Night and Day

Well, it seems like the new formula is helping little Addie. She has no more blood in her stool. She's spit up a few times, but that must be normal for most babies.

She is, however, extremely cranky for her 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. feeds. Thus, she's usually awake and rooting around until the next feed because she's not full enough to sleep well. Sometimes, at 1 a.m. she doesn't eat very well either. The rest of the time, however, she seems to be normal. I think she's gassy (hey, her dad is a Riddle after all) at that time during the night. I also think she's not very hungry at 1 a.m. (unless she is starving because she's eaten terribly the 2 feeds prior), but is in the habit of waking up.

She also has her days and nights totally confused. In the night, she's more alert than the day time hours, but usually goes back down within an hour of waking. She's not fussy or crying, but she's awake. This is our first go with a 2 week old who's actually at home so we're working through the issue. Thankfully, she's been resting well in the mornings so she hangs out with Allen and Lexi while I catch a couple of hours of sleep.

Seeing as I haven't ever done this part of the schedule before, I'm a little unsure as to how to proceed. I've heard some conflicting reports about holding a 2 week old to a conventional schedule. Some have said they are way too young to train. The NICU has convinced me that most kids can do a 3 hour feeding schedule easily, but we need to clarify night and day for Addie. Other sources have said from the end of week 1, you can get your baby on a pretty normal routine. Eat, wake time, and then sleep. But, in the night you go straight from eating to back to bed. Addie doesn't go right down, though. She squirms, grunts, farts and burps for about 15 minutes and then goes to sleep. But, then grunts a little more and wakes back up. And then goes down again, but could fart and wake herself up.

The bummer about that is while she's "settling" into sleep, I'm kept up by all of her noises. This is my plan: during the day, encourage wakefulness after eating. Starting with the evening feeds, put her right back down and let her squirm around for a bit. Obviously, if she's uncomfortable or crying, we'll have to get her fixed. Then, back to bed. It may be time for the crib, too. Then, I won't hear all of her bodily functions and I might be able to fall asleep faster. Hey, 15 minutes is a lot of sleep when you're counting by the hour.

I am all ears when it comes to advice at this junture. Like I said, we haven't ever had a 2 week old at home that we could let sleep at night. If you have any tips, please feel free to share them. If they are too long for comment, email me at riddlez@comcast.net!