Well, friends, this mama goes back to work tomorrow. I'm looking forward to having more adult interaction during the day, and to sweeten the pot, I get to bring Cameron with me until he's 6 months old. But god help me come 9am tomorrow morning because Cameron is still only sleeping one 3 hour stretch at night and then wakes up about every hour after that.
From his very first night at home, Cameron has been sleeping in bed with M and me. This past week I did some research and shook up our routine in hopes of lengthening that chunk of sleep before I head back to work. First I tried swaddling him in his Amby Hammock. That bought me the same old 3 hours. Then I tried putting him in his crib. That arrangement was a miserable failure and actually decreased the sleep chunk to 2 hours 2 nights in a row.
Now that my first day back to work is staring me in the face, I think I have to accept another reality--6 week old babies don't sleep through the night. You can set the temperature just right, have the perfect daytime schedule, and go through an ideal bedtime routine, and chances are it won't make a bit of difference. I wasted a lot of time this past week spinning my wheels. And, honestly, I went through Cameron withdrawal.
Tonight we're going back to our usual routine. Instead of nursing and rocking in an upright position for an hour or more while Cameron drifts to sleep, we'll lay down together while Cameron nurses and I get a head start on our precious chunk of sleep. When he wakes up, I'll look at the clock just for kicks and then flip sides and let him nurse back to sleep again. He'll probably wake up every hour after that. Sometimes he'll nurse again and other times I'll put my arm around him while he sucks my thumb instead.
That's what works for us right now.
My babe isn't on a schedule either--YET. He did sleep about 6 hours once last week during the night, but that was a fluke because it hasn't happened again.
ReplyDeleteCool you get to bring him to work!