Monday, January 23, 2012

Emotional Roller Coaster

The last 24 hours have had quite their share of ups and downs so I thought I'd deal with them by blogging. 

Let's start by talking about sleep.  (but keep reading... I'll get to his two month check up)

A little back story is needed, I think...   Up till now, for better or worse, Asher has been napping in the living room (and will go down easily in 5-10 minutes) and sleeping in a bassinet in our bedroom whenever we head upstairs for the night (plus he only has me up once or twice a night for for 30-40 minutes tops for nighttime feedings).  The trouble is sometimes it takes an hour or more to get him to fall asleep that first time after we go upstairs.  It's even harder when I'm already pretty tired and ready for bed myself.  So Eric and I decided yesterday that it was time to put him in his crib in the nursery for naps and sleeping... and to put him to bed before I'm ready to go to sleep myself.  We've slowly been working up to it.  He's taken a couple of sucessful naps in the nursery, but last night we tried it for the first time at night...

So let's start with an UP!   Asher was sleeping in his crib by 8:45 and Eric and I had some alone time downstairs without having to worry about waking him.  We paid bills. :) 

That's our video monitor.  Look you can see him sleeping!


The down... he only lasted a half an hour.

An up... after eating (which he was due for) and a diaper change he fell back a sleep in the crib!  And it was after all the first night trying!

The down... Even though I know it's for the best, I was pretty emotionally unsettled with him sleeping out of our room for the first time and it took me FOREVER to fall asleep.  I must have checked the monitor 100 times to make sure it was still working. :)

Can we do two downs in a row?   He normally sleeps 4 hour stretches at night but last night he woke up every 2 - 2 1/2 hours.  I was up 4 times instead of the usual 1 or 2... not much sleep for mom. 

Oh I remembered another up... when I change his diaper at night now, he talks and talks and talks to the dimmed light in his room.  Just jabbers and jabbers... g,g,g,g,goo.  So, so adorable. Last night was the most I've ever heard... almost even thought I heard a small laugh or too.

Let's just say we've still got some issues to work out around sleep.   However, all things considered, we have such an easy, happy baby I really can't complain that much about a few glitches in the schedule.  He is after all only two months old... which brings me to the rest of the 24 hours...

Let's talk about his two month check up!   

A huge UP for the emotions... Asher got the clean bill of health, he'd hit all his development milestones, and the doctor answered all our questions and made us feel really good about things.  For those anxiously waiting for them, here's Asher's stats:
  • Weight - 14 lbs. 0 oz. - 93rd percentile
  • Length - 24 inches - 88th percentile
The big down for my emotions was of course listening to him cry while he got his shots.  Three shots in the thigh and an oral med.

:(

An up...Eric came to the appointment and took on the duty of holding him down so all I had to do was the comforting afterwards.

The final down for the day, is that my poor little happy boy is in pain.  He's been fussy awake, whimpering in his sleep and just all around uncomfortable.  Breaks my heart. 

I hate to end on a down, but it's hard to think of an up right now... I guess except to mention that he is currently sleeping peacefully. And tonight will hopefully be easier because I think I'm too paranoid about immunization side effects to let him sleep in the crib.  We'll keep working on it though!  I'm not giving up!

I didn't start this blog to complain, but rather to deal with the emotional roller coaster I've been riding for the last 24 hours, so I'll end with the best UP of all - the blessing of having this baby boy in our lives is indescribable!

The roller coaster is worth it.   


#Meagan

2 comments:

Paisley said...

Emotionally BLOGGING is way better than emotional EATING!! :) I blog emotionally all the time! hehe... Good for you for taking these big sleeping milestones! It may feel a little 'off' for mommy AND baby for a few days, but soon it'll just be smooth sailing! OH, and hard as it may be, I recommend having him sleep in his crib tonight. Otherwise you'll lose all that progress you've made with getting him used to sleeping apart from you. It'll be like starting over for him. The times between waking will get longer and longer. Soon he'll be sleeping through the night!!

The Baack Family said...

I vote crib! To help with our two sleeping in the crib (which is where they started) we rolled up a towel or receiving blanket and placed around their head to close up the larger space (kind of like an upside U over their head). It was suggested by my mom who worked in the NICU. I tried it and it worked well for us.

Both kids were nursed and bottled from an early age. Jacob because we had to and Caleb because it worked well with Jacob. I always pumped after each feeding during the day, Eric was willing to feed them for one feeding at night which was about 11pm. I went to bed early (with ear plugs). The extra sleep helped me the next day with my energy and I was producing more milk because of the rest. I was so thankful he was willing to do this for me.

You are doing great!
Donna