Thursday, May 2, 2013

Sleep Diaries An Update (The Cycle Continues)

Its been a long time since I posted a sleep update, over a month actually. That is because things were going pretty well. Benjamin would wake up 1-2 times a night and go back down easily. I left for a weekend and DH managed night time with no major catastrophe. We would even occasionally have a night where he slept great, like 11p-5:30 am.

But, all good things come to an end, and as with many things, his sleep is cyclical. We are in a downswing again, as of four nights ago. Sunday night, after a great weekend, he slept horribly. Really awful. Up every 2 hours, didn't want to go back down. It was ugly. Once again I am reminded how much sleep deprivation stinks in a way you don't realize when you are in the throws of it. Or in a way I didn't realize. I guess the real story is "its amazing what a person can get used to". And I am not used to it anymore. At all.

Monday night his sleep improved SOME. He got up 3 times. And was difficult to put back down. Tuesday and Wednesday night he got up twice - 1am, 4:30am... that is a bit close together and he did not go back down easily. Wednesday he also had a horrible bedtime. DH basically had to do a second bedtime after I did the first one, and stay up there quite some time. I did two bedtimes tonight too. The normal one at 7, a second one at 7:30. When I say two bedtimes I don't mean I repeat everything, just that he requires extensive attention a second time. His napping at daycare has also been shifted the last two days. He has taken late naps and arrived home half asleep. 

For now, I am waiting this out. I am not really trying anything. I give him what he wants at night to get him back to sleep (usually breastfeeding). If it keeps up for a few more  nights, we will have to try sleep training again or something, but for now I am assuming this is part of his developmental spurt (language mainly) and I should just ride it out.

1 comment:

Allison said...

Has he already shifted to taking one nap? Is it possible that his body only wants one nap and that's why he's not sleeping well? Just a thought.

N is going through a downswing right now, too. Of course, he'll be 53 weeks old next Tuesday and there's a wonder week then...~sigh~ He was up like 5 or 6 times last night, I think, after getting down to only waking once or twice per night. So I totally understand what you mean about your body getting used to waking a lot, but then falling out of the habit! I hope he gets back on the upswing soon!