sleep deprivation, part 100 or so

[frualeydis]

Maja is really not sleeping well at all at night. Last night she fell asleep at 11, woke at 12, 2.10, 3.00, 3.45,5.50 and 8.10. She suckled all those times for at least a quarter of an hour, so you can probably guess how much sleep I got. And now I'm back to work so I really have to get up at 8 at the latest. We will have to find some way Rickard can make her sleep when she wakes up. As it is now he doesn't even wake up when she cries. When I was home with her it worked tolerably, because if we had had a bad night Maja and I usually slept 'til 11.30, but now I have to both be awake at night and work and it will not work in the longer run. I feel like I will fall asleep any time now and to work I really have to be able to think, not just walk around like a zombie.
I got a little tired of sewing on the bliaut yesterday so I cut out my periwinkle wool hood and silk lining and have started to sew on it. Hopefully I will get everything except the button holes and cloth buttons done tonight.

Comments

[marymont.livejournal.com]

She is probably getting ready for a growth spurt. Take her to bed with you, and make sure your breasts are available so you don't have to really wake completely up when she latches on. (Don't worry, she'll find the breast.) This will pass quickly, and you can get back to the normal patterns.

A book you can read on the subject is Tina Thevenin's The Family Bed http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/039952729X/qid=1104872082/sr=2-2/ref=pd_ka_b_2_2/102-5443276-6772143 (There are other books on this subject, but that's the one I read when my son was tiny.)

[ciorstan.livejournal.com]

Now, this is amusing. Or not, depending, since marymont and I are bestest friends...

I did not find the concept of the family bed at all appealing, as I am an extremely light sleeper and I get migraines when chronically sleep deprived. I had the problem when my son was five months old that being an apartment manager meant I could not set a bad example by having a baby howl at all hours. So he and I got into the habit of nursing him to sleep. He liked it a lot, but I was a bags-packed-under-the-eyes shambling wreck by the time he was 8 months old. Plus, associating comfort with sucking can set your child up for sucking issues later on... and getting palate/teeth corrected because of thumb/finger sucking is NO fun, as I know from second-hand experience from a brother who went through that.

At any rate, my book of choice was "Solving your Child's Sleep Problems," by Dr. Richard Ferber. It's not for the faint of heart, though. And my son's 12 now, and has no trouble whatsoever falling asleep-- but I still do to this day. My mother allowed me to go to sleep with a bottle in my lips until I was an older toddler; I sucked my lower lip until I was 12 and had to consciously break myself of the habit.

I only had to go through one hideous night of "Ferberization" and then my son cured himself of the sucking-himself-to-sleep thing. Best thing that happened to me that year!