Thursday, September 15, 2011

Sleep, And Lack Thereof

Calliope's first flight
























First off, our trip back to Brooklyn went pretty well yesterday.

Positives:

Calliope slept the entire time in the Moby, except for the car rides, when she mostly wailed. Have I mentioned that she hates the car seat/car combo? However, that meant that I fed her a bottle of pumped breast milk in her car seat, which both quieted her down and got her fed, obviously, so that I didn't have to deal with feeding her in security lines, which I had worried about.

One of the security officers at the security checkpoint was lovely and actually unloaded my stroller contents onto the conveyor belt and even dealt with my laptop so that I could just focus on getting Calliope and myself through the checkpoint.

A much faster journey back to Brooklyn! And probably cheaper, too.


Negatives:

Jet Blue broke the "Universal Car Seat Carrier" stroller. The handle, to be precise, that contains the folding mechanism. Now I can't complain too bitterly, because the stroller was a hand me down from another friend who got it as a hand me down. But now I have to have it either replaced or repaired. Ordering a new one from Amazon would be easy, but I don't want to spend the money on an item I will rarely use. So that's a project.

Right as the cab pulled up to my building... I realized that I had left my keys in the diaper bag that my mother is planning to ship to me. 

Shit.

So there I was with an enormous soft sided camp trunk (on wheels), a stroller, a kvetching baby, a backpack, and my own sweaty self. Which soon had spit up added to the mix, as well as breastmilk -- I nursed the baby in the airless, hot hallway of my building while I waited for my super.

He will not keep keys for anyone, and of course my friends with keys were all at work. But he agreed to work on my front door keyhole with some special machine, and when that didn't work, he went up to the roof and came down to my apartment via the fire escape and god bless him, somehow got in. I don't like to think about it, because my windows were locked, and of course, if he can get in, so could someone else, but I'm too tired to think about that for now.
So sleep.

We were doing really well there for the most part, but the last two nights have been sort of sucking. 

Instead of her usual 3-4 hour stretches of sleep and then quick feeds, she's been waking up every 1-2 hours. And then being difficult to get back to sleep.

I'm really tired.

Does anyone have any advice, at least, on how to get a one month old (as of tomorrow!) to sleep?

Girlie loves her pacifier, but of course, it falls out eventually, even the Wubbanub. And then she cries. With this new, much louder and sort of screechy cry. 

The downstairs neighbor came by last night and was all googly eyed at the baby, and promised never to bang on the ceiling again (or rather, promised her loser boyfriend wouldn't... I haven't actually met him, but he sounded like a jerk when she described him once, and the banging on the ceiling clinched it for me long ago)... but I still feel guilty and bad about Callie making noise in the middle of the night.

At what age can I let her cry a bit? I mean, I know I can do it now, but at what age can they actually learn to self-soothe? I don't want to leave her to cry unless I know that, at least, she would hypothetically be able to learn to put herself to sleep.

Last night was an endless round of nursing, moving her to the bassinet, to the baby glider, to the bed, and back to nurse again. It felt like I mostly slept in 10-20 minute intervals.

I would love any suggestions, please!

Calliope's preferred way to fall asleep... Nursing and then
using my breast as a pillow. Usually only when I am lying down.
Not ideal for me to sleep with a baby draped across me.

Trying out the Sleep Sheep in the bassinet.
Worked for yesterday's nap but not night sleep. Bummer.







3 comments:

  1. Hey Abby,

    Yay! You made it home!!! Boo! You forgot your keys! Mommy brain is in full force my friend.

    As far as sleep for her, at 4 weeks you are in the throes of sleep deprivation, and it's really hitting hard. Sounds like she may be going through a growth spurt?! It's usually around 6 weeks, then again 3 months, 6 months etc, but every kid is different obviously. So, you may see a continuance of the frequent feedings. To try to get her to sleep 2-3 hours at a time try cluster feeding between say 4 - 7pm to fill her up a bit.

    I was never pro co-sleeping until I realized that I got a whole lot more sleep with Tate in bed with me. I did worry I would roll on top of him, yet many a night he slept swaddled between my mother and me. But I just had to sleep. I nursed and formula fed, so I had to actually sit up to make the bottles after he finished nursing, but while he nursed I sat up and just dozed in a haze. If you can lay down with her and nurse and do it half awake personally I would.

    I'm a non CIO person, so not the one to really comment on when you can let her cry. But I did read that Weissbluth book and I know it wasn't recommended this early on.

    You have got to nap when she naps. You have to. If people come over to visit make them understand that when she goes to sleep you will be going to sleep and they can let themselves out. I did that several times. If they don't understand then really they shouldn't be visiting anyway. If they ask what they can do tell them the dishes, a load of laundry, sweeping...any of the numerous tasks you think you need to be doing.

    It does get better. For many sooner than later.

    Hang in there! You flew on a plane with a less than 1 month old!! Alone!!! Yippee Skippees!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So glad to hear you got home safely and - mostly - easily. That sucks about the keys... My sister and I drove to NY for the weekend at the beginning of August, and realized as we got there that BOTH of us forgot to bring our keys to the apartment. Good thing the doorman recognized and remembered us!

    I give you a LOT of credit flying with Calliope all by yourself! I can't imagine... But it sounds like you got all the logistics worked out and things fell into place.

    I LOVE the pic of you and Callie on the plane! Her tiny little foot sticking out of the Moby is absolutely adorable!

    I wish I could help with the sleeping issue, but obviously I have no idea. I did read something recently about sleep associations... you might want to look into that? And I agree with Jennifer that you should sleep when Callie sleeps!

    I do hope we'll keep in touch and maybe even get together again. It was so nice visiting with you last week! Enjoy babyhood, because apparently it doesn't last very long and before you know it, you'll have a preschooler. :)

    Hang in there!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very cute picture of you and Calliope! The key situation sounds stressful! So glad you finally got help getting in. Hope the sleep gets better. I don't have much experience/advice to offer either but I'm sending you a lot of positive wishes. I think I might co-sleep too, but I know there are pros and cons. I think there are thingys that you can put in the bed to prevent accidentally rolling.

    ReplyDelete