Thursday, October 6, 2011

vent: why won't she sleep?!

aah, the perennial parenting complaint!

(I am still typing one-handed, so excuse my punctuation.)

Audrey is challenging my stamina. She did not sleep last night until 2 in the morning. I swaddled her, un-swaddled her, bounced her sideways, bounced her upright, rocked her, lied down in bed, sat up in bed, sat in a chair, was quiet, was loud, turned the lights down, changed her diaper, nursed her, wiggled the pacifier, put her back in bed, put her in the cosleeper, and then did it all again. All night long.

She finally fell asleep at 2 in my arms in bed, but woke up again an hour later. And we did that all night long until we started the day. (Gary thankfully  did breakfast time with Juliet so I didn't have to be "on" until 8 am...thanks sweetie for that.)

I am so tired and worn out. I know it's such a parenting cliche, but it's really, really hard to have an active toddler demanding so much of me from 7 am to 7 pm, and then a restless infant demanding so much of me in the evening hours. There is absolutely no downtime. I guess the time it took to type this could qualify as my downtime (juliet is nappig), but even now, I have a baby in my arms. I love this life, I love my babies, but I'm tired.

sidenote:
Future mamas: See this swing? Do not buy it. Do not believe the hype on the Amazon reviews. It's worthless except as a safe seat to very quickly place a baby so you can pee. It has failed to soothe either of my girls.  They cry within 2 minutes of realizing they are in it, and it has never rocked them to sleep.(Fisher Price Little Lamb Cradle N Swing)



4 comments:

  1. Ughhhh. That is the worst!!! It seems like she's getting pretty old to have that much trouble sleeping (at least to me) so frequently. Have you asked your pediatrician? Sophie was a pretty terrible sleeper, but she'd usually only have one really long (2 hour or so) wailing jag a night by Audrey's age. The only time she was up that much was when she had a cold. I remember how hard it was with Sophie and I didn't have a toddler to watch all day. You must be soooo beyond exhausted! I would ask the ped if I were you, though, in case it's reflux or something else that you could get some medicine for...

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  2. Sorry. I guess the only thing that I can say is remember that this too will pass? I remember thinking that I would NEVER sleep through the night again. It took 10+ months but I finally did :)

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  3. Asia, the other thing going on is that she hasn't pooped in 4 days...we were getting into a predictable 4-5 hour stretch of sleep at night until the last 2 days so maybe the constipation is the source of some trouble. She is also still moderately congested by the cold we both shared last week, and I know there are some mild reflux issues going on and she can't lie down immediately after nursing...so yeah...lots of things probably all intersecting to make for a bad night.

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  4. Jen, have you tried prune juice for constipation? She is old enough and it is what was recommended (by Mom and Eva's pediatricians) when she wouldn't poop for days and days and days at a time. Her constipation was too severe for it to work effectively but it is supposed to be helpful.

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