Abigail will be 16 weeks old next Tuesday and has reverted to sleeping like a 4 week old. We were hoping it was because she has had a cold but her cold is going away and she is still not sleeping. We moved her back down to the bassinet in our room because she wakes up so many times. So this is how most of our nights go....She eats dinner about 8pm. We get her all clean and swaddled and in bed usually around 9 or 9:30 depending on how hard she fights going to sleep. She will then sleep till 1 am or so. I feed her again, change her diaper and get her right back down in the bassinet. For some reason this is where things go downhill. She will sleep for about 30 minutes to 1 hour before crying again....I try rocking her bassinet and giving her the paci but that rarely works so I then pick her up and hold her till she falls back asleep. I get her back in the bassinet for her to sleep about 20 more minutes. We do this one more time before I give up and just hold her in bed with me. She sleeps a little, I barely sleep at all. At around 4-5 she is ready to eat again and I am up for the rest of the morning. After 2 weeks of this I am exhausted....and grumpy....and exhausted and grumpy! This week we decided to go ahead and try a little rice cereal right before bed. We know shes only 3 1/2 months old and we haven't gotten the OK from our pediatrician but I am about to loose my mind so we had to give it a try. It really hasn't made a difference so far. We will try it for a few more nights and if it still seems like its not helping then we are going to stop. This weekend we are going to work hard at keeping her out of our bed! Fun Fun! We are open to advice if anyone has something they think we should try.
During the day Abigail seems to be doing a little better. She still cries a good bit but has much longer periods of happiness. There are things that she likes to do.....she will play on her play mat for awhile, she likes going for walks/runs, and she loves the tv! Thanks to our friend Kelly who let us borrow her iLatch, (an awesome iPad holder that will hang from the headrest or stroller) we now can go places without Abigail crying the whole way. We play a Baby Einstein movie on the iPad and she loves it.
Abigail riding in the Bob stroller.
Asleep after a run with Daddy.
Here is a picture of the iLatch hanging on her stroller. She fell asleep in Walmart watching Baby Einstein.
I wouldn't worry about starting rice. We started at 4 months anyway, so you're close. Do you think she is done with being swaddled? Maybe you could try not swaddling her one time and see if she's ready for room to stretch??? Also, I know everyone says this but maybe her gums are bothering her? They do start to teethe anywhere for 4-7 months. you can try rubbing orajel on her gums or the teething tablets are supposed to work good. I hope it gets better.
ReplyDeleteThanks Adrienne! We have been wondering if it was time to start weening from the swaddle....she did take a nap today without it and slept for an hour(she usually will only do 10 minutes if not swaddled). I bought some orajel this week so we will try that too.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! Hope you get some sleep soon. Personally, I think it's a growth spurt.... but not that she's hungry so feed her idea, but that her body is growing and might hurt. I don't know, it seems all babies go from sleeping really well and then around 3 1/2-4 months they decide to revert and stop sleeping well. Just testing you. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteTake some pictures of her with the iLatch! My friend loves to have pictures of it in use!!! Email them to me so I can pass along.