Sleeping

Well this ended up being a long week. Last weekend my parents flew home. D.J. did not seem to adjust well to getting back to our so called schedule we had before my parents came out. The problem we had is that we spent most of the days at my sisters place. That meant we didn't have anywhere to put him down when he fell asleep, which meant that someone held him pretty much the whole time. That was for 2 weeks straight and I think he got used to that. Since then he has been refusing to stay asleep when we put him down in his crib. Before we would rock him to sleep then lay him down. Now every time we try to put him down, he wakes up immediately and starts flipping out. So it was a LONG weekend of trying to get him to sleep and most of the time just having him sleep in our arms so we could get some rest ourselves. Plus Dave had to go back to work so I didn't want to have to keep him up at night so I was the one taking care of D.J during those early morning hours.

I have been reading and researching nonstop to get some help with this issue. Everything I have read says that this is normal and not to stress too much about it. I shouldn't start worrying until at least 4 months when we can start sleeping learning. That is the time we will teach him to fall asleep on his own in his own bed. I was worried that this was going to be a habit. I read that he is too young to learn bad habits like this. That made me feel better about letting him sleep in our arms. I also read that we should just keep trying to put him down so he can get used to it again. I'm hoping this helps. The swing has been wonderful as well to give us a break. Last night we did have a small breakthrough though.

I have been finally pumping enough milk that Dave can give him a bottle. Dave decided to take the late night feeding, most of the time around 1am. After drinking from the bottle, D.J. is passed out pretty hard core. I decided to try to swaddle him and put him in his bed. We have been having problems swaddling so I wasn't sure if that was going to work either. I wanted to try though because I think all the movement when he lays down wakes him up so I was hoping the swaddle would eliminate that. I read to leave one of his arms out now at this age so he can use it to soothe himself a little. After I swaddled him he continued to sleep so I laid him down and he didn't wake immediately! It didn't last long but it was a much needed 30 minutes in his bed!!! I'm going to continue to try to put him down like that and see how it goes. I always have the swing. :)

So we haven't been doing much but trying to adjust back to the 3 of us. I ended up waking up Friday morning with a 102 temperature. Luckily the doctors were able to see me first thing in the morning. Dave was able to come home after checking into work so I didn't have to take D.J. with me. As soon as the doc saw me she knew I had a bacterial infection in my breasts that was causing my temperature and pain. She prescribed an antibiotic and said everything is safe for the baby to continue to breastfeed. That made me feel better cause I was soooo worried about giving D.J. something. Most of the time it's so hard for him to get something from me since my milk gives him the antibodies my body is producing to fight the bug. I was pretty exhausted Friday and took a lot out of me. Dave was the best though and allowed me to catch up on sleep until I had to feed him. Having him feed a bottle during the late night feeding helped sooo much as well. As soon as I was done pumping I went right back to sleep. That was probably the best sleep I've gotten at night since his birth. It definitely helped because I woke up Saturday feeling so much better. I took over with D.J. so Dave could catch up with some of his sleep. He did that again for me last night which really seems to help. Unfortunately he's got to work so I'll be taking over tonight getting him to sleep at night. Keep your fingers crossed for us that he continues to sleep longer and longer in his own bed. I will post how this week goes.