Nighttime Nursing

I created The Boob Monster.

I want your boobs, Momma!!!

We all know Lulu likes to eat.  And I, especially, know she likes to eat at night. 

Lucy has never slept through the night; at best, she's only woken once a night, and that only lasted for a few months.  All things went to hell when I returned to work (when I actually needed to sleep).  First I blamed reverse cycling.  Lucy wouldn't eat all day long, while she was with my dad, and then she'd literally nurse for hours when I got home from work.  Fast forward to the 4-5 month wakeful period, Lucy's night wakings moved upward of four times each night.  And that's when it happened, that's when I created The Boob Monster.

I have always nursed on demand and comfort nursed - my mom likes to call me the human pacifier.  There is nothing wrong with doing either of those, but there can be consequences...  Hunger is one of the strongest cues for the human body, and I essentially trained Lucy's little body to eat at these set times each night.  D'oh!

I once read on a breastfeeding forum that some mother's were eliminating nighttime feedings or scaling back their nighttime feedings by choice and/or by their pediatrician's recommendation, and I thought, "Well that's kind of mean.  Why would they do that?"  Now I get it!  (Does that make me judgey?)

I still nurse Lucy to sleep every night, with no intention of stopping anytime soon.  But now, when she wakes at 9 pm, 12 am, 1 am, and 2 am, I soothe her back to sleep without the breast.  By doing this, I've eliminated the hunger cues that caused her to wake previously.  It took us almost one week to reteach Lucy how to go back to sleep without nursing (and Holy God was that a long week!), but after only two days we saw a decrease in night wakings.  Now we're back to waking once a night!  YAY! 

So if you're a breastfeeding momma that also comfort nurses, keep doing what you're doing!  Just be sure to alternate your methods of soothing, especially for nighttime wakings.  Yet another lesson learned!!!


How did you handle nighttime wakings?  Or are you one of the lucky parents whose kiddos slept through the night at an early age?

4 (almost 5) Month Wake

::waves::  Hello everyone!  I've missed you!

I thoroughly enjoyed my week off of work!  But wouldn't you know it?  The week I decide to stay home is the week Lucy comes into her 4 month wake.  What is the 4 month wake, you ask?  Let me tell you....

A truly rare site in the Shelton home.

At 4 months old a baby's little brain begins developing cognitive thought.  Babies are observing the world and learning from the moment they are born, but the real fun happens from age 4-7 months.  Babies begin to understand cause and effect, their attention span and memory increases, and (closer to 7 months) object permanence.  Neat, huh?

Casey and I have always known that Lulu is absolutely brilliant, just look at her:

"Oh my, Dada!  Your glasses look dirty, I'll clean them for you."

All these super cool developments do come with a price tag...  Oh hello, fussiness!  What up, distracted eater!  Goodbye, naptime!  Au revoir, sleeping through the night!

So for the last week or so Lucy has been extremely fussy and distracted while breastfeeding.  Like, eat for five seconds - pause - look around, eat for another 10 seconds - pause - whip her head around (with my boob still in her mouth) to see something distracted.  And holy hell, is she a fuss pot!  I have no idea what she wants.  This is the first time I've ever felt truly frustrated as a new mom.

She's also cut her two 60+ minute naps to three, sometimes four, 15-20 minute naps.  And my favorite side effect, so far, has been her nighttime sleeping....she has literally woke up a minimum of five times each night for the last six nights.  Every hour on the hour, after 11 pm.  Including last night.  Only this week, I do have to work.  ::sobs::    

My good friend, Jenn, told me all about the 4 month wake over lunch last week, since her little cutie pie (who's just ten days younger than Lulu) is going through the very same thing.  All along I had been blaming teething pains, ha!


The week wasn't all bad though...

We had lunch dates with baby friends

We swam

We had a birthday

 

Birthday Daddy!

We got new fluff (post to come!)

Yes, that's a paci.  No, she's still not taking them.

And we even started sitting up on our own!

Unfortunately, the only pic I managed to take is blurry.  Poo.

How was everyone's week?  Fill me in!

Goodbye Swaddle, Hello Arms!

Its official, we are DONE swaddling!

Last week I was getting Lulu ready for bed, wrapping her in the swaddle blanket, and she would not stop squirming; I nursed her for almost an hour, and she was still wide awake and very clearly frustrated.  I rocked her, sang to her and rubbed her little nose.  She wasn't having it. 

At 1:30 I decided to try putting her to sleep sans swaddle.  After some more nursing, Lulu *finally* shut her eyes.  It was a small victory, though, because she woke herself up every fifteen minutes.

The following night was a whole lotta the same nonsense.  We swaddled, we nursed, we rocked, we sang...it was approaching midnight, and Goose was WIDE awake.  

She was starting to whine, and I was teetering on the edge on sanity, so I gently woke Casey for some help.  By gently, I mean I shrieked, "YOU need to help me!"

We gave her a small dose of baby Tylenol, and chalked her restlessness up to "growing pains".  Casey rocked her for awhile, and eventually brought her to me to nurse.  She fell asleep without the swaddle, and stayed asleep for a couple of hours.     

Pssst!  Momma, I'm hungry!!!

Fast forward one week, and Lulu seems to have gotten the hang of things (yes!).

Those first few days were rough, though.  I do not function properly on three (choppy) hours of sleep.  I was desperate for a solution; I contemplated buying The Woombie and even starting Lulu on solids, but neither of those were practical solutions.  All you can really do is wait it out... 

(seriously, its a myth that solids help babies sleep through the night - but we'll talk about that later).

The average age that babies outgrow the swaddle is 3-4 months; and, whether I like it or not, Lulu is almost 4 months old!  We had a good run, Swaddle.  You will be missed!

Have any of you mommas had to break the swaddle habit recently?  Do tell!

7 hours 36 minutes

That's how long Goosey slept last night, completely uninterrupted.  Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Can I just say one thing? 

I loved waking up and cuddling with my love bug this morning.  We laid there "talking" for about a half hour, and now we're both enjoying breakfast on the couch.  God bless the weekends!

Our sleeping angel