First, I've heard about it, I've been told to do it, but it wasn't until yesterday that I took the plunge. I'm now an official instagrammer. You can find me @twohootsandaholler.
Come introduce your instagrammin' self, won't you?
Second,
The past few weeks Abiella has not fallen asleep for good
until the wee hours in the morning. Last
night, I finally fell asleep at 1:30 am with visions of her playing in her crib
on the monitor beside my bed. I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.
At 3am I heard a noise and when I went into her room, she was STILL. AWAKE. She just smiled at me like, “Oh hi… good to see
you Mom. Don't mind me... I'm just in here looking around.”
During these hours she’s typically not upset (unless she has stomach
issues). Instead, she’s playing in her crib… laughing, “talking”, kicking,
stretching, trying to roll… If I pick her up and try to rock her to sleep, she
gets even more excited and begins REALLY laughing and stretching and wanting to
play games… The more attention I give
her, the more awake she gets. Because of this crazy schedule, she'll sometimes sleep until 10 or 11am if I let her. Problem is, we have morning appointments...
I hear of women whose toddlers go to bed at 7:30...this is my dream. However, the problem isn't just a sleep thing, it's her night feed. The feed
starts at 10pm and runs for 8 hours. I really can’t start it any earlier because it would run too close to her dinner, thus making
her stomach too full. Everything is on a tight schedule around here regarding
her feeds. With this in mind, I would ideally put Abi to bed at 7:30ish,
have the extension already on her ready to be plugged up, then I would sneak in
at 10 and connect the feed. But this
plan has been foiled every. single. night since we got the tube.
On the rare occasion that she DOES fall asleep at a decent
hour (I’m talking before midnight) she often wakes up with gas pains… Once they pass, she’s wide awake and ready to play again. I’m convinced the feed
is the problem. She’s getting
high-powered nutrients pumped into her body all night long. Her energy always skyrockets as she’s being fed (even
during the day)… annnndd she's being fed through the night for 8 hours
straight. It’s just not natural.
Soo… I met with her nutritionist and spoke with our feeding
therapist and the goal is to get her off her night feeds ASAP. However, this means ALL THE FOOD she gets
during the 8 hours at night must somehow make it into her daytime feeds. OMG.
That’s a lot of food.
So starting tomorrow, I’m going to try to give her 4 meals
during the day and then subtract that amount from her night feed… thus making
her feed last 5.5 hours. Eventually, I’ll
add more during the day (as she can tolerate it) and continue subtracting at
night. It’s a constant math
equation. How much food can she tolerate? How quickly can she get it without getting sick? (Obviously you want the feeds to go as quickly as possible b/c you don't want to be hooked up to a tube ALL. DAY. LONG.)
I dream of the day when she’ll only get water and liquid
medications through the tube… oh, the freedom.
But for now, it’s 12:20am, and my daughter is laughing,
kicking, rolling towards stuffed animals, and having a ball… another late night…here
we go.
mae mae
PS- This weekend we did start a new nighttime routine with
baby massages, scalp massage, sound machine, etc. etc. etc. and it’s been working! Both nights she fell asleep immediately afterwards… BUT she woke up an hour later and
started playing like a mad woman. I'm thankful for the nutrients and I'm SO GLAD she's happy... but we need a reasonable routine and a 3 am dance hour with a 7am wake up call just ain't gonna cut it...Oh
night feed, you really must go.
PPS. Downton Abbey's back! I may have done an interpretive dance in the living room as the premier started... Don't ask what I was "interpreting" because I don't know. Neither does Sean.
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