Why am I up?
What am I doing? I've been feeling like I was losing my mind over the last week because between my snoring husband and nursing daughter I've been getting awakened hourly for the last week. I was starting to think that a couple more days of it and I was gonna start seeing things.
So, here I sit at 6:16am blogging instead of being tucked in bed next to my kiddo. I decided yesterday that we were going to have to change things.
A few months ago, after getting the baby weighed and measured, I set the intention that I wanted her to nurse all night long. I was able to sleep while she nursed and I felt like she wasn't gaining enough weight so I just told her "higher self" to nurse *all* night while we slept and then she could gain wt and we'd be in good shape.
It worked. After that, she gained a half pound in two weeks. I felt really good.
Unfortunately, I've gotten to the point where I'm not sleeping well that way. Its not so much the nursing, but not being able to change position while she's latched that gets me. My hips start hurting. My shoulders. I need to be able to move around a lot these days, as my arthritis has been really uncomfortable for the last six weeks or so. If I stay in the same place too long, its as bad as overdoing it.
Plus, she'd gone from nursing three times per night (months ago,) to nursing hourly. She'd fall asleep at my breast and either I'd slip out of her mouth when she got good and asleep, or I'd break the latch and pull off so I could get comfortable. Then, just minutes later, she'd wake and we'd get switched to the other side and latch there and I'd wait and try to doze and then the whole thing would play out again. I wasn't getting any sleep.
Plus, she's always been "cat-nap girl." She hardly ever takes a "real" nap, but instead, will catch 15-20 minute naps all afternoon/evening. She gets into this tired/not tired space and is just cranky and whining but not tired enough to really sleep unless I stop nursing and let her cry for 15 minutes or more. That feels like torturing her so I don't do it unless nothing else works. In the last three weeks, only once has she actually gone to bed at bedtime and actually slept without me lying there next to her. That "mommy time" is vital to my sanity.
So, I had not been getting enough sleep and almost no "mommy time" and I felt like I was literally going insane.
Yesterday I told her "higher self" we're going back to the way we used to do it. Where she'd go to sleep around 8pm and I'd nurse when I came to bed around 10-ish and then every three hours or so after that would be fine with me. No more of this hourly crap. I wouldn't let her catnap (well, after 5pm, anyway...) and we took a walk to the video store at around 7 pm so she'd have something to distract her until bedtime.
It worked!
She went to sleep by 8:30 and I was able to leave her side. She actually slept until 1:30am when we nursed, and then again at 4:30am. I am *so* relieved.
Of course, then the other litanny of crap that keeps me from sleeping took over. My husband, who has a severe case of sleep apnea (but won't get evaluated or treated) was snoring his brains out, and then I had some form of insomnia (I think I was waiting for the baby to wake up) and my hands have been hurting... its so frustrating.
Sometimes I think I must have tortured people with sleep deprivation in a past life.
I had to get up this morning at the normal (weekday) time to take my meds. Blogging actually helps loosen up my fingers by moving them. So, here I am.
And there she is... gotta go nurse.
So, here I sit at 6:16am blogging instead of being tucked in bed next to my kiddo. I decided yesterday that we were going to have to change things.
A few months ago, after getting the baby weighed and measured, I set the intention that I wanted her to nurse all night long. I was able to sleep while she nursed and I felt like she wasn't gaining enough weight so I just told her "higher self" to nurse *all* night while we slept and then she could gain wt and we'd be in good shape.
It worked. After that, she gained a half pound in two weeks. I felt really good.
Unfortunately, I've gotten to the point where I'm not sleeping well that way. Its not so much the nursing, but not being able to change position while she's latched that gets me. My hips start hurting. My shoulders. I need to be able to move around a lot these days, as my arthritis has been really uncomfortable for the last six weeks or so. If I stay in the same place too long, its as bad as overdoing it.
Plus, she'd gone from nursing three times per night (months ago,) to nursing hourly. She'd fall asleep at my breast and either I'd slip out of her mouth when she got good and asleep, or I'd break the latch and pull off so I could get comfortable. Then, just minutes later, she'd wake and we'd get switched to the other side and latch there and I'd wait and try to doze and then the whole thing would play out again. I wasn't getting any sleep.
Plus, she's always been "cat-nap girl." She hardly ever takes a "real" nap, but instead, will catch 15-20 minute naps all afternoon/evening. She gets into this tired/not tired space and is just cranky and whining but not tired enough to really sleep unless I stop nursing and let her cry for 15 minutes or more. That feels like torturing her so I don't do it unless nothing else works. In the last three weeks, only once has she actually gone to bed at bedtime and actually slept without me lying there next to her. That "mommy time" is vital to my sanity.
So, I had not been getting enough sleep and almost no "mommy time" and I felt like I was literally going insane.
Yesterday I told her "higher self" we're going back to the way we used to do it. Where she'd go to sleep around 8pm and I'd nurse when I came to bed around 10-ish and then every three hours or so after that would be fine with me. No more of this hourly crap. I wouldn't let her catnap (well, after 5pm, anyway...) and we took a walk to the video store at around 7 pm so she'd have something to distract her until bedtime.
It worked!
She went to sleep by 8:30 and I was able to leave her side. She actually slept until 1:30am when we nursed, and then again at 4:30am. I am *so* relieved.
Of course, then the other litanny of crap that keeps me from sleeping took over. My husband, who has a severe case of sleep apnea (but won't get evaluated or treated) was snoring his brains out, and then I had some form of insomnia (I think I was waiting for the baby to wake up) and my hands have been hurting... its so frustrating.
Sometimes I think I must have tortured people with sleep deprivation in a past life.
I had to get up this morning at the normal (weekday) time to take my meds. Blogging actually helps loosen up my fingers by moving them. So, here I am.
And there she is... gotta go nurse.
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