Monday 20 August 2012

The sleep issue

Sighs, after the first two weeks, ZK has been nursing every hour and sleeping very little. This morning, he woke before 7am, and didn't sleep until past 2pm! He's sleeping on my chest now, on his tummy and with his head between his food sources. I can't go pee if I want to *.* I'm just so afraid he'll wake once I put him down, be it on my bed or his bassinet - did both and failed before he stayed asleep on my third attempt. Not just today; it's always hard putting him down when he falls asleep on me. But he doesn't fall asleep anywhere else!

In recent days, he doesn't even get knocked out easily after a feed. Which means bad night sleeping too - night sleeping used to be fine even when he stopped napping much in the day. Last night, he stared at me with big bright eyes - super cute! But that was 4am *.* I ended up using my fail-proof method - nurse him in bed and let him roll over and sleep.

When he stays awake for more than two or three hours, he is so tired that he gets cranky and begins to search for my boobs again - right after feeding for 45 min! Before I could read his tired signs, my boobs were very abused - imagine hourly feedings plus random unnecessary feedings here and there! My grapes usually turn into prunes by nightfall - they regenerate themselves when ZK goes four hours without nursing. If I'm lucky, he sleeps for another two to three hours after a night feeding - he's like me, can't stay asleep when the sun comes up. But he's also like Sito, can't fall asleep easily :( Sometimes, it takes so long to put him to sleep that he's hungry again - hourly feeding, remember?!

It's very tiring, not just physically but mentally too. I'm worried he's not getting enough sleep - how to grow well if he's not sleeping well? So I'm doing everything I can to make ZK sleep and stay asleep - I swaddle him, I put him in a sling, I walk around the flat 10 times, I rock him, I pat him, I play music, I sing to him, I hypnoise him with soft speech, I nurse him, I put him on my chest, I stay very very still! Some methods work better than others but they're not very good for the mama.. In the past week, I've even mastered sneezing quietly to avoid startling him wake! And I'm immobile now but Sito brings me food and water. I have two weeks to fix this before Sito starts work, or I will just starve *.*

Email me if you have any tips on making baby sleep and stay asleep!

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