Whoa Baby

on August 21, 2012

The Hus occasionally sleeps in the guest room the night before he has a crazy work day, leaving me to do all the nighttime baby duty. I realize some moms do night shift every night, but Kristien helps a lot, and Iâ€™m not used to handling the zombie-inducing insanity of a 10 week old baby all by myself. (Single mommas, you get mad props from me!) Also, I may just be a crybaby about sleep. Winking smile

Weâ€™ve been trying to put Henry down anytime from 7 â€“ 9 PM in his crib to get him accustomed to sleeping in his room, and then he gets transferred to his pack â€˜n play by our bed for nighttime. My crazy baby did not want to sleep yesterday. I tried every shushing, rocking, and feeding technique that I could think of â€“ the only thing that worked was going for a stroller walk outside, which I know James enjoyed, too. Then H woke up every two hours to eat all night long. Awesome!

Passed out babyâ€¦. a beautiful sight.

I know babies just sleep in waves â€“ last week, he was going all night with only one wake-up â€“ so Iâ€™m hoping there is light at the end of the tunnelâ€¦ the end of the tunnel being tonight. Until then, there is always coffee!

Since breakfast was skipped in lieu of sleeping while Henry was occupied by his dad, I had brunch instead.

Any other mommas have a crazy night last night? Letâ€™s raise our coffee mugs in a toast to sleepy babies tonight!

{ 61 comments }

briana August 21, 2012, 12:37 pm
Hi Caitlin! So impressed that you are keeping up such a consistent blogging schedule–and that your posts remain so thoughtful! I’m due in October, and I have been wondering how the work schedule you and the Husband came up with has been working out. I am a writer and do graphic design on the side, and my husband is a free-lance consultant, so we both work from home at least half the time anyway. We’re contemplating trying to work out something like you guys did, at least in the beginning. Are you fairly happy with the arrangement?
- Caitlin August 21, 2012, 12:40 pm
  Yes. It is amazing on all fronts – especially for BOTH of our involvement with H. If you can do it, do it.
  - Caitlin August 21, 2012, 12:44 pm
    And thank you 🙂
Amy August 21, 2012, 12:48 pm
Growth spurt! Look at him- what a healthy baby and you are doing such a good job. Hope you get some good rest today/tonight!
- jessika August 21, 2012, 7:15 pm
  Totally a growth spurt, which is good because it means it will pass soon!
  In the mean time, continue praying to the coffee gods.
JessicaE August 21, 2012, 12:53 pm
My husband works nights so its just me 5 days a week. My little son is only 4 weeks old and never sleeps longer than 2 hours without wanting to eat. I know it will stretch out soon, but gosh, I’m shocked I’m still functioning everyday on so little sleep!
Lisa August 21, 2012, 12:55 pm
My 14 month old who usually sleeps 6:30pm-7am straight was awake from 3-5am blowing raspberries and babbling…. I brought him to bed with me around 3:30 hoping te boob would put him right to sleep MISTAKE!!!
Ellen @ Wannabe Health Nut August 21, 2012, 12:55 pm
On the bright side, your nails look really good! Much better than my chipped mani and I don’t even have the Zombie-Mom excuse! 😉
- Ami August 21, 2012, 1:13 pm
  HA! That was my first thought too.
Lisa August 21, 2012, 12:56 pm
And hang in there they eventually learn to sleep the night…at least most of it!
Kendra @ My Full-Thyme Life August 21, 2012, 1:00 pm
Rough night here too!! Not with newborn issues but with a teething toddler. Instead of crying he kind moans in pain and it breaks my heart. He was up a couple of times but easily went back to sleep. On top of it I am now at the point in my pregnancy where I can’t quite make it 8 hours without getting up to pee! (TMI… sorry!) So I’m left trying to shut my brain off after the pee break at 4:30am. I never made it back to sleep and my pregnancy allotted coffee for the day isn’t going to cut it! I feel your pain, mama! 😉
Erin August 21, 2012, 1:13 pm
You’re a rockstar momma! As other people have noted, I can’t believe you still put together blog posts and are continually so positive, get it girl!
Annette@FitnessPerks August 21, 2012, 1:17 pm
That brunch looks yummy!
Nelly August 21, 2012, 1:17 pm
My baby has the same birthday as henry and we swear by the miracle blanket. I wrap her up in it around 7:30 and she is always out by 8:30….bath, miracle blanket wrap, feed and lay her down. It works like a charm! I even do it for her nap at 1 in the afternoon and it is def working great!
- Marie August 21, 2012, 3:42 pm
  I second the miracle blanket!! This is the one baby item that is a MUST for us. We’ve swaddled our little girl in it from day 1 and although she will cry when we first swaddle, she calms down and falls asleep quite quickly. She’s sleeping through the night now (she’s almost 4mo) and has been since about 2mo. And even if she didnt sleep through the night, I do believe that the miracle blanket/whatever tight swaddle you choose to use, will extend the length of their daytime naps too, in addition to sleeping longer stretches at night.
  I know that all babies are different (which is why baby advice is so hard!), but just thought I’d mention this.
  I think you’re doing a fabulous job Caitlin and I admire all your HONEST and REAL blog posts about mommyhood. Amazing , yes – confusing, frustrating, cry-inducing, etc – also yes!! Wouldn’t change it for the world. 🙂
  - Caitlin August 21, 2012, 3:53 pm
    Thank you 🙂
  - DCRunner August 21, 2012, 5:05 pm
    The Miracle Blanket works for some, but we hate it. Way too cumbersome for middle of the night changes. Plus, his knees pop out with all his wiggling. The only swaddle that has worked really well for us is the Halo Swaddle Sac. When we first started using it shortly after 7 weeks, he started sleeping through the night! But he past 4 days, he’s been waking up several times a night. He wakes up grunting really loudly trying to break out of it now (with little success), so we’re wondering if he’s ready to transition out of the swaddle. We tried the swaddle sac in the transition wrap with his arms out, but he woke himself up and freaked out with lobster arms. Maybe it’s just a 10 week growth spurt or developmental milestone approaching? Although he’s always hated daytime naps, I could live with that when he was sleeping so well at night. I sure hope it passes soon! I feel like we’re back to the 2 week zombie state when we he was doing so great before.
- Kelly August 21, 2012, 4:06 pm
  Love the miracle blanket! Solved our sleep problems too!!
Brie August 21, 2012, 1:18 pm
I was up FOUR times between 10 pm and 6:30 am to pee. This is quickly getting ridiculous, but I guess it’s preparing me for having an outside baby, huh?
- Leatitia August 21, 2012, 1:57 pm
  Sorry to hear you had a rough night. Some babies sleep very well, but most wake up many times during the night. You’ll get through it though. We all do. 😉
- laura August 21, 2012, 2:33 pm
  I wake up at least 6 times to use the restroom or for some other stupid reason and i’m not even pregnant….. just waiting for my turn when i actually AM pregnant
Nina August 21, 2012, 1:35 pm
Yes Vincent had a ridiculous night last night! (and the night before) UGH. He was doing so well with sleeping for a 5 or even 6 hour stretch and now all of a sudden his longest stretch has been 3 hours. To make it worse, he does not want to go back to sleep easily. It hasn’t been fun in our house for the past few nights. I feel your pain.
Jessica August 21, 2012, 1:39 pm
GIRL! It mustve been the moon last night or something! My 4.5 month old was up EVERY 90 minutes! ahhhhh! or growth spurt. ORRRR he was learning a new trick. I read a book called wonder weeks (gonna l=blog about it soon) there is an app too that is based on the premise that whenever baby is learning something new (rollover, suck fingers, tooth, found feet, etc.) they practice it in their sleep or the brain like wakes them up bc of it, but then they sleep feel right after the skill is mastered. Interesting. Something with the brain. I ALSO think that babies work in 48 hour cycles, so like they will not sleep great one night but then sleep well the next, and the same with eating..I also blogged about this concept here http://upsanddownes.com/2012/08/01/the-48-hour-baby-1-week-cycle-and-5-ingredient-granola-bars/ (and the fact that you get a “new baby” every week it seems). Anyway I think it is really important to recognize (as you did) that everything is a PHASE. Soooo refreezing to think and easier to get thru stuff!
- Claire August 21, 2012, 3:01 pm
  That sounds like the four month sleep regression! I thought our baby was en route to being a good sleeper (going 6-8 hour stretches at a time by three months), but then the four month sleep regression hit and she hasn’t slept longer than 3-4 hours at a time since.
  - Jessica August 21, 2012, 8:23 pm
    Yes! Thank you for saying that, Claire! Whenever I say that, I feel like people think I am making it up!!! so how old is your little one now (aka how long has she been doing this?!)
    - Claire August 22, 2012, 9:17 am
      I don’t want to make you depressed, but my girl’s 8 and 1/2 months now and still hasn’t returned to the great sleep she had around 3 months. 🙁 For example, last night she went to sleep around 7 pm, and nursed at 11:30, 1:30, 4, 5 and was up for the day at 6. But, she nurses exclusively and we co-sleep, and there’s evidence that nursing, co-sleeping babies feed more at night than their formula-fed counterparts. Hopefully your baby will be a better sleeper than mine!
      - Carleen August 22, 2012, 11:14 am
        I can sympathize and relate. My little girl is 5 months now and finally starting to have a 3 hour stretch and then 2 hour ones the rest of the night. There was a fun week there where she was waking up every 50 minutes, ugh. I’m still crossing my fingers it keeps getting better and back to 2 wake ups after 10. Hope we don’t scare you Caitlin, I hope Henry sleeps better for you!
Priyanka August 21, 2012, 1:42 pm
My son loves to wake up and play from 3:30am to 5 am everyday, no matter how late or early we put him to bed. And since daddy sleeps in the guest room after 1am to catch up a bit of sleep before work, I am his assigned entertainer. Its hard to play with a happy kid when all I can think of is sleep.

I have to find ways to prevent him from waking up at that ungodly hour.
Jennifer August 21, 2012, 1:44 pm
My 11 week old guy (Henry too!) woke up once at 4:00 last night. Overall his sleep has dramatically improved since we moved him from his bassinet to his crib due to his size at 5 weeks. I think we were waking him up as much as he was waking us up! He slept through the night twice last week (from 7:00 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.) and we are cautiously optimisic about him continuing this trend (fingers crossed!).
Leatitia August 21, 2012, 1:50 pm
Thanks for the shout out to single mamas. Much appreciated! It’s HARD.
- Leatitia August 21, 2012, 1:54 pm
  Oh and I had a crazy awful night two nights ago. My 13 mo son decided to wake every hour from 2 to 6, then decided that 6 was a good enough time to start his day. I was exhausted, God. He was teething because in the morning, I noticed a new tooth! Poor thing. He usually sleeps from 7pm til 5am, feed, then sleep til 6:30-7am.
Morgan August 21, 2012, 1:56 pm
Something must be in the air. My 21 month old who has been sleeping 12 hours at night since about 6 weeks (don’t hate me) was up for 5 hours last night SCREAMING bloody murder. This is the third night in a row. Hoping for some sleepy babies tonight!
- Leatitia August 21, 2012, 1:58 pm
  (I hate you just a little bit. Hehe.)
  
  Poor thing! Maybe he’s teething molars?
  - Morgan August 21, 2012, 7:29 pm
    It’s okay, I would hate me too:) I keep telling myself the last week is payback for having the easiest baby ever.
jen August 21, 2012, 2:03 pm
he looks so big in that picture! also think it may be a growth spurt or just an off night. i get so freaked out when either of my kids have an off night because i’m so stingy with my sleep! it usually seems to be a phase they resume normal routine quickly-but i freak out every time still 🙂
Laura @ RunningJunkie123 August 21, 2012, 2:10 pm
Let me tell you, my daughter is 6 and she still doesn’t sleep through the night. I am a single mom and that girl has me up every.single. night. I love her and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I do love my sleep. Luckily, she’ll sleep a solid 12-14 hours to make up for it:-)
Angela @ Eat Spin Run Repeat August 21, 2012, 2:22 pm
Glad you managed to catch up on some much needed ZZZ’s this morning Caitlin! No kiddies to worry about over here, but I’ll definitely be remembering these stories if and when I decide to have some for myself in the future!
Nicole August 21, 2012, 2:26 pm
Hi Caitlin!

I’d love to hear your post-delivery thoughts on the Bradley Method, BC, and Coffee in future posts! Love your blog.
laura August 21, 2012, 2:31 pm
aw, i’m sorry… hopefully “this too shall pass..” I’m sure it’s still alll worth it 🙂
i appreciate your humor despite your exhaustion. way to keep it light and not all complainy, bitchy!!
Sam @ Better With Sprinkles August 21, 2012, 2:40 pm
I’m going to go ahead and say growth spurt – I used to work at a group home for teenage mothers and that’s what we always chalked those sort of nights up to, especially when it happened a few nights in a row.
Meg August 21, 2012, 2:55 pm
I’m so protective of my sleep too and hate it that I hear every tiny noise the baby makes in the night and my husband can pretty much sleep through anything!

Did you quit using the swaddle? I’m just curious. We are still using ours and it really helps with long naps and long stretches of sleep at night, but I’m scared to wean her off of it if it means she wakes up every half hour (which has happened when we’ve tried a couple times.) Did you stop using it for a reason or did it just not work for some reason?
- Caitlin August 21, 2012, 3:13 pm
  We still swaddle. I just didn’t want to wake him to put it on lol
Maura @ My Healthy 'Ohana August 21, 2012, 3:05 pm
I was up every 2 hours last night too! Ryan is only a week old, so I can’t blame him for wanting to eat, but it still makes for a tired mama this morning 🙂 Hope Henry goes back to waking only once at night soon!!
Claire August 21, 2012, 3:12 pm
Oh, Henry’s so sweet! There’s nothing more beautiful than the sight of a sleeping baby.

I’ve got a lovely, beautiful, happy baby girl that also happens to be a terrible sleeper, and my husband’s a firefighter so I handle all the night wake-ups (if I’m half asleep at my desk job, it doesn’t have the same potential for tragedy than if my husband was half-asleep while fighting fires!). We had a great five weeks of sleep around 3 months old but then the 4 month sleep regression hit, and I haven’t had a stretch of sleep longer than 3-4 hours since then (my baby’s 8 months now). But I really don’t mind it – your body really does adjust and I can work my regular 8-5 job, keep up with my kid and other stuff and I really don’t feel too bad most of the time.

Working out, eating healthy (while making sure to get enough calories for breastfeeding!) and avoiding all caffeine and alcohol really helps, I’ve found. I’m actually less tired now, on a day-to-day basis, than I was pre-baby, when I used to drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day and have wine or beer each night. I realize now how much those uppers and downers really affected my body! Of course, each person’s different, but that’s what I noticed for myself.

The nights have actually been a wonderful way to bond; since I’m off at work all day, my baby and I have quality time all night! 🙂 We co-sleep and there’s nothing more wonderful than waking up each morning to the sight of my baby smiling at me, with her little hand on my face.
- Caitlin August 21, 2012, 3:13 pm
  Awww so sweet!!!
Liz August 21, 2012, 3:13 pm
One tip I’ve heard for getting babies to sleep is to dance with them to ‘I could have danced all night’ from the musical/film My Fair Lady – it’s supposed to mimic the mother’s heartbeat as heard in the womb. I don’t have a baby myself, but friends of mine have said it helps.
Jess August 21, 2012, 3:34 pm
My 13.5 month old has been waking every two hours from midnight-5 am for the past four nights. The 5am I don’t care about since I get up for work at that time, but all those times in between are exhausting. I’m a zombie at work this week. She refuses bottles in the middle of the night, so mommy is always on solo duty. Teething, get excited for that.

I’m pretty sure I haven’t had a full nights sleep in two years.
Angela @ Happy Fit Mama August 21, 2012, 3:35 pm
High fives to husbands that help out! I’m still amazed at when I hear stories of hubs that don’t. That did NOT happen in my house. 🙂

Enjoy your coffee!
Liz @ Tip Top Shape August 21, 2012, 3:49 pm
Wow, you mothers should get medals. Or a free pass to sleep for a month with no interruptions!
julia August 21, 2012, 3:53 pm
I’ve always done nighttime duty because my kids would not take a bottle for the first few months. Both of them starting sleeping through the night at ten weeks. Maybe Henry is almost there! Just this one growth spurt between you guys and night sleep hopefully.
Robyn August 21, 2012, 4:57 pm
My little guy is 7 weeks and he’s been going like this for almost a week now – and I’m not a fan of coffee! Just trying to get by. He’s not interested in sleeping during the day or night, so gawd knows what his deal is!!! I’m hoping that it is some sort of 6-8 week anomaly and we will be out of it by next week. Hang in there if it goes on for longer but I have to agree that walks with the babe and the dog are definitely a good compromise if at the end of the day that’s the only way he’ll sleep!
Britt August 21, 2012, 7:02 pm
Your nails look so pretty !!! I never know how long or short to keep mine… Haha one of life’s biggest dilemmas 🙂
Brittnie (A Joy Renewed) August 21, 2012, 7:11 pm
It does get better!! My little girl is nearly 4 months and the past two weeks she has made MAJOR improvement in her nightly sleep. She was crazy crazy before and honestly I don’t know how we/I functioned! One night I resorted to giving her a bath at 2am because I could not calm her down for anything! Oh the joys of mommy hood. . . but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Ashley m. [at] (never home)maker August 21, 2012, 8:07 pm
Haha until last night, I,too, would have thought waking every two hours was rough. But my daughter (9 months) has a cold. No joke, she woke every 15 to 20 minutes ALL night until 5:00….and already tonight isn’t looking good.
Julianna @ Julianna Bananna August 21, 2012, 8:45 pm
how do you get your eggs to hard boil so perfectly?!? i utterly fail EVERY. single. time. they’re always disgustingly under or over done.

hope you get a good night’s sleep tonight! 🙂
- CaitlinHTP August 21, 2012, 9:14 pm
  I buy them preboiled 🙂
Ashley August 22, 2012, 11:07 am
2 things:
1 = a sister mug? I thought you were an only child???
2 = I know its not the focus of your blog, but I’d love to hear more about the work arrangement you’ve got goin’ on with the hubbs. How do you get everything done!??? Share your secret! I’ve got 8 week old twins and taking care of babies seriously takes the ENTIRE day! I thought I’d be able to sneak in some “work” time while they nap (I work from home), but no. Soooo not possible. How do you do it!?!
- Caitlin August 22, 2012, 12:48 pm
  It was a gift from a friend 🙂
Bobbie August 22, 2012, 12:20 pm
Whenever my babies woke up all night it was either a growth spurt or that they were going to start doing something new… Mastering a new skill…like rolling over
, sitting up, walking etc… I know Henry is still quite young but he might be up to learning something new!
Tasha - The Clean Eating Mama August 22, 2012, 12:31 pm
I have that same mug! Well, it’s the friend version of it… they are adorable! I love that they are so heavy, too.
I am sure you have heard this before but getting a new born on a schedule early is essential! That is what saved me! Even though he still woke up frequently through the night, giving a bath at the same time and putting him in his crib at night made for a much easier sleep… eventually =)
Katie August 22, 2012, 12:33 pm
10 week growth spurt perhaps? Hungry boy!

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