Monday, March 7, 2011

Restless nights part 1

Inspired by Kristin I am going to talk about sleep.
My son was a very difficult baby, I mean to us, maybe to others he might have been easy, compared to stories I sometimes think we just had a 'normal' new born, whatever 'normal' means.
He slept perfect in the hospital, and I seriously thought we got SO lucky. My husband and I were like OH MY GOODNESS, he is so sweet and quiet. HA HA HA joke was on us.

My husband and I love to tell the horror story of the first night we brought Andrew home. I think we tend to scare new parents off easily, but it was a crazy night.
We got home after being discharged around 10 pm AT NIGHT. probably bad idea to leave that night but we had been in the hospital since friday and it was monday night, we were So ready to go.
We got home and got ready for bed. I tried to nurse him and swaddle him, and we placed him in his crib. What the hell were we thinking?! why did we think that he would just fall asleep and we could climb into bed?! I laugh at myself now, I was so stupid.
Of COURSE he started screaming his head off. poor thing. I picked him up and rocked him, and still nothing. it was probably 1 am by now, and we were there holding him, nursing, rocking, everything, and nope he was still awake.
At 4 am my husband started building a swing we bought, and I was sitting there cracking up thinking how desperate we were to get some sleep.
We put him in the swing, and he fell asleep. 4:30 am.
We climbed into bed and thought OMG is this how he is going to be ?!
He woke up at 6:30 am.
We were so high on "new baby is here" ness, that i didn't feel tired that first night.
But things did NOT get better.
He was the type of newborn that was awake more than he was asleep.
Forget the books that said newborns sleep 20-22 hours a day. I thought OMG this newborn baby thing is going to be so easy.
Lets not forget to add the breasfeeding issues, cracked nips, and sleepless baby= very frustrated momma.
I felt like i was constantly nursing and I just needed a break so bad.
He would always fall alseep around 11 or 12 at night and wake up at 2, 4, 5,7, then maybe a long stretch till 11am.
Things were hard, but I think I got used to the schedule. I didn't even bother with books about sleep training, or people who would tell me to let him cry it out at 2 weeks old.
It was ridiculous to me.
I remember one really hard hard night, he didn't fall asleep till 5 am and he was up since 6 pm. I was crying at that point. My husband was working and he had to get up to work at 5 am, i didn't wanna bother him, but he did get up and try to rock him and nothing. it was so hard that night i think i almost lost it.
Eventually we ended up just co-sleeping with him, its nothing we thought of doing before , it kinda just happened. After nursing got better * latching issues* it was SO SO SO much easier for me to nurse in bed. It felt like i was still "sleeping" cause I didn't have to get out of bed.
The saga continues tomorrow...

1 comment:

  1. I'm totally going to have this kind of baby. I was like this as a baby, and NO sleep training worked on me. I'd scream all night long if not "rescued."

    Payback is gonna be a...

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