 1.5 or 2 if we are doing well for naps. I do PuPD or actually PD to get her back to sleep but it never seems to get any better. I have been trying to correct some accidental parenting so she no longer sleeps with me which we only did for about 4 weeks on and off due to sheer exhaustion but she really doesn't sleep much better in my bed and that is even harder on me.
She still eats ferociously at 11:00pm ish and 3:00am ish which means that I have taught her to be hungry during the night I guess. So now in the new year we are going to spend the next 2 weeks trying to at least drop the 11:00pm feed and be much more routine oriented to try to work on the night wakings. I think that there may be a few contributing factors such as she eats perhaps too much at night so she is not interested in solids during the day and will not even open her mouth for a taste, (Though after reading a post on the eating board I am trying to introduce finger foods and after one day it does seem a bit better) so I am wondering if she is not getting enough food to sustain her through the night as lately for about a month now she has been refusing so much that I would say she was once again exclusively breast fed.
I am posting this on the eating solids board and the breast feeding board as my game plan starting tonight is to cut out cold turkey the 11:00pm bf and then see how that goes and try to shorten the 3:00 am one after a week or so. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated as I do not want to make things worse (I am always surprised when things get worse when I don't think they possibly can)
her routine looks like this
7 up for day
7:05 bf
8:30 breaky solids
9:30 or 10:00 nap usually 1.5 hrs
11:00 or 11:30 bf
12:00 or 12:30 lunch
1:30 or 2:00pm nap for 1.5 -2 hrs depending on am nap
3:00pm bf
6:00 pm Dinner
6:15 or 6:30 bath
then bf say night night to Daddy
7:00pm ish bed
today looked more like this
7 up for day
7:05 bf
8:30 breaky solids (though she has not really eaten more than 1-2 bites for a while)
9:30 or 10:00 nap usually 1.25 hrs (though today she would not nap so did PD for 1.5 hr then lost my mind and bf her as it had been 4 hrs and I am sure she worked up an appitite crying)
11:00 or 11:30 bf
12:00 or 12:30 lunch (today started trying finger foods instead of puree and she ate the cheerios and a few bites of carrot today)
1:30 or 2:00pm nap for 1.5 -2 hrs depending on am nap (today nap started at 1pm as she was over tired from no am nap but she only napped for 1 hr and would not go back to sleep / I did PD for 1 hr mostly tears then towards the 45 min mark she started to play a bit in her crib then cried again for the last 10 mins) We then got up
3:00 pm up & bf
6:00 pm Dinner (today she would not eat anything but I think it was because she was tired. Also her eczema got worse again today and I am not sure if it was the cheerios (first multi grain only rice prior) introduced or if it is just a coincedence as it gets bad quite a lot)
6:30 bath
6:45 bf
7:00 bed cried till 8:00 pm slept until now 10:00pm
gotta go do PD
Thursday
Well she awoke last night at 10:10 pm and we did PD (kind of a sit up put down routine)
So we did the SU/PD for 2.5 hrs until around 12:40 or so then she finally fell asleep on her own.
She slept until 2:00 and then I bf fed her rather than holding her off until 3:00 am.
Should I have held her off until 3? I thought that she had gone 7 hrs with out a feed and then the next stretch would be 5 hrs which would kind of split the difference.
Would it be better to drop both feeds at the same time? or is that too much for her to handle? Would it perhaps create more sleep problems? or is it better to deal with it all at once?
Thanks for your help and support
Jo-Ann
PS Her skin is its usual eczema ish self today so I think she may have reacted to the grains in the cheerios. Too bad as it was the first thing she showed an interest in eating in ages. I may try the grains seperately again in a few weeks but I think she liked the presentation of a crunchy thing that dissolves easily and she does not choke on
I can not leave the room as the second I head for the door she loses it so I sit just past the end of her crib with my back to her. Though last night when we were into the PD marathon I stood beside her crib and just blocked her view of my face with my hands so that we would not make eye contact. I just can not stand beside the crib all the time for such extended periods of time so sometimes I sit on the stool just beside or beyond her crib and sometimes I sit on the cushie rocker right across from her crib but I look the other way so we don't make eye contact
Is any of this Good or Bad?
Any thoughts on our night last night as seen in the routine listed above?
She has a really hard time resettling as her eczema makes her terribly itchy especially when she is upset and or over tired. She actually rakes her wrists legs and head against the rails.
She has also started flinging herself backwards when I come to lay her back down and sometimes hits her head quite hard on the sides of the crib
Talk to you again soon
Jo-Ann
Foodwise last night she went from 7pm till 2:00am then ate at 2 and awoke at 6:00am DH put back to sleep and slept till 7:30
oops I let her sleep in and me though I know how important sticking to our times is right now when re-establishing our routine.
Naps are horrible but I guess that is part of the process as she is upset and does not settle so ends up over tired and the cycle begins ...
Jo-Ann & Little Girl
PS I am seeing a bit of a trend
Does anyone know any Aries children that are actually good sleepers?
Any thoughts or advice appreciated
