Monday, June 23, 2008

More Motherhood Stuff...always questioning what I'm doing.

Well, last night was a doozy. Ada was awake and crying from 2-4 am. We tried a new tactic--NOT giving her a bottle, but going in every thirty minutes or so to comfort her. We thought it might help to calm her down more quickly. Didn't work, obviously. So, new plan. We are going back to taking turns, but to insure that each of us gets a full night's sleep every other night (especially with the crying it out keeping us up for two hours at a time) we are going to be sleeping in separate rooms for a week or so. Now, obviously, if this lasts past two weeks, we will return to sharing a room, but right now the best thing for our marriage seems to be that we each get sleep!! So...tonight I have Ada duty all by my lonesome, and Scott will be sleeping downstairs in the guest room. Last night Scott technically had Ada duty, but I lay awake beside him listening to her cry. We are hoping the new plan will prevent the off duty spouse from waking up. We'll see. We have both been walking around in a fog from lack of sleep for the past few weeks, and we are hoping the new plan will somewhat remedy that. Our main resolve--Ada no longer, no matter what, gets a bottle in the middle of the night. Oh please, please let us get to the other side of this little phase.

I have a slight suspicion that some of this has to do with teething because she has only two teeth and she is almost 11 months. Surely a few more will break through soon.

On another note--nap time. I just don't know what to do. Again, feedback is greatly appreciated. We are trying one nap for now because that seems to produce a more quality nap overall, but it leaves her very sleepy by 6 pm, which seems way too early for bed. We typically put her in bed at 7:30, but she is already in bed and asleep, and it is only 6:12. She took a midday nap from 11-1 pm today, and I tried putting her down again at 3pm, but she was having none of it. Suggestions, anyone? I just don't want her waking up for the day at like 4:30 am. This whole mother thing is such a guessing game, and I have a feeling our next baby will be nothing like Ada, so we will have to relearn everything. One more way we have to be dependent on God every second, right? I have found my prayers have become very daily since becoming a mother. Sometimes they seem insignificant, but God created me to do this, right? So they must not be insignificant to him. Oh that I might bring him glory in the day to day.

Finally, thanks for all the running feedback. It really helps. I think I am going to combine Milla and Adam's suggestions--give myself a break and set small goals. I have been feeling all of this panic to be ready for the half-marathon instead of just running because I like to run. Maybe I should get back into the swing of things with running, and then find a half-marathon (or 10k, for that matter) to run. We'll see. Before I even saw those suggestions, I went out last night with the intention of running for as long as I could, and then walking, and it was so much more enjoyable. Granted, I only ran for 15 minutes, but I enjoyed it. And it had been a very long time since I had enjoyed a run.

Wish us luck tonight...I am crossing my fingers that we will have another fluke night, and Ada will sleep until morning!!

5 comments:

briannascreativecrochet said...

The age where they go from two naps to one is always hard. Sorry! It took my kids a couple of weeks to adjust but every child is different. It always seemed that when they went from two naps to one the 5:00 to 7:00 hours were terrible. I don't think this is unusal. Just be patient and do things to try and keep her awake unil 7:00 or whenever you want her to go to bed. Hang in there. She will learn to sleep when it is time to sleep.

Lynn said...

Sorry, I was signed in under my daughters name.

The Hams said...

I will give you a few of the tricks that we have used with Luke and maybe something will work for you! Teething - Dr. Hyland's Teething tablets - they are all natural and can help relieve the pain of teething and sometimes help them sleep - you can find them in the baby section at Wal-Mart and Publix I know. They are small and dissolve in their mouth. Second- Hurricane gel - it's like Orajel or Anbesol, but MUCH stronger! You have to go to the pharmacy counter and ask for it, but it works wonders! It's 3 times the strength so it numbs their entire mouth! We only used it at bedtime and the pharmacist told me to make sure that he had eaten and was good for a while before we gave it to him, since they can't feel their mouth afterwards =) Dip a Q-Tip into the gel and then rub the Q-Tip over her gums, just don't use your finger since it's fairly strong! I know that you can get it at Publix. Napping - Luke has to take 2 naps a day still or else the "witching" hours of 5 to 7 are unbearable! He ususally gets up at 7:30 or 8, goes back down at around 9:30 for and hour or hour and a half, takes another nap at around 2:30 or 3 and sleeps for an hour or hour and a half again and then we can generally hold him out until 7:30 - by which time he is exhausted and really ready to go to bed! Good luck and I hope these help - Not getting sleep stinks for everyone!

LB said...

thanks for the advice!!

I have one question, though, is it easy to put Luke down for his first and second nap? For the last few weeks (until this past one and this one) Ada was easily going down for naps. She might fuss for 15-20 minutes, but then she would settle down and sleep for 1-2 hours, but now she won't ever fall asleep. Do you have tricks for getting Luke to fall asleep?

The Hams said...

LB,
As far as napping, he's fairly easy, until the past 2 weeks - what's going on with babies these days? Anyhoo, he usually goes down pretty good - but I will give you some of my tricks and hopefully something will help =)I am a big fan of noise in his room - I play music- Baby Einstein classical, Enya, any soothing,soft music and I put it so that the entire CD repeats throughout his napping/sleeping. I also always have a fan or a heater (depending on the weather) going in his room. It helps drown out any other noises of things in the house while he's sleeping. We have a small ceramic heater/fan that we bought at Wal-Mart. I truly think that it helps and I have resorted to rubbing his back, patting his back or bottom, or laying my hand across his bottom and just gently moving side to side to kind of "rock" him to sleep. My last tip would be that he has a set routine as far as napping and bedtime and I really know that it has helped. At naptime, I take him upstairs, change his diaper and tell him it's time to go night-night - and now he repeats it! - and we sit down in the rocker and I give him his sippie cup. He usually only takes a sip, if any, and then I give him his pacifier, lay him down, and say "night-night." At bedtime, I always give him his bath, then onto the changing table for diaper, lotion, and pjs, then we sit down in the rocker and repeat the naptime routine. He knows his routine and is usually pretty good about going to sleep on his own.
Luke got 2 teeth at 9 months and then nothing for months. Then at 12 months, right as we were moving, he got 8 at once! Everytime I managed to sneak a peek into his mouth, I saw more teeth! He was a "pill" for weeks, but he finally settled down. Hopefully something that I've said will help Ada! Hang in there, and maybe this "phase" will soon pass!