So, for those interested, this is what it takes to take care of Owen during the night. Well, starting at bedtime, actually.
Anywhere from 8 to 9pm he gets his last bottle. It’s six ounces of 100% formula, with the hopes that it will make him sleep as long as possible (since formula is harder to digest, it should “stay with him” longer). This bottle is given in his room in the dark and quiet. We no longer even use the white noise (rainfall) alarm clock because I read that after a few months, it can actually start to be detrimental to their hearing (or something along those lines, I’d have to look it up again). We let him eat as long as he wants, which is usually a good 4oz, at which point he gets burped, then swaddled, then he usually eats the rest.
The fun part comes when trying to actually put him in his bed to sleep. I would say that a majority of the time (six nights a week) it doesn’t just happen. For example, last night, after the feeding and burping and swaddling, he was OUT. I mean OUT. I had patted his back trying to get a burp for almost 15 minutes and nothing. So I gingerly get up and lay him in the crib and…his eyes fly open, he’s wide awake, and starts fussing. |-|
I give it a minute to see if it’s just a startle reflex, but no—he really seems to need attention. I pick him up and…BURP! Okay, cool. So I try to get another burp for a while longer, and sense it’s not coming, so I get him settled again, with rocking and patting and swaying, then put him down again and—eyes come open, wide awake, fussing. Are you sensing a pattern here? Again, I give it a moment and no, he’s not settling down. So I pick him up again and get another burp. Egads.
Sometimes after one of these burps, he wants to eat again, so we give him whatever was left from his initial bottle. At this point, he usually falls asleep while eating (if he even eats anything) and then we can put him down.
I know it doesn’t sound that bad, but it is frustrating and does get tiring. Especially when I know I will be up in about five hours to go through the entire process again.
Oh yes, you read right. About five hours. We had a good stretch of time where he was sleeping 6-7 or even 7.5 hours a night. Not anymore. Now it averages 5-5.5—which, yes, I know is still good, but is hard to get used to after those WONDERFUL 7-7.5 hour nights.
So, about 3:30am or so, I get to go through this entire routine again. Except that this time, he will only sleep another 2-3 hours. Again, not terrible, except I don’t get another 2-3 hours sleep, because by the time I get back to bed, Tom’s alarm is going off (and off…and off…and off) and I have usually been up for an hour or more by that time (45+ minutes of feeding and whatnot, plus the additional time before I got up when I was listening to the little noisemaker to determine if I need to get up or not) so I might get another 1-2 hours.
And what usually happens when I am getting frustrated? He smiles at me and I just melt. 🙂