The one thing everyone always tells you when you are pregnant is to sleep now because you won’t sleep again for a very long time. However, if you read my facebook homepage or twitter feed there seem to be plenty of mothers with babies that sleep 8+ hours at six weeks old.
I, on the other hand, am lucky if Jackson sleeps one 3 hour stretch at night. That’s right, 3 freaking hours. Lately that rarely happens. In fact, most nights he is up every hour. I don’t feed him every time but he is up every hour nonetheless. As you can imagine, I am incredibly exhausted. I have tried everything. 5 different types of swaddling blankets. Fleece pajamas. Cotton pajamas. Temperature changes. Sleeping in the swing. Moving to the crib (with an incline). Humidifiers. Blacking out his windows. White noise. Changing his reflux medicine. Adding BioGaia probiotic drops. Warm baths. Massage. No matter what I do the kid does not love to sleep.
Now, he is probably going through his four month sleep regression but honestly he never improved long enough post-colic to call this a regression. I just feel like I am living through colic with less screaming. But please don’t take this long blog post as a complaint. Yes, it sucks but he is healthy, happy, and really quite funny.
A couple weeks ago when we met with the specialist for Jax’s GERD, the doctor said something that stuck with me: “Cut him some slack, he is not even four months old.” Sure I am exhausted but she is right. This is what I signed up for when I became a mother. Of course I wish he slept more but my expectations need to be adjusted. He is still very young and despite the fact that I feel like every other baby sleeps longer than mine I need to give him a break and be patient.
In the meantime, if you can think of anything that might help I am open to advice.
Hello, I Love You 