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We mostly have a handle on Griffin's sleep at night. It's not great, but it's generally tolerable. Although the past two nights have been awful and I hope they're just teething related because if this is indicative of a new sleep pattern then I need to find him some baby Ambien.
Three days ago he actually slept great. Better than great, it was like magic. He went down at 8:30 and slept until 3:30. That is the longest he has slept in his ENTIRE LIFE. Then he nursed for 10 minutes, fell back asleep, and woke up for the day at 7:30ish. Glorious I tell you, GLORIOUS.
Of course, I had given him some baby Benedryl that night because he had red, puffy, watery, and itchy eyes and his nose was running like a faucet. Dollars to donuts that miraculous sleep stretch was Benedryl induced. And although I loved getting that much sleep, I'm not actually willing to continually dose him with Benedryl to get it... unless of course he has actual symptoms which the allergy meds can alleviate.
But after "the miracle" we've had a night where he woke up for the day at 5:30am and then last night where he woke up at 3:30 and was up for an hour and half before finally falling back asleep. Terrible, awful, no-good, and very bad. I was exhausted. And really flipping annoyed.
So we'll see what tonight brings. We cannot do CIO, for many reasons, the #1 reason being that it will wake up Penelope and I absolutely, positively cannot have two children wide awake at 2am. Cannot.
But this post isn't about night time. It's about naps.
And the fact that G takes one nap a day.
Which only lasts an hour.
Unless, of course, he's nursing.
Those of you who have children of G's age, or remember what the 1 year stage was like, will understand how this is not acceptable. In any way, shape, or form. Babies this age NEED more daytime sleep than that. And mommies of babies this age NEED more downtime than that. I can get the extra downtime if I leave him attached to me, but I can't get anything done that way.
I honestly don't know what to do... I mean, when I have him, we nurse. But when my Dad has him he can't do that and so G only takes an hour nap. He's then super clingy/needy and just plain tired the rest of the day (G, not my Dad... although I'm sure Dad is pretty darn tired as well).
So I'm soliciting suggestions. Again, CIO is not possible. The last thing Dad or I need is two children who won't nap.
And yes, when Griffin is a teenager and refuses to wake up in the mornings or sleeps until noon, I will show him these posts and demand an apology. Or something.
Also? Does someone want our 5 year old dog? She's getting on my very last nerve. She's actually a sweet dog, but she tends to be very loud just when I'm getting Griffin to sleep. Daily. It is SO damn annoying.
3/22/15 at 3:58pm, 8.11 lbs, 22 inches
Memory Lane/Update
11 months ago
Might sound weird, but have you thought of reiki? It's supposed to work well on children and for all sorts of issues, sleep problems included.
ReplyDeleteOMFG. I had a super long comment typed here and Blogger ATE IT.
ReplyDeleteGRRRR.
anyway, what it said was that Gracie was the same way (I know, you are shocked). Her morning nap would go thru short spurts of being good, but was never consistently good at any point. Her afternoon nap was nonexistent until we took away the morning nap. What I COULD get her to do was fall asleep in the car, so I started keeping books and magazines in the car, and I would just sit with her while she slept (for up to two hours). That sucked because I was brutally tired as a result of her rotten nighttime sleeping and couldn't sleep with her, but it was better than nothing and I got some really good reading done (I would read the New Yorker and the Atlantic and was really well-informed. There was a really freaky, disturbing article about Cameron Todd Willingham in the New Yorker that I read in front of our house in broad daylight and still got freaked out). It was one of those "this is really unpleasant but also kind of fun"-type things. Of course, that doesn't really work as well since you also have Poe, but maybe on days when you and B are both home, one of you can get him to sleep and sit in the car with him? (I also sat in the parking lot at Target and the grocery store, not always in front of my house...)
Also, daytime sleep consolidates after nighttime sleep, so it makes sense that his naps stink, because his nighttime sleep is still so clearly immature. I'm sure that was Gracie's problem, too. Her single afternoon nap did not get consistently good until after her second birthday, to be totally honest, and even then, she had a bad habit of waking too early, falling asleep in the car when we were running errands, and refusing to nap. That just got better around the time Katie was born. Now she almost always takes a solid two-hour nap. (she won't do that tomorrow because she psychically sensed that I said that, but anyway.)
Good luck. A bad sleeper is just brutal. and YES, I cannot WAIT until Grace is a sophomore in college and I can go in her room at 4:30 am and throw all the lights on. it will require me to be up at 4:30, but oh my god it will be so worth it.
@Holly - I'll look into it. Thanks!
ReplyDelete@Kathy - damn. 2?!? This is just further proof that our children are destined to be together. Le Sigh. Well, at least one day we'll sleep, right?