Does My Baby Hate Sleep?

Surely not if he's really my child. But,sadly, it's kinda looking like he does hate it, as this past month as been horrendous..and I mean it. We are so sleep deprived. He was sleeping through the night and just having bad naps during the day. Now he is waking up many, many times during the night and is still not sleeping for naps.  And for everyone wondering, he is not hungry. He is satisfied between feeds and does not give me the ' hungry cry' and he is gaining weight' like a champ' according to the doc as of today.

Kevin and I both are at a loss as far as what else we can do to help him sleep better. I really want to give him the gift of good sleep. I hate seeing my baby so tired.  We have literally tried EVERYTHING. I've read every infant sleep book on the market, too. Since he is teething, although no teeth have come through just yet, we have tried Tylenol a few times and it seems to help him sleep at night. He is also not pooping--like going longer than 8 days without a BM. We were told this can be normal for BF babies, but I wonder if this is causing some discomfort. He is also not wanting to eat and pulls away from the breast and the bottle. What in the heck is going on with my babe?  Anyhoo, we went into the doc today to discuss his teething, not sleeping, the poop thing, and to see when medically they recommend sleep training as I don't want to start too young and do any harm to his sweet little psyche. :)

So...he IS teething according to the doc, just no teeth yet. She said this process can take weeks. I have to do some things to help the poop situation along and she found 'red streaks on the back of his throat' and fluid in one of his ears. She said the fluid in his ear is not infected yet but we need to get rid of it or it can get that way. She went on to say that the fluid could also be affecting his sleeping and eating because of the nasal drip down the back of his throat and the pressure change in his ear due to the fluid. So..we start Benadryl for a few days to see if we can dry up the excess fluid. She is hoping this will help his sleeping and eating. If not, then we start antibiotics to avoid an ear infection.

On the good side, he weighs 14.4 pounds as of today and his average weight gain from birth is still about 1 ounce a day. She said he will continue to gain on this trend until about the 5 or 6th month, and then it will slow to about 1/2 ounce a day.

She said we can go ahead and start sleep training also, just not anything too extreme. We need to teach him to self soothe and wean him from sleep props. And he has a lot.  She said cognitively they typically can't self soothe until about the four month mark. So we will start weaning him from all of his sleep props and teaching him to self soothe so he put himself back to sleep when he wakes up as soon as this ear stuff is all cleared up. Don't think it's fair to start something like this when he is not 100%. I believe teaching him how to be a good sleeper now is one of the best things I can ever give to him. So I'm willing to have a few more hard weeks to get this done.

So we're starting our Benadryl tonight and pray that his little ear heals right up and no antibiotics are needed and that this boy poops!  He went 8 days without a poop last week too and when it did happen, boy it sure wasn't pretty. Oh man. Luckily Kevin got that one. :)

On a fun note, Preston and I are starting a Mom and Baby aquatics class next week so get him used to the water early. I'm really excited. I think this will be so much fun and a great bonding activity for us. I sure hope he's a water bug. Although the last two times he has been in the pool he has been a little indifferent to slightly fussy. But he isn't even 4 months yet. I'm sure it's quite the sensory overload for him.

Preston completed his last session of physical therapy today. whoo hoo! His head is still ultra flat in the back according to his PT, but we're working on lots of skills to get him doing more than siting and laying on his head. So I'm not worried about it right now. During therapy today Preston showed signs of wanting to army crawl. It was soooo cute to watch him! I bet once he starts moving he will be allllll over the place. Love my sweet man.

Preston's newest favorite thing: For us to sing to him. He loves, loves You are My Sunshine, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. His face just lights up and he smiles so big when you start singing to him.

I think this is the current news of the day. Please pray for our man to love to sleep. Bring on the Ferber Method. :)