Thank you again ladies for your insight and clarification. Stacy, if you were here I would give you a hug for that play by play schedule you suggested to me.
I need that type of specific advice! Sometimes I feel like I just don't get it until someone explains it to me like that. Thank you!!
I tried being more patient last night, despite my utter exhaustion and my husband's desire to just let DS cry it out again, and I stuck to the pat/shhh method. I'd like to explain what happened last night, and ask if you all think I'm on track, or if I need to make some more adjustments.
We cluster fed him at 6pm and about 8:15 pm.
He slept from about 7pm to 8:15pm at which point I woke and fed him. He was so sleepy that he wouldn't feed on the 2nd side, so we did everything we could to wake him. I was worried that this might aggravate him, but I was more concerned that he wouldn't sleep very long if I didn't get a full feed in.
I think he fell asleep fine after that.
He woke at about 11:30pm and this is where the challenge began. He ended up being awake for 2 hours.
During that whole period, it was very obvious to me that he was struggling with gas. He kept of grunting and squirming and letting out short wails. I would usually give him a second to see if he would fall right back asleep, which he never did. So I went to him, made sure his diaper wasn't full, tried burping him and helping him with the gas (I never seem to get good burps out of him or to be able to relieve his gas). Then I put him back down and tried pat/shhh. This would usually calm him down. I tried fading out the pat/shhh like Colin Mac's Mom & Erin M suggested. He would appear to be asleep, I'd go back to bed and then about 5 min later, the squirming and wails started again. So, I'd go through the whole cycle again...and this lasted 2 hours!! Sigh. He ended up with another wet diaper, so I changed him again and finally he fell asleep and slept until 4am. (Thank goodness!)
Did I do it right? Am I missing something? Two hours seems like an awfully long time to be going back and forth (not to mention that I'm still recovering from an extremely large episiotomy and I'm very sore). Is there any alternative? We have those gas drops (Mylacon) that we used for our first DD but I hesitate to use those again. I know Tracy advocates pacifiers if they're not used as props. Would my situation be an appropriate use of a passy? I'm almost certain DS's problem is gas, not a need for sucking, so it doesn't seem like a passy would be meeting his need, just "plugging him up." If I am doing this right, someone please tell me that I won't have to do this for 2 hrs every night?
As a side note, the next feed period went much better. He woke at 4am, i fed him and put him down patting him gently then fading out. He seemed to fall asleep, but 5 min later started fussing again. My husband just went over to pat/shh and then he turned on some "white noise" (we have this CD that mimics vacuum cleaner noise that we used for DD). And he fell asleep until 7:15 which is our exact morning wake time! Was that OK to use the white noise or are we starting another prop?
Is PU/PD part of pat/shhh or is that something different for a different situation? Is picking him up when he's gassy, burping him, and putting him back down PU/PD?? Is pat/shhh supposed to be used in conjunction with PU/PD like I did last night? When should I be picking him up vs. just leaving him in the bed to pat/shhh?
On a side note, my husband is very concerned that he wets way too many diapers (he added up the cost at the rate we're going at & he was very upset at how much money we're spending on diapers!). I feel like I have to change him twice most feed cycles and he wets his clothes at least once a day (sometimes 2-3 times). Someone alluded to the fact that babies' bladders are so small at this age that they do pee quite a bit. Anyone have any insight on this?
Thank you again! You all are my lifeline to sanity!
-Michele