Sleep is something that I have not gotten much of lately. Now I realize that some of you are thinking..."You have a baby. You know that new moms don't get much sleep."
You are right. I understand that my sleeping habits will never be the same as they were before having Peter, and I'm ok with that. However, I know that my son needs sleep, and I have to figure out a way to help him get that.
Peter hasn't always been a bad sleeper. He actually slept through the night when he was three months old. Then he started waking up once (or sometimes twice) a night to eat, but I could handle that. Then he turned 6 months old. He was sick for quite a while, and he started waking up every 1.5-3 hours. Because he was sick, I went to him every single time and fed him to get him back to sleep. 3 months later, he is still on that schedule.
After talking with the doctor at his 9 month checkup, we decided that Peter is most likely not getting enough milk during the day. He tries to make up for it at night by nursing 3-4 times. The doctor told me to cut back on his solids intake to get him to nurse more during the day. As long as he is getting enough milk during the day, he should be able to go most of the night without needed to eat.
So I have done that. I give him a few ounces of solid foods a day, but I try to make sure that most of his nourishment comes from breastmilk. He is getting more milk during the day now, so that is good. However, his night-waking is a habit at this point. I really think that it won't matter if he's hungry or not - he is waking up due to pure habit.
I've googled "night weaning breastfeeding", and it didn't help. Almost all of the articles talk about night-weaning toddlers. Whoa!!! If my 2 1/2 year old is still waking up to nurse in the middle of the night, that is a huge problem in my book. Several of the links also talked about co-sleeping, something that I am trying to stop doing, not start so that Peter can just nurse whenever he wants all night long.
So, after the advice of several friends and lots of prayer, we are trying to cut down on his nighttime feedings slowly by letting him cry for a little while before just jumping up to go in his room. After last night, I really feel like there is hope.
Peter was in bed by 8pm. He woke up around 9:30, but he cried for just a second before falling back to sleep. He woke up again at 11:15. We listened to him cry for 15 minutes, and then he was back asleep. I was really happy that it wasn't longer, because it was so hard to listen to him just crying in bed. He kept saying "m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m" which is what we are pretty sure he says when he wants me.
When he woke up again at 1:15am, I went and fed him. He was back asleep by 2am, and then he slept until 6:30am. I was almost upset at 6:30 that he was awake for the day, but then I realized that I got more sleep last night then I have gotten in a long time. I got him out of bed, fed him, and took him downstairs. He was able to see Andrew before Andrew left for work, and then Peter and I went for a walk. The weather was great, and we really enjoyed our walk. We even saw a rabbit hanging out by a tree.
Here are a few pics from our walk this morning...
