It is great having J.T. home on the weekends. He took care of Isabella for a couple hours Friday evening so I could lay down and let me sleep in for a few hours on Saturday and did Isabella's first daylight feeding. I also finally got to get my hair done. It is also nice to have another adult around during the day.
All that being said, it was a challenging weekend:(. Unfortunately the medicine was not the magic cure for Isabella's eating woes. Friday night she was up just about every hour and was fussy or all out screaming for most of the time she was awake ( she only slept about 5 hours total overnight and it was very choppy so I was lucky if I got 2!). Saturdays feedings weren't much better though she did take some longer naps. Despite having gotten virtually no sleep I had trouble napping when she was.
Saturday was virtually a repeat of Friday night except this time I think I dozed off a couple of times while she had the bottle in her mouth (yikes!). Sunday she would only nap during the day if one of us was holding her. Fortunately I found a great Netflix series to bingewatch (Life in Pieces); however, other than doing some mowing and tidying around the house all we got done was feeding and holding a baby.
In addition to the eating issues she also struggled to sleep well in her co-sleeper. She kept wriggling around and either he face would end up in the mesh side or she would somehow find herself wriggled down to the bottom. In either of this instances she would wake up and cry.
I cried off and on all weekend and there were definitely moments when I was holding her and she was screaming/crying that I just felt completely at a loss. By Sunday needed to get a game plan in place. I reached out to friends for advice and everyone was quick to respond. It's crazy that all of them have had at least one kiddo who struggled greatly with eating, sleeping or both!
Morbid side note: I got to thinking how did parents in the past cope with this (thinking before modern medicine and conveniences) so I googled infant mortality (told you it was morbid) and it turns out at the beginning of the 20th century 1 in 3 babies did not reach their first birthday. Fortunately, infant mortality has improved dramatically (by over 90%), but I guess it helps shed light on the biological struggles babies face and how much effort is needed to support them. Put in proper perspective my kid is eating and is sleeping within normal parameters so even if it's an emotional struggle (well I guess also physical since I'm not sleeping) she is not in danger even if she is uncomfortable.
One friend mentioned her son had a dairy allergy. Well since the doctor had mentioned dairy last week that is one direction we took. I eliminated breastmilk starting Sunday evening (so that we could just focus on one variable and my production of breastmilk while just sufficient did not provide any buffer for spilt milk, a low production time, not finishing a bottle in a sitting, etc.) so we went with formula. I plan to call the pedi on Monday about changing to soy formula. I also set up a schedule in Google calendar that covered 7am-10pm. I recognize that it may not be followed but it at least gives some structure which I am in great need of! I also found different mommy and me type of activities to add to the schedule (Stroller Exercise Group, Baby Story Time at the Library, Weekly "play date" with a friend, etc) so that we are getting out at least once a day. Isabella and I are also sleeping downstairs again so she can sleep in the pack and play bassinet (less wiggle around space) until the Dock a tot I ordered for her crib arrives on Wednesday.
Hopefully at least some of these little tweaks will make a big difference in the upcoming week because right now I feel like I am hanging on my a thread!
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