| | (somehow this got posted before I was done with it)
Sleep!!!
I need to get some sleep. I haven't been on to post lately mostly because just getting through the day is all we're doing right now. I'm lucky if I get 5 or 6 hours of sleep a day. Most nights its 2 or 3. Its been over a month since I had more then 2 hours at a time of sleep. Noah only sleeps if he's being held sitting up. There has been a couple of times where he slept 45 minutes in the swing. but other then he's only slept with me holding him. Jackson is going through one of his episodes right now. So, he's also having a very hard time sleeping. Last night it took 3 hours to get him to go to sleep. Michael and I would switch back and forth between who was holding Jackson and Noah. When Noah wanted to eat I was nursing him and then I would go in and rock Jackson. Jackson threw up twice so we changed him twice and changed the sheets once. He finally fell asleep at 11. then he was up at 1. Michael rocked him for about 30 minutes before giving up. He cried for a little while before I went in to get him because I was nursing Noah. After that I rocked Jackson for almost an hour before bring him to our bed. Usually he won't sleep in our bed just wants to play so I don't do it very often because of that. But he was tired and fell asleep pretty quick. But a queen size bed isn't big enough for the 4 of us. It was Michael then jackson, me and noah against the packnplay against the wall. I was squished. But Jackson and Noah both slept from 2 -4 so that was good. We've pretty much been up since then. Since Jackson usually won't sleep in our bed several times I've taken him and Noah and sat in the reclining chair and let them both nurse until they fall asleep. Its hard for me to sleep with both of them on me in a chair but at least they will sleep.
I do feel really blessed though. I've been managing. I havent' completly broken down. My kids are doing ok. I've been surviving on usually 3 hours of sleep a night. The thing though is I don't want to just survive anymore. I want to enjoy my kids, play with them, spend time with my husband. that hasn't been happening. I'm to the point where I feel sick. I feel like I'm losing time if I just close my eyes for a second it really feels like minutes have passed. there isn't much we can do about noah at this point. He's only a month old. He does have very severe reflux and we started him on some medicine that is helping. Hopefully that will continue to improve. Thankfully I have my moby wrap as he sleeps in that during the day and I still have my hands to help Jackson some. We'll just work with Noah as he gets older so he doesn't develop bad sleeping habits.
With Jackson getting sleep its going to be really hard. Because he's been on monitors, oxygen, cpap machines, in the hospital he doesn't know how to fall asleep on his own. I've read so many books, asked all his doctors, done so many different things and nothing works. All the advice I get is for kids that have already at some point slept on their own before or have strictly done family bed. Jackson just doesn't know how to fall asleep without being rocked to sleep and even then thats hard some nights. At this point he just needs to get some good sleep and catch back up. So the plan is to move up his bed time, keep his routine the same every night,(bath with his california baby calming bath soap, jammies, prayer, books, songs, nursing, rocking). Give him melatonin before bedtime every night. After he gets a few good nights sleep we're going to set a timer and tell him after the time goes off he has to close his eyes and go to sleep. I'll still hold him but I won't rock, sing, or nurse him. That way he'll at least fall asleep without anything else so maybe we can move onto falling asleep other places then me holding him. Any other ideas? Crying it out is not an option for us. For one I don't really believe in it, sometimes it works in certain situations. but Jackson if he cries for too long he sometimes will have a seizure. I can't do that to him.
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| | Posted 2/28/2009 8:50 AM - 24 Views - 8 eProps - 5 comments
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