Honeymoon Over
posted by Jen | 11:10 AM
On Carina's first night home, we only delt with one slightly fussy period between 1:00 and 2:00 AM. Last night, the fussiness lasted from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM. As close as I can tell, she has her days and nights mixed up and wants to eat every 3-4 hours during the day and every 2 hours at night. Not so happy for Mom and Dad. Hard to tell if it's a pattern yet, though.
We went to the pediatrician this morning for a post-NICU checkup. He says that she looks great. Carina showed her displeasure at the rectal thermometer by peeing and pooping all over the exam table.
One of the interesting things we've experienced is that we're getting different advice about things from different healthcare people. Clean the cord with alcohol. Don't clean the cord with alcohol. Feed every 3-4 hours. Feed when the baby wakes up. Feed every 2 hours during the day and 4 at night (would be nice). Use the breast shield to help her latch on. Don't use the breast shield; it does more harm than good.
My conclusion: Everybody just wings this parenting deal. Which isn't going to help me get more sleep tonight, but there you go.
We went to the pediatrician this morning for a post-NICU checkup. He says that she looks great. Carina showed her displeasure at the rectal thermometer by peeing and pooping all over the exam table.
One of the interesting things we've experienced is that we're getting different advice about things from different healthcare people. Clean the cord with alcohol. Don't clean the cord with alcohol. Feed every 3-4 hours. Feed when the baby wakes up. Feed every 2 hours during the day and 4 at night (would be nice). Use the breast shield to help her latch on. Don't use the breast shield; it does more harm than good.
My conclusion: Everybody just wings this parenting deal. Which isn't going to help me get more sleep tonight, but there you go.
Labels: baby
3 Comments:
Nighttime feedings will always be necessary... you should probably just do the best you can to get the baby on a schedule that won't drive you insane.
I guess based on all the conflicting advice, everyone has a different system that works best for them.
Cousin Caroline says, "Way to go Carina! Keep this up and pretty soon they'll give you whatever you want in the middle of the night just so you'll go back to sleep!"
I have a few advise books by Marc Weissbluth, M.D. if you want to read them. They helped us through a few difficult stages. If nothing else, the books might give you some more ideas to try and some ideas to scoff at (because, thank-you very much, I've tried that and it doesn't work).
My personal advise is to try different schedules and patterns during the day to try to lengthen night sleep. When she does wake up at night try everything you can (feeding, burping, swaying, music, swaddling, gas drops, etc.) without worrying about creating bad habits. That way when you hit upon whatever works well, you can get her to sleep quickly again.
However, I think you are correct in thinking you just have to figure out your own child for yourself. Caroline fell asleep when we put a soft blanket to the side of her face and rubbed her cheek. She also fell asleep when we would put her on our laps so her head pointed away from us and rocked her side to side. I never read about either of these ideas in a book and I believe they were just her personal preferences.
Good luck - she'll catch on soon I bet. I know that doesn't help much because you'll still be tired until she does :)
Becca is right. Nighttime feeding will never end. My teenage son still eats pizza in the middle of the night if he can get it:)
Emily also came home from the NICU with her day/nights switched. It took a while to get her back on track. Do what ever works as it seems to be different for every baby.
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