Mostly this is for me to keep track of how things are going, but feel free to comment and advise. I will say that one thing that is EXTRAORDINARILY frustrating about most websites and books devoted to sleep is that solutions all take time. Or require--that is, go better--with a second adult (i.e. I can't just let a partner deal with Tiny Boy in the middle of the night so the breasts are unavailable). And, really, although I recognize that LONG TERM things might go more smoothly if I do x, y, or z, sometimes my short term really is whatever works NOW, which, of course, is why we're where we are at 10.5 months. Anyhoo...
Last night:
Bedtime 6:40 pm, asleep within a few minutes as far as I know
First waking 10:00something....I'd benadryled myself and ignored him and we both fell back to sleep
Second waking 1:00ish...nursed and dumped cribwise without a problem
Third waking 3:00something...ignored him and he fussed/whined/cried for about an hour
Fourth waking 5:15 or so...nursed him
Morning 6:15...nursed and he might have gone back to sleep for a few minutes; clearly needed MORE sleep
This is all really typical. The only difference is I didn't nurse at 10:00... but that last half of the night he seems to need something from me...would he have slept better if I nursed him at 3:00? He wouldn't have cried, but he probably would have woken up in the 4:00 hour, as well as 5:00, instead.
I was hugely engorged and actually leaking when I woke up, so it's pretty clear to me that he does take in a HUGE amount of milk overnight. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but unless his intake increases substantially at daycare (he gets ~8-9 oz from bottles over ~8 hrs) I doubt he's going to stop nursing at night. Chicken and egg, I know.
I think I'll try the same thing tonight. And maybe if we're making some headway try cutting the 1:00 feeding, too, in a few days.
*
Thinking about this more logically now: if I don't think he can go more than 6-7 hrs without food, I should probably time that so those ~6 hrs coincide with my sleep. So tonight I'm going to try to nurse him before I go to bed at around 10:00 and then see if I can ignore him until 4:00 or 5:00... 6:00 would be great, but I really don't see that happening, not yet anyway... but I really might need to sleep on the couch :)
Last night:
Bedtime 6:40 pm, asleep within a few minutes as far as I know
First waking 10:00something....I'd benadryled myself and ignored him and we both fell back to sleep
Second waking 1:00ish...nursed and dumped cribwise without a problem
Third waking 3:00something...ignored him and he fussed/whined/cried for about an hour
Fourth waking 5:15 or so...nursed him
Morning 6:15...nursed and he might have gone back to sleep for a few minutes; clearly needed MORE sleep
This is all really typical. The only difference is I didn't nurse at 10:00... but that last half of the night he seems to need something from me...would he have slept better if I nursed him at 3:00? He wouldn't have cried, but he probably would have woken up in the 4:00 hour, as well as 5:00, instead.
I was hugely engorged and actually leaking when I woke up, so it's pretty clear to me that he does take in a HUGE amount of milk overnight. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but unless his intake increases substantially at daycare (he gets ~8-9 oz from bottles over ~8 hrs) I doubt he's going to stop nursing at night. Chicken and egg, I know.
I think I'll try the same thing tonight. And maybe if we're making some headway try cutting the 1:00 feeding, too, in a few days.
*
Thinking about this more logically now: if I don't think he can go more than 6-7 hrs without food, I should probably time that so those ~6 hrs coincide with my sleep. So tonight I'm going to try to nurse him before I go to bed at around 10:00 and then see if I can ignore him until 4:00 or 5:00... 6:00 would be great, but I really don't see that happening, not yet anyway... but I really might need to sleep on the couch :)
Good luck! Last night at 1:30am with my thumb in DC2's mouth (the only thing keeping her from screaming... no breast, no pacifier, not her thumb), I thought of you and prayed I would get more sleep 8 months from now.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you find this useful: I wake my 9 month old to nurse when I go to bed (around 11:30). Since I started doing that he seems to have an easier time sleeping through the rest of the night, and is ok until around 6:00/6:30 most nights (sometimes he wakes around 4:30/5:00 but usually can go back to sleep by himself).
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am very aware that this might only be temporary.
Hope you find some rest tonight. You are doing a fantastic job, your son is very lucky.
When I started weaning, Finn nursed 2-3 times a night. I cut out the bedtime feeding last, and it seemed to work for us better than when I tried to cut it out earlier.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can find a solution - I can't even begin to imagine how tired you are!