Pulling All Nighters

We are now officially sleeping through the night. I'm calling it. Although Amber did cry a few times last night and Tyler still comes into our bed sometime in the middle of the night, we are, for the most part, getting a full nights sleep. It really feels good. I'm even able to stay up a little after everyone goes to bed to get a few things done. I'm feeling a little more motivated at night and I'm feeling like I need to start washing my hair more often than just 3-4 times a week. Wow.

Now that Amber is sleeping well at night, we need to work on Tyler so that he sleeps all night in his own bed. He's not feeling really well right now, so I have a hard time turning him away, but when he starts feeling well, we're going to have to take him back to his room when he comes in.

Cory is still our great sleeper. I know he doesn't always go to sleep right away, but he lays quietly in his bed. I hope that we can use him as an example for Tyler. Not sure how that will work, I don't want to compare them, but maybe a way to motivate him to sleep all night. We'll see.

Getting There

At Amber's 9 month appointment, the Dr. asked if she was sleeping through the night. She's not. She does sometimes, I know she can, but mostly she wakes up anywhere from midnight to 3AM for a tasty bottle in the middle of the night. I've posted about this before. It's frustrating because she's only gotten up once since the day she was born. She started out as a really easy baby, only wanting a feeding once at night from day one.

When I explained to the Dr. that the reason I'm still getting up when I was able to let the boys cry it out by the time they were 9 months old, is that the truth is I don't want her to wake up Tyler. Spending 15 minutes in the middle of the night to cuddle and feed her and put her right back down is no big deal. Dealing with a full on toddler tantrum in the middle of the night is an entirely different story. So, I've been getting up and quietly hoping that she'll eventually grow out of it. But she's not.

The Dr. thought that she's probably now just using me, or the bottle, as a pacifier to go back to sleep. She certainly doesn't need it from a nutrition standpoint. (Which is another post, she's already eating table food...). I digress. The Dr. suggested that I slowly decrease the amount of formula that I offer her in the middle of the night. If I'm giving her 6 oz., then the next few nights go to 4, then 2, then 1 oz. of water, etc. I thought that was a very reasonable thing to try and something that I can certainly do.

So a few nights ago, I decreased the amount of formula to 4 oz. She was angry when she drained it. She cried, grabbed the bottle, tried to get more out of it, threw it, then I laid her down and she put her thumb in her mouth and went right to sleep. Good. :-) About 4 days of that, then I decreased her amount down to 2 oz. on Saturday night. Again, she was really mad at me, but when I laid her down, she went right back to sleep. Last night she peeped a little bit, but went back to sleep. I didn't have to go in at all.

I know this won't be the last, she'll probably wake up in the middle of the night again, but I feel like this approach is working for us. If she wakes up again tonight, I'll give her the reduced 2 oz. again. I'll do that for a few more nights, then go to water.

A friend of mine said that when she gave her baby water in the middle of the night, she never woke up again.

After we get Amber straightened out, we'll have to work on Tyler. He's getting up anywhere between midnight and 4AM to come sleep the rest of the night in our bed. I don't have the energy to focus on both in the middle of the night, but once Amber is sleeping, Tyler will have to sleep all night in his own bed.

Sleep - Again

Amber is still waking up at night. It's really not that bad. I make sure that I have the bottle and powdered formula pre-measured and ready to go when I go to bed at night. When she wakes up, I sleep walk to the bathroom, fill the bottle with warm water and poor in the formula. I sleep walk down to Amber's room, sit down with her and close my eyes. When she's done, I put her back in bed, she falls right back to sleep and I'm in bed and asleep 15-20 minutes later. It's really not that bad. Except she's 9 months old now. She sometimes sleeps through the night and I know she can do it.

By this time in Cory and Tyler's life, I let them cry it out. They were still sharing a room, but didn't seem to wake each other. Tyler cried more than Cory, but they both eventually slept through the night without getting another bottle. I've tried letting Amber cry it out a bit, but she gets SO LOUD she actually wakes up Tyler in the next room. And although she'll go right back to sleep after her wee morning bottle, Tyler will not go back to sleep unless I bring him into bed with us or sleep with him in his bed. That isn't a very pleasant option either.

What really has me bummed, is that she's only gotten up once a night since the day she was born. When she was 1 week old, she'd only wake up once. Now why are we STILL getting up with her after 9 months! The other crazy part is that the last few nights she's gotten up twice. We seem to be slipping backwards. I've read that they can slip at this age and to not worry that they will grow out of it pretty quickly, but ugh, it's killing me. I'm not very good at work when I'm tired. Miles actually got up with her during her second waking last night. She didn't take one sip of her bottle, but giggled and laughed and squirmed and just wanted to play. Sleep, my precious girl, sleep! We don't play in the middle of the night.

So, I keep hoping that she'll eventually start sleeping through the night consistently.
The Dr. has suggested to give her a bottle of water in the middle of the night if she wakes up. She'll eventually decide that it's not worth waking up for. Maybe I'll try that tonight, but I'm really afraid of the crying. Not the crying so much, but the waking Tyler part.

Lest You Get Cocky and Think You Know What You're Doing

Oh sleep, that elusive rejuvenator that I so desparately want to claim as my own. Just when I thought we were on the road to a somewhat normal life, my feet get pulled out from under me.

Amber had been sleeping from 7PM to 6-6:30AM without a waking in the middle of the night for 6 days straight. The boys had been napping for several hours during the day and then going to bed around 8 and waking at 6:30-7. Oh how I love that schedule. It was still difficult to get Tyler to bed, but laying with him until he falls asleep was getting to be ok.

All the wheels fell off last night.

Boys wouldn't nap yesterday. Tyler made it clear that he was not going to go to sleep. He first layed down and pretty much fell asleep pretty quickly. I thought the coast was clear, so extracted myself from under him just as he woke up. He was groggy enough that I was able to talk him into staying in bed as I left the room. Not long he was up with a poopy diaper (his new modus operande), down to change and then back to bed. Many back and forth and taking off all his clothes and banging and unplugging his monitor and basic shenanigans made us finally give up. Through all the commotion, Cory didn't go to sleep either. On the topic of no naps, Amber decided to weigh in her protest and didn't go down until 4PM for her afternoon nap.

Good naps beget good nighttime sleep. I know that. So, bedtime was ok. Everyone went down pretty easily, but Tyler woke up at 11PM banging and thrashing in his bed. I went in to check on him and he just continuted to kick and scream. I asked him if he wanted some water and he calmed down, said yes, so I left to go get it. When I got back, he said, 'NO!' So I took it out and so he said, 'I WANT WATER', so I went and got it and he said, 'NO!'. This went on for several minutes until I decided to just leave him alone. Miles eventually went in and laid down with him until he fell asleep.

Amber woke up at 1:30AM, crying for a bottle, which she promptly drained and went back to sleep.

Cory woke up at 2:30, crying for his DeeDee, which I got up to give him.

Cory woke up again at around 3:00, but settled down without me having to go in.

Amber woke up at 5AM, so Miles got up to give her another bottle and see if she'd go back down - nope!

Tyler woke up at 6:15AM.

We had to wake Cory up at 7:15AM.

Here's hoping for a better day - Bumpa and Grammie won't let them get by with no naps - and a better night!

3 In a Row

Amber slept all night again last night. That makes 3 nights in a row. I stopped putting her in the sleep sack and bam, sleeping all night. Maybe she didn't like that thing, or it got too hot? Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed.

Now if we could just get Tyler to go to bed and not wake up at 5:30 every day...

Sleep Update

We haven't gotten that much sleep this week, but each night seems to get better. I keep thinking about all the blogs I've read where moms and dads talk about sleep and the lack of it with babies and toddlers in the house. I'm certainly not alone in this! There are some really good posts about sleep from other bloggers. Mimi, The New Girl, Bub and Pie, and another one I just can't find right now.

Tyler now doesn't complain about the fox in his room, thank goodness, but he still won't go to sleep without one of us laying down with him. When he was in his crib, I usually let him cry for a bit and then he would eventually fall asleep. How I loved the hour or so after everyone was in bed. I could actually have some alone time to do whatever I wanted! Now this laying down with Tyler stuff cuts into that time and I don't like it!

Monday night was rough. Amber wasn't feeling well, so for the first time in her entire 6 month life, she cried a lot of the night. I couldn't seem to console her. So, since Tyler needed someone to lay down with him, Miles kept him occupied and I did what I could for Amber. She finally went to sleep at midnight. Woke up at 3, I gave her a bottle and then she proceeded to cry. (She usually goes right back to sleep if I give her a bottle in the night.) I gave her some Motrin in case she was teething or that her stuffy nose was causing an ear ache or some other ache. But she still cried. I eventually turned off the monitor and fell asleep. I'm not sure how long she cried. I don't like that either!

Tuesday morning at least was a little later than usual. Tyler came into our room to get us up about 6:30. Amber and Cory still slept. And Cory - bless that little guy. He is our sleeper. He never complains, he goes right to bed and lays there quietly until he falls asleep. He wakes up late and sometimes I even have to get him up so that we can get dressed and eat before I have to leave. I feel bad that I don't talk about him as much because he is such a great sleeper! I've got other topics for him, though!

Amber slept much better the last few nights. I think she was just coming down with a cold and was uncomfortable Monday night. She's back to her normal routine of waking up only once a night. Once she gets feeling better, I plan to start weaning her off that middle of the night feeding, but for now, once a night is doable.

So, back to Tyler. How do I get him to stay in his bed? I've tried not saying anything to him and just keep putting him back in his bed. I'm not sure how long it would go on, but he just keeps getting up. I tried threatening putting him back in his crib (which is still set up in his room), and then following through. But, he just climbs right out of his crib now. I've tried laying on the floor next to his bed with the intent of getting a little further away each night, but he still complains and will come down and sleep on the floor with me. The only thing that seems to work right now is laying down with him.

Our next steps: We're going to try putting the gate up at his door, hopefully he won't try to climb over it or pull it down. If that doesn't work, we are planning to turn the lock around on his door and lock him in. Does this sound horrible?

Anyway, we've got to get through this because I want my one hour back!

Daddy Missed the Fox

In September when Miles' family came down to visit and meet baby Amber, the boys saw a fox running through the neighborhood. These fox live with us in our neighborhood. They roam around at night and find whatever they can to eat, I suppose. We have our fierce guard dogs, so the fox don't come into our yard, but they roam through others. They make their dens in the drainage pipes behind Sam's club and along the irrigation ditches that cris-cross through our neighborhoods. They stick to themselves, mostly, and we only catch glimpses of them in the evenings.

That particular evening, we were in the front yard with the boys. Miles was capturing pictures of the sunset. The boys suddenly exclaimed, 'It's a fox!' Diane and I looked and sure enough, a fox went running through a neighbors yard and disappeared into their back yard probably towards the ditch that runs back there. Miles missed it and the boys thought it was fun to tease Daddy about missing the fox. Ever since then one of them would say 'Daddy missed the fox!' Especially when Cory wears his pajamas with a fox on them.

The discussion about the fox was always in fun and in jest. We have a lot of animals (real, stuffed and plastic) around our house and are all animal lovers. Never in my wildest imagination would I think that this fox would be a scary thing.

Ever since we returned from our trip to ND for Christmas, Tyler has had a difficult time going to sleep. He will fuss and hyperventilate and cry and hang on to me for dear life. He says, 'there's a fox mommy!' I'm not quite sure what to do about this. Is the fox scaring him? I don't want to deny that it's there - what I've read is that they have wonderful imaginations and it just may be there for him. So, I asked him where. He pointed to a piece of furniture in his room, so I took it out. He'll eventually go to sleep if we're there with him, but he is truly afraid of something.

Part of me wonders if he's using this as a tactic that will bring out his desired reaction from me. One night I brought him into bed with us and he slept there. One night Miles took the mattress out of his crib and he slept on the floor all night. After that night, we thought maybe he'd do better with his big boy bed. So, we took the top bunk off the bed in Cory's room and moved his bed into his room. He still complained about the fox. And in fact, the piece of furniture that I had moved out of his room, I put in Cory's room. As we were getting ready for bed, Tyler pointed at the table in Cory's room and said, 'that's a fox, mommy!'

I'm hoping this is just a phase, but I don't want to create any habits that we've tried so hard not to create. One of them is the kids sleeping in our bed. We've been pretty strict about that and I really think we all sleep better because of it.

It really breaks my heart, though, to hear him terrified in his room alone. I can't just let him cry it out. So, last night Miles went in and fell asleep with him. It was late. Then, this morning, he woke up early (5 AM) and was very upset. He calmed down, but he was very hard to handle this morning. I could tell that he was very tired. We had to get them all ready for daycare, so it was a hectic morning.

I'm just not sure what to do. I want to comfort him, I want him to feel safe, but I want him to sleep in his own room. I guess my approach to this one will be to continue to comfort him, help him get to sleep each night and hope that this is just a phase.

Boy, I'm tired today.

One Step Back

I'm tired. I didn't get much sleep last night, but I was thinking about it and I can't really blame the kids. They are all still sleeping so well.

I stayed up late (and it's late again tonight) - 10:00PM HA! I know that's not too late for most people.

Dog got me up at 3:30.

Amber up at 4:30

Ugh.

Sorry I can't get too much more down tonight, but I wanted to honor my commitment for NaBloPoMo - one a day in November! So far, so good.

Sleepers

It's amazing what 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep can do for a person. I feel pretty good today. I can't remember the last time I had that much sleep. It's always been someone, some dog, or being pregnant that would wake me up at least once in the middle of the night. Last night they all went down at their usual times. Amber at 6:30 and Cory and Tyler at 7:30. I went to bed at around 9:00.

Amber woke up at 10:00PM, took 6 ounces and went right back to sleep. I didn't wake up again until 5:00!! 10-5! I could survive on that. I did get back to sleep a little bit till 6:00. Amber got up around 6:00 and Cory and Tyler at 7:00. Now if we could just count on those times consistently, we'd be home free!

I'm not at all surprised at how many books, studies and blogs are written about babies, toddlers and sleep. How important it is to our sanity. And how much I really love it. Night, night, I'm going off to get my second night of 7 hours of sleep...