Sleep Issues

Can I tell you how silly I feel writing this now that it seems to somewhat have resolved itself?  Ah, well, I've got nothing else on my mind.  And we're going to HOPE that this is resolved for good.  Robby and sleep have a love/hate relationship.  When Robby was VERY young, he slept like a champ.  He even was sleeping through the night fairly frequently.  I thought I had won the baby sleep lottery.  And then...3 months came along.  

At 3 months, the 4 month sleep regression hit.  Robby was waking up between every 45 minutes and hour and 1/2 around the clock.  I became a complete and total zombie.  This lasted for a little over a month.  Things started to get a bit better, slowing down to around 3 wake-ups a night.  And then only 2!  I thought sanity was returning.

Daycare comes too early

Last week, when Robby got sick, his sleep routine got shot to heck.  He was waking up a lot at night, and he didn't want to sleep anywhere but on our chests during the day.  He got somewhat used to this, and came to expect it.  Also, it got very cold (40's at night) in the house, and more importantly his room, and it didn't allow for him to have sound sleep.  He was always cold, since babies can't have blankets.

Now on to the happy ending.  We seem to have won the war!!!  Although, I'll have to see how naptime goes today.  This was yesterday, after being trapped under him the whole time, I DID slip out from under him and do dishes while watching him across the room like a hawk:  

How did we solve the nighttime problem?

(1)  He was on medicine for a week and is now healthy.
(2)  He sleeps both in a sleeper and a fleece sleep sack.
(3)  We run a humidifier to help him breathe.
(4)  A space heater with a programmable thermostat is in his room, set to a balmy 73.
(5)  Pacifiers are still our friends.  We are going to get a breathable bumper, though, because it is too difficult to find it in the middle of the night now that he likes to THROW it.  Not even joking about this one.  This is another little fact that Miss Laurie at daycare tried to reveal to me yesterday.  Yeah.  Already WELL aware of the pacifier-throwing tendencies.
(6)  Hanging thermal/black-out curtains on the windows
(7)  Still waking up once (yay!) a night to get changed and eat.

Our nighttime routine involves going on a dog walk (not right now because Harper's limping...story for another day), then taking a bath, getting lotioned, putting on the pjs, and nursing.

I was brushing my teeth, so I told Harper to "Go get her Robby".  He started laughing and talking to her.  I love having my furry baby-sitter sometimes.

And, with doing these things sanity has returned to our house, and there is a happy baby who wakes up on his own (on non-daycare days) and is cheerful, rather than the cranky non-morning person we're used to.  I'd say I'm pretty pleased with the change.  Last night he slept from 7:30 pm to 8:30 am.  Kind of.  That's including a nap of sorts.  He woke up at 3, and then I thought he was up for the day at 6:15.  He came down and hung out with Daddy for a bit before he went to work, but then he (and I) went back to bed around 6:45.  Ahhhh....