Thursday, January 24, 2013

And On To Night Two of CIO

It still wasn't that bad and he still slept better than he has been but...

...it was a littler rockier.

He did not take long to put down at 7:45pm, maybe 10 minutes of fussing and a bit of crying and then he did his usual trick of only sleeping for half an hour.

Dom calmed him down then he took another 10 minutes to settle back down.

Then he only slept for 10 minutes.

Dom calmed him again and it took another 10 minutes to settle back down.

Then he slept for an hour.

Dom calmed him again and it took 20 minutes to settle back down.

Then he slept for 20 minutes.

At no point was there ever really any HARD crying, it was a lot of fussing and whimpering, then silence, then more fussing and a little crying, then silence, you could hear him struggling to put himself to sleep.

Then finally FINALLY at 10:40pm he really settled and slept for 3 hours.

Then we fed.

Then he slept for 2.5 hours.

Then just like the night before he was awake for an hour between 4:30 and 5:30...ish.

Then he slept for 3.5 hours.

And up for the day at 8:45am (you don't know how happy it makes me that my baby is not an early riser, mama and daddy do not do well with early mornings =)

We made a little boo-boo at 4:30am in that Dom rushed in there before I even woke up and it was in the "feeding window" which means it should have been me in there at letting him nurse.

But after Dom went in there...you sort of have to see him through the cycle, you gotta get him to calm down and fall asleep on his own, you can't introduce the boob in the middle of it otherwise that's reintroducing boob=sleep, which is what we're trying to break.

So...he skipped his 2nd feed, I pumped at 5:45am because my boob was rock hard and making it impossible to sleep and at 7:15am I went and got him even though he was fast asleep I brought him into bed for some nursing and morning snuggles...which sleep lady said was fine to do!

All in all you can see his big chunks of sleep were 3 hours, 2.5 and then 3.5, SO WE'RE DOING BETTER.  I even got to enjoy at least the first 2 stretches of sleep since they started so late in the evening.

But I feel like crap this morning.  

That's right, even with longer stretches of sleep, I'm exhausted.

It is SO SO DIFFERENT to get up and down several times a night rather than just whipping your boob out for a feed.  I can only hope that I get used to this in the same way that I got used to sleeping for 2 hours at a time all night.

But I'm happy to see babykins learning to put himself back to sleep, I think he'll be getting more restful sleep this way rather than always having to resort to the boob.

And with any luck he'll be able to settle earlier in the evening and get an even longer stretch of sleep since I now know he can survive without a feed for 6 hours.

BTW, my boobs hate this new schedule we have going.  They are so used to a baby who feeds all night long that they gear up for it in the evening.  I do the last feed at 7pm and by 9pm I can already feel my boobs getting heavy and full.  I pumped the first night but all I got was 2 oz. even though you could feel how heavy my boob was...for some reason pumping is difficult for me in the evenings!  It really doesn't produce much, takes forever and all I get is foremilk.

Yesterday I skipped pumping in the evening (because all the pump parts were in the dishwasher!) and did it at 5 in the morning instead but just to relieve some pressure, so again I got 2 oz. of foremilk.

What the heck am I going to do with 4 oz. of foremilk?!

Anyway, to those of you whose babes always sleep for longer stretches through the night, do your boobs get used to this?  Do you always wake up engorged?

And we continue on to Night 3 which is supposed to be the "good" night before a possible regression.  Fingers crossed everyone gets some good sleep in tonight!

5 comments:

  1. My supply adjusted really quickly to Stella no longer nursing at night. There were a few nights in a row of engorgement, but then there wasn't. It almost scared me how fast i LOST that supply, even though I didn't want/need it anymore.

    Bit by bit - I'm glad you're getting more sleep! It was a huge adjustment for me too to no longer co-sleep. So easy to just pull the breast out!

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  2. My boobs have mostly adjusted- though it isn't uncommon to wake after a 7-8 hour stretch with engorgement and some lumpy ducts. It is extremely relieving when Iyla nurses when they get like that, and the nursing always relieves & corrects things. I have never pumped at night- I just roll with it. If I wake and they are REALLY engorged prior to her waking I will massage & rub them, sometimes hand expressing a little into my breast pad. Iyla feeds every 2 hours during the day, then usually has a 5-7 hour first stretch at night followed by 2 hour stretches. So she definitely keeps my supply up with the frequent day sessions!

    I am very intrigued with your CIO journey, and really hope Jett gets better and better at this. I have full faith he will! I am really dreading the day we start trying to put Iyla to sleep in a crib in her room- I think I will be harder for me than for her in so many ways.

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  3. It took about a week or more for my boobs to adjust. I pumped as little as I could, just enough to relieve the pain so I could sleep again. At first I would pump about 3 oz (each boob - but remember I have twins) once a night and I slowly decreased the amount I pumped over a couple weeks.

    What does Dom do to calm Baby Jett?

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  4. Soon it will be less, and he will sleep longer and the getting up will only be once or twice and will seem soooo worth it. I think my boobs are fast learners, but yes, the boobs do adjust. I find that it takes about 3 nights of a change before they catch up. For instance, I pump every night before bed for my stash. If we go away and I don't pump I find that I am full and leaking before she wakes up, but it only last 3 days then it adjusts and no more leaking/exploding boob. Hope night 3 went great and he gave you a good stretch to make it all feel worthwhile. I imagine you must miss him though....R has been sleeping long stretches for a while but I actually like the odd time she wakes up early, I miss her and sometimes it feels like too long without her. Just last night I was debating moving her back into our room....

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  5. Glad it's not going to badly, hoping your sleep with increase along with baby Jetts. He is so cute. I've just nominated you for a Liebster award btw :)

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