Monday, January 26, 2009

More sleep issues

After a week of Riley having his nights and days mixed up, last Thursday night he slept 5 hours, BUT I only slept four of those because I came down with Mastitis. I woke up at 1 am with lots of breast pain and no matter how I tried to sleep I couldn't because any pressure on the breast hurt. The rest of the night I slept off and on in 15 minute stretches until I got a fever and chills. Thankfully I had my postpartum checkup Friday morning, and was dx with Mastitis. My mom came over to help with Riley since 4 hours of sleep isn't enough to function on with a newborn. She stayed till R got home from work and while I didn't sleep much I did get some rest.

He slept decent the next two nights and then had a bad one again. Then we had three good nights in a row but now we are back to having those awful wake periods again. I hate them!

Sleep seems to be our big issue right now. I want more of it and he is content with long wakeful periods at night. Thank god R is so good with him. I take the first part of them and then hand him over. I need my sleep! I then let R sleep in on the weekends so he can get an extra few hours.

At least he naps well! Last week we started him solely napping in his bassinet. I knew HE could do it but I wasn't sure about me. I liked having him close by, it eased my mind, but I also knew I couldn't let him get used to the bouncer, as someone (aka Holly) pointed out in my last post about sleep. In my defense (not that I need to defend myself) we don't use the vibration feature on the bouncer and he sleeps at an incline already so the the bouncer and bassinet aren't that different.

Our next transition will be into his crib, everyone says I will sleep better with him in the other room but I am not sure that is going to be true. I have a feeling my anxiety will creep up causing me to get less sleep. For now we are content with the small steps we are making. I am hopeful that tonight we will break the wakeful period trend with a car ride or extra long feeding. I think food might be part of the issue with him waking up. After all he isn't used to going for 4-5 hours without a boob in his mouth.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lily generally doesn't go longer than 5hrs without me feeding her! But I try to get as much sleep between the night feedings as I can! She also sleeps in her bassinet in our room at night- and in her rocker chair during the day.

I hope you start to get more sleep!!

Unknown said...

You'll find as time passes on that you'll start having more and more nights in a row where Riley will sleep longer and longer.
He's certainly demonstrating that his tummy will hold out for that time. It will keep getting better... promise :)

In terms of crib sleeping: yeah Riley'll sleep better, R will sleep better, but you'll only sleep OK. You'll wake up in the middle of the night just to walk to his room to make sure he's OK. I still do it and I can't help it. Apparently I'm not the only one though.

My only advice will be on naps. God, I wish I had gotten G used to naps earlier and taught him to fall asleep on his own (and stay down). We're getting over it now, but it's painful. Start early on that one: it will be what brings sanity to your day (and possibly night).

Hugs!

shiner said...

Sorry you are having a hard time, Ariella. I hope the mastitis wasn't too severe. Did you have to stop breast feeding? I hope your mommy friends are right and this gets better soon.