We’re Making Progress But…

Posted: April 28, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Cooper | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

I should have known that writing my post yesterday would have jinxed Cooper’s Sleep. Yesterday I mentioned that he was sleep from 8pm-7am during the night after I tweaked his schedule some. He had been waking a lot in the night and taking poor naps until I changed his schedule some. I will say, that his naps were great yesterday and he slept great all night long, but he still woke up an hour early at 6am. I was looking over my notes and it seems that he has been waking between 5:45-6:30 for almost 3 weeks now but occasionally sleeping in until 7am (which seems to happen mostly on weekends).

Here’s my theory for why he is waking an hour early:

First, it is getting lighter sooner. I think this is setting off a natural alarm clock in Cooper that says, “rise and shine”. Unfortunate for Chris and I because our alarm clock says, “no thanks we need another hour”. I have tired to darken the room even more than it was, but there is still a faint bit of daylight creeping through, enough to make it appear to not be night but morning. The hormone that signals sleep, melatonin starts to decrease in the early morning hours, causing us to have lighter sleep. Sunlight also decreases the amount of melatonin that we produce.

Second, our neighbors above us (we live in a condo) have been waking up early in the morning it seems. I hear them somewhere between 5am and 6am. I can hear their footsteps and water running. Occasionally, I might even hear their dog tramping across the floor or let out a bark. They are not being overly loud, but the noises are enough to stir me awake. (I am a light sleeper to begin with.)

Conclusion: I think I am just going to have to accept the fact that Cooper is waking at 6am. I cannot not tell God to make the day light come up an hour later and I cannot tell my neighbors above us to wake up later. This just means that Chris and I need to go to bed an hour earlier at night and wake up at 6am instead of 7am. Oh well!

Future Action: Since we are moving to Texas in a month, the time zone will change and we will be an hour behind Maryland time. This might be the chance for me to get Cooper back to waking at 7am. I will be in a quite house with no condo neighbors and the time change will make it easier for me to just shift his schedule.

Here We Go Again

Posted: April 22, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Cooper | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Cooper’s sleep has been rather poor for about the last 2 weeks. He keeps waking up at the 45 minute mark for his naps and fussing/ crying. Sometimes he falls back to sleep and other days the nap is just over because he refuses to go back to sleep. He was sleeping for 12 hour at night, but recently he has been waking up after sleeping 9-10 hours of sleep. He will cry maybe fall back to sleep, but most of the time he is pretty much up.
I know that the wonder week book mentioned that between week 29-30 (which Cooper is in) that babies may experience some separation anxiety and may be fussy and have sleep disturbances. Is that what is causing all of this?

Then it makes me question if he is getting enough to eat and drink. I am breast feeding him still. I must say that breast feeding has become my greatest challenge lately. I have really wanted to throw in the towel and give up lately. I know that breast milk is what is best for Cooper, but it has become extremely difficult. He is highly distracted during nursing  and often it is very difficult to keep him focused enough to finish a feeding. I am nursing him 4 times a day and I pump the 5 feeding to keep my milk supply up and running. Am I making enough milk? Sigh… Any other mom’s out there feeling frustrated about breast feeding too? I could really use some encouragement!

I was talking to my friend Aubrey (whom I meet through our blogs). She has a son who is a little older than Cooper. She suggested trying to get Cooper to bed at night a little earlier. I did that two nights ago and he slept 12 hours strait and his naps were good yesterday, 1 hour and 45 minutes a piece. So I put him to bed a little earlier last night too…but that did not seem to work. He woke up at 4:45am cried, fell back to sleep, woke up at 6:00am cried and never went back to sleep. Sigh!! Why does sleep have to be so complicated? My son is like a wave, he sleeps well for a while and then he doesn’t.

So is this a wonder week phenomenome? Is he waking because he’s not getting enough to eat? Do I have milk supply issues? Is he in a growth spurt? Is he over tired and that is why he cannot sleep? Is he getting too much sleep? Is he not getting enough sleep? Do I need to adjust his schedule? I feel like a crazy woman…I have all these questions floating around in my mind and I wish that I knew the answers.

Jo, I think I need that worry broach, haha!