Sleep disturbances
First off, Kate does NOT have another ear infection. She has a little bit of fluid still in her right ear, but the Dr says it can take a long while to fully drain, and it’s not anything he would consider bad enough to treat. I was surprized to hear it – relieved, yes, but also perplexed.
Louise posted about “wonder weeks” in the comments, and maybe that’s it. She’s just been a little weird this week. Random crying for no apparent reason; meltdowns much faster than usual; not sleeping even when I know she’s tired (leading to yet more meltdowns). It can be rather perplexing.
The sleep thing is really irritating, as we’ve been very spoiled with her sleep. All I’ve ever had to do is lay down with her and nurse her. That’s it. She always falls asleep. So for her to finish nursing and then just fidget and whine and refuse to sleep, well I just lay there staring at her and I don’t know what to do. I’m all, “What is this?!” I figured she must be sick or something. She’s not. So, uhh… crap?
Tonight I got her to sleep by singing her lullabies. Apparently she really liked that, she stopped fidgeting soon as I started singing. (And then I had to keep singing, making up words because who the hell remembers all the words?) But then she woke back up and tried convincing me she was AWAKE and READY TO PLAY, when it’s 10pm and I know she is so not. So I ended up putting her in the Kozy and begging Den to bring up the exercise ball from the basement so I could bounce on it. It took 20 minutes of her staring around the room like a mini zombie before she finally headplanted on my chest and fell asleep.
At the same time I’m feeling that it’s time to move her into her crib. Not in her own room, no way I could handle that, but I am suddenly not sleeping well. She’s wanting to sleep longer stretches and I feel terrifically guilty for waking her up every 2-ish hours so I can change sides. I’m warm, I’m restless, and I have wicked insomnia. She’s fine sleeping without being squished up against me, but that leaves me relegated to the middle of the bed where it’s not flat, sinking in towards my husband who is really hot and had pointy elbows and stuff. After I layed there in the middle wide awake for 3 hours last night I realized nope, this isn’t working anymore. I tried putting her in the cosleeper again but it just didn’t work. I’m hoping I have more success with the crib side-carred.
I have found with my daughter that right around the time you think you have them figured out they change again. They’re growing so fast and learning so much right now that they change quickly. Just think of how different she is now than she was when she was born. It’s really amazing. My daughter is almost 15 months now and she still goes through changes that I don’t expect right when I think we have a routine established.
For sleep, you have to do what works for you and if you aren’t getting enough sleep that’s not good for anyone. I intentionally stopped nursing my daughter to sleep because I discovered that my husband could not get her to sleep at all. That’s not to say she never fell asleep nursing, but it was a rare occurrence. It was also right around 3.5 months that I started having problems with our normal routine of rocking her to sleep. I discovered a couple of weeks later that she was ready to start going to sleep on her own and it made life so much easier for all of us.
Good luck. You’ll get it figured out.
We had Noelias crib right beside our bed and now we have her toddler bed there too.It makes life alot easier when you can have her at arms reach yet sill have your own bed to yourself (at least until she wants to nurse anyway ;) )
We have Noelia start off in her bed and then when she wakes up wanting to nurse,she comes in with us..so that actually does give you a few hours of space and comfort.It can also help *her* sleep longer stretches because you dont wake her every time you move kwim?
Once Kate is bigger,its also easier to have her in the middle of the bed instead of on the side ;)
You dont have to worry about her rolling out,and she´ll have a parent on both sides so you can lay how you want because she´s always right up against one or both of you.
Thats how we do it and it helps because I can at least scoot over to the edge of the bed and lay how I want..I also sleep deeper when I dont have to worry about her falling out :)
Good luck! You’re on the path! It’s gonna happen! (Sorry about the crap til it does. :/ )