I hope the sleeping patterns that have been occurring since New Year's Eve is no indication of how the rest of the year will continue... Aiden has been doing so well with sleeping, but something has been going on the past few days.
He has been sleeping through until around 4 or 5 am, nursing, and (after a while) sleeping another hour or so. During all the traveling over Christmas, he did wake more, but that's not too unusual with a baby sleeping in different places. For the past few nights, he's been waking up a few times each night, having a hard time getting back to sleep, really wanting to nurse before his normal time. We think he's teething now - seems like all of the areas where the canines will eventually be are a bit sore. And he's been a bit itchy sometimes, too. Ever since his infection a couple months ago, his eczema has been hard to get under control. Sometimes he wakes up and is clearly uncomfortable from it.
Last night, he wore his Christmas pjs that we got from Gymboree - cute red pajamas with little penguins all over them. I think we won't be buying any more pajamas from there, though, as much as we like their other clothes. The very second night he wore them, Ryan commented that he thought they bothered Aiden. I wasn't so sure and passed it off as coincidence. We're both convinced now. He had been wearing some others the past couple nights, but last night we put on the Gymboree ones...and he woke up MUCH more and was scratching all over and in places he doesn't usually scratch when wearing any of his other pjs. I think it's the way the seams are placed in these pjs. Around 2am, we changed his clothes, gave him some teething oil (and later gave him some baby motrin), nursed him...and finally had him back asleep. We thought. After I nursed and finally got Aiden back to sleep, I joined a sleeping Ryan in our bed. By this point, we had both been up most of the night; we had put Aiden in our bed at one point even. But he kept waking. Hopefully this time, around 3 or later, he was asleep for a good few hours.
Instead, he suddenly screamed bloody murder. I kid you not. Two very short and very scary screams. You've never seen two sleepy parents jump out of bed so quickly. We've never heard him sound like that. Very scary. We have no idea what it was, though. I was actually in tears after hearing him shout out like that. Shockingly, he was asleep when I got to him - all of two seconds later. But he quickly woke up and seemed pretty freaked out about something, begging for me to hold him. (Earlier, he was like this with Ryan...not wanting him to touch him and crying for me.) As scared as we were, we didn't think twice about bringing him to bed with us for the rest of the night, er, morning. Ryan fell right back to sleep (what a guy). Aiden was exhausted but having the hardest time getting to sleep. You bet I patted him, sang to him, and basically did whatever it took to make sure he felt secure and could go to sleep. And you bet I had a hard time falling asleep after all of that, too.
It was a rough night. After a couple other rough (but not AS rough) nights. Aiden is now taking a much needed nap (and a bit longer than usual - which doesn't even normally happen after a long night or two of little sleep). Ryan and I are hoping this is no indication of the sleep we will - or will not - get during 2010.
3 comments:
Poor Aiden (and mama)! I hope his teeth are feeling better soon. As much as I hate to do it, when T is hard core teething, Motrin is the only thing that helps him. Major bummer about the pjs - we love Gymmies over here! So weird that they bug him, maybe it's the dye. Happy New Year, filled with sleep!
I hope you guys get things worked out with Aiden's sleep soon. I have a whole new child now that he is sleeping. I thought he was a good kid before, now he is perfect. It makes all the difference in the world. I've so been there and understand how frustrating it is for both of you when your baby can't fall asleep by himself. Good luck with teeth too, canines were big big trouble for us. Actually that isn't true, the first one was trouble, but likely due to the other two molars pushing through at the same time. The rest weren't so bad.
Hugs!
Thanks, ladies.
I really think a lot of the sleep problems he's having now is due to teething and his itching. He's been doing SO well with sleeping lately (except for this waking recently, that is). He is clearly uncomfortable most times he's up and has a hard time going to sleep...as in he's lying there, quiet, trying to sleep...but those eyes just won't close. The other night, I actually sat in his room, while he was trying to go to sleep on his own for THIRTY minutes - and he finally got back up and needed my help.
I hadn't thought about the dye, Melissa. Hmmm... Not sure that's it, but it's something to consider. I did notice that the seams on the inside stick out more than his Carter's pjs.
Becky...we've already noticed that Aiden is much happier now that he is getting a bit more sleep. He just needs to get a little more... He'll typically go a nine-hour stretch, be up for maybe an hour, then sleep a bit more. I would like for that to be ALL sleep...at least 10-11 hours. Maybe we'll get there after we can get through this whatever-it-is. I think he's working on all four canines! I'm hoping they all just pop through very soon!
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