May 30, 2006

Somebody help me!

HELP! My DS (born 12/17/05) was sleeping THRU THE NIGHT until 3 weeks
ago when a certain someone brought over her damn kids and they had
colds. Well, shockingly, the baby caught their cold. So throughout
his cold, he had to get up twice a night just to take cold medicine
and go right back to sleep. This was fine, as it was like getting up
for 5 minutes twice a night. No problem.

Well. Now he's all better, but he's getting up FOUR TIMES a night.
The first time, just to be rocked. Once to eat (about 1 a.m.).
Another time to be rocked. Then AGAIN to eat (Like at 3:30 a.m.).
And with each of these wake-ups. he is screaming hysterically, like
someone is cutting off his arms w/a dull knife. We do try to see if
he'll go back down w/just rocking instead of a bottle, but he tries to
fling himself out of our arms with back-arching if he's wanting a
bottle instead of being rocked. And continues screaming until his
bottle is ready.

So - crying it out isn't a solution for us, not w/the hystericall-ness
he's displaying.

Anyone have suggestions, please??!!! I have to getup for work
everymorning at 4:20 a.m. and it's killing hubby and I (I take the 11
p.m. - 2 a.m. shift and he takes from 2 a.m. on)...

2 comments:

enjanerd said...

Disclaimer: I know nothing about babies and have never even baby-sat one.

I read an article a year or so ago (possibly in ny times, but I can't remember now) suggesting wrapping a fussy baby snugly in a blanket and rocking him gently upside-down to simulate being in the womb. No idea if this works, but figure it's worth a try.

I'll see if I can find that article though.

enjanerd said...

Found it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/health/08coli.html?ex=1149220800&en=9a34a413d354f329&ei=5070

I only remembered the end and had forgotten that the article was addressing colicky babies.

While I was searching though, I found this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/health/30chil.html?ex=1149220800&en=a4f3003bcfedea8c&ei=5070

Suggests that more daytime sun exposure helps babies establish circadian rhythms, allowing them to sleep soundly through the night. Maybe that will help him get back on track.

Good luck! :) -j.