So that is what is going on!

We figured it out!

Riley's wakeful periods at night and him wanting to be feed a lot at night are.... NORMAL! I finally found someone who knew what she was talking about. Kellymom has a great article that explains how 4 months olds are easily distract able and thus don't feed well during the day (yep that is Riley) and thus they make up for it at night, when it is dark and they are swaddled with less to look at. This is EXACTLY what Riley has been doing! She goes on to explain that CIO isn't the answer because that will make my milk dry up. Ya! One more reason not to CIO! I knew there had to be a reasonable explanation for his recent behavior.

The bad news is that this doesn't normally resolve itself till the child it 6 months old. I am really hopeful it resolves before that but if not just knowing that this is normal and that CIO isn't the answer has given me more resolve to get through this. That and the fact that my wonderful friend Shannon has offered to take him overnight this Friday IF she doesn't go up to visit her mom. Can you all think good thoughts for me that she skips the visit with her mom and takes Riley for the night instead?

In reflux news the new meds while awful in taste are working better than the old ones.

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.