Reed is now 21 weeks old, we just can't believe how big he is getting! By the way, when does a Mom stop counting weeks?? Well, I decided to write this post to document one of the things I have found much harder about being a parent than I ever imagined. Weeks 18 and 19 of Reed's little life has been thus far the most trying time for me. I found myself literally every day saying, "What should I do!" or "What is wrong with him!" We have been overly blessed with a very healthy and happy baby. However, a couple of weeks ago Reed was much more fussy than normal and especially at bedtime. It was all we could do to get to 8 o'clock without a total meltdown. Then he started crying out when I would try to nurse him. He was doing this at almost every single feeding, to the point that we were both in tears. It was like he was crying for a bottle, it was heartbreaking for me. He also started waking up more during the night, the pacifier would normally get him back to sleep, but a couple of nights I was up every hour putting the pacifier in and one night I even had to feed him in the middle of the night and that hadn't happen in over a month. On top of the fussiness and not sleeping good, Reed was going up to 6 days without a poopy diaper, this started right before he turned 4 months old. All this and Reed started fighting sleep at nap time like I have never seen before, it would take an hour to get him asleep and then by the time you got him to sleep it was time to eat again and this just created more crying! Ugh, are you getting my drift...not fun! I just never imagined I would be at such a loss on what to do to make my child better. I didn't know if he had an ear infection and maybe that is why he wasn't nursing. I thought maybe he needed more to eat and I should be starting him on solid foods. So finally after a night of being up 4 times putting the pacifier back in I decided to try feeding Reed cereal before bedtime. Then that night was one of the worse yet, it didn't help at all he was up almost every hour.
I just kept pressing through telling myself it has to get better! We learned after the late afternoon feeding to get Reed to take a nap before bedtime and this helped him not be so fussy. I did a lot of reading on breastfeeding and learned several techniques that have seemed to help with feeding time. We also let Reed cry it out a couple of times when he woke up for his pacifier and now he is only waking up maybe once or twice a week for it and not until around 4 am. I am so happy to say that the last week as been the BEST week ever. Reed has been SO happy, eating great, sleeping great, having plenty of dirty diapers and even the napping is better. The last four days I have been home with him he has taken a 2 1/2 hour morning nap, a couple of 30-40 minute naps during the day and hour to hour and half afternoon nap. He is growing up so fast, learning more and doing something new every day and just such a joy to be around.
I have been told over and over, as soon as you think you have them figured out or as soon as you think you have them on a schedule it changes. This is SO true and easier said than understood, especially when you are living it every day! But I am happy to say we are back on track for now!
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