Before reading further, I think this blog is more for my therapy and rather boring for anyone to read so feel free to just look at the sweet picture of Charlie and not read my long rant. :-)
There hasn't been a day where we haven't discussed sleep in some capacity. It seems to be a large focus for Matt and I. I keep reading books and blog posts, etc. Sometimes, I find myself trying to read other blogs for babies that are Charlie's age to see how they are sleeping and I find myself getting very angry at these complete strangers that complain that they would like more than 6 hours. I am trying it all from swaddling, making sure he gets good naps through the day, establishing a bedtime routine, a strict bedtime, etc. A strict bedtime is hard though because it somewhat restricts us from getting to do fun things so last night, Charlie stayed up an hour later than normal because Matt and I were out having fun.
Speaking of last night, it was a particularly bad night. We consider an average night for the last week to be going in 3 times for about 30 minutes to an hour during an 8-9 hour period. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. So, Matt's word to describe last night was "unbelievable". We were up and down all night. Matt tries getting up with him for all non-feeding times and I do the feeding times. Since he only eats every 3 hours, Matt is getting up more than me. Charlie is fast asleep this morning. It appears the boy may be exhausted. Wonder why!! I worry about the next week of working full time and struggling at night to get sleep, but know that we will get through it.
Charlie has struggled with reflux which is apparently very common and doesn't bother most babies. However, he is one of the babies that it seems to bother. His throat is raw and he sometimes cries through nursing but more often cries through burping because it hurts when it comes up. I hate it too because I feel so helpless during those moments. I never knew much about babies with reflux but in true Stephanie fashion, I've put my time in researching it and obsessing about it. I think I've done all that I can do which is slightly unfortunate since it's better but not gone. Charlie is just going to have to grow out of it a little and I will continue to work with the pediatrician to find some medicine that will help him in the meantime. The pediatrician has changed his dose on his medicine 3 times since we started it and have talked about switching him to something else.
Charlie is also a horrible sleeper, some to do with the reflux and otherwise just not a great sleeper. I realize a newborn baby and sleeping is an an oxymoron and I probably get laughs from some people who think I just don't realize that babies don't sleep well and I just hope those people keep their comments to themselves. I do realize that but I would argue that Charlie has struggled a little more than your average baby. I don't know that this had anything to do with it but I slept great until I got pregnant and I struggled through those 9 months. Now that my body feels great and I can sleep, Charlie won't let me. (I see this being a theme for the rest of my life.) Everyone said, it gets better once they are 2 weeks or wait until 4 weeks and then they will go for 3 hour stretches or at 6 weeks it will all be better or you should be golden by 12 weeks. Well, we are at 12 weeks, and he has had enough good nights to count on one hand and more nights than I would like where I really think he slept better when he was just born! So, I have a baby who doesn't want to sleep unless he is held which my pediatrician believes is more behavioral. The last couple of weeks, Matt and I take turns getting up with him and sitting and holding him so he at least sleeps because we don't know what else to do.
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