Baby Sleep... Issues

I don't know what to title this post exactly... But it's another one of those confession blogs.  I don't want to say we're going through sleep training, because that doesn't feel right.  Maybe you could call it sleep readjustment.  So confession:  Sarah sleeps in her car seat.  Gasp!  I know, I know!  A car seat is NOT a bed.   But in our defense there is a reason...  Sarah had really bad acid reflux when she was 4-6 weeks old.  She would cry that "I'm-in-pain-do-something-help-me" cry every time we tried to lay her down.  Newborns have very sensitive little parts and her little tummy just couldn't keep all that acid contained.  We took her to the doctor multiple times, we tried baby Zantac, pro-biotic's, changing her formula (multiple times) and she got the Mylicon drops fairly often.  But we eventually found the right formula for her and stopped giving her any other sort of medication.  Okay, she still gets the gas drops occasionally, but that's not because of reflux.  But the reflux lasted a couple of weeks.  Back to the point of this post... 

When the reflux started, we quickly learned that we needed to keep her propped up.  I was still on maternity leave during this and would end up just holding her while she slept.  But then we discovered that she would sleep in her car seat.  Now Sarah has never liked riding in a car.  She is just not that baby who is soothed by car rides.  In fact she's usually upset the whole ride.  So it was shocking to us that she would sleep in her seat.  But she slept very soundly in there.  It gave Mike and I some relief and we told ourselves it was just until she could handle sleeping on her back again.  Well, and I'm sure you other new parents can relate, we were pretty scared to move her from the one place she could get decent rest.  So even after the reflux was under control we continued to put her in her seat when she went to bed.  Plus, it was really handy to check on her at night because we just put her right beside our bed by the bassinet.

But, as all babies do, Sarah grew.  And it was quickly getting to the point that she wouldn't be comfortable in her seat.  So we started sleep readjustment.  Basically, every time she would fall asleep during the day I would lay her down to sleep on her back.  At first, she woke up every time I put her down.  Then, she would sleep for maybe 20-30 min.  Then it grew to 45 min. to now when she'll sleep for an hour or two.  Sarah has been sleeping through the night since 8 weeks.  Literally, the night before I started working again was the first night she slept straight through.  I guess she just knew mommy needed her sleep that night.  Now this will sound horrible, but we only did her readjustment during the day when we were up and it didn't matter if she woke right up.  But at night, we would still put her in her seat to sleep.  It's just so hard to give up that nice long sleep once you get it back.  Especially because she usually didn't get a decent amount of sleep until then with us changing up her routine.

Before, Sarah sleeping in her car seat

Well she has been napping really good on her back and side during the day now.  And she has started to let us know that she is ready for her crib.  She would wiggle and stretch and get very restless in her seat until we would pick her up and lay her down flat.  Only one slight problem...  She outgrew her bassinet during the time she was sleeping in her car seat.  Poor thing barely fit and honestly that little pad in there was hard as a rock, I don't blame her for hating it.  I tried to pad it with towels and blankets, but it just didn't work for her.  So we did the only thing we could, we let her stay in our bed last week.  Not the whole night mind you, but around 3 AM when she would wiggle and stretch and fuss (trying so hard not to open her eyes and admit she was awake) we would put her in our bed.

So last week?  Last week I got little to no sleep.  I just don't sleep well with a baby in bed with me.  I was scared of rolling on her (even though I made sure I slept in ways that would not allow that to happen) and was very aware of her presence and generally stayed in a state of consciousness.  Plus Sarah may not be mobile yet, but she sure can wiggle her way over until she's touching you.  Girl loves to be touching skin in her sleep.  So I had to hold her hand or touch her head in some way.  Awkward sleep much?  Well not sleep so much as awkward rest.

Anyway, my mission this weekend was to get her crib set up.  I'm sure I annoyed Mike more than once with my persistence that this needed to be accomplished this weekend.  I didn't care what it took.  It was happening.  So we did just that.  We picked up her crib from where it was being stored took it home and realized there were critical parts missing.  Oh well, I didn't let that stop my mission.  I put that crib aside.   Put Sarah down for a nap, told Mike she was sleeping and I'd be back.  I went to a couple of stores to find the right crib.  I needed a classic crib, white in color, that didn't take up a bunch of space, and was in stock ready to carry.  I found it at Babies R Us.  I happened to have some coupons with me, so I got it for under $100.  Score ~ can't beat that ~ right!?!

Now, another nugget that goes with this story, Mike gave me the hardest time because I borrowed my dad's truck to pick up the crib that didn't end up working.  He ragged on me because he got the whole thing into his Toyota Carrolla.  Making me feel, oh I don't know... stupid.  Anyway, I had his car when I bought her crib.   It's not a big crib, no bigger than the other one we had.  But wouldn't you know it didn't fit (Ha!).  It was about an inch too long.  Drats! Okay, I'll run home and get my car and come back.  Only, my car was dead.  And I lent my jumper cables to my boss and didn't have them with me.  Okay, run to the store to get some... Are you kidding me!?!  They are sold out?  Hmrph, okay on to the next store.  You get where this is going.. On and on until I finally found some at the grocery store (The grocery store!?! Who knew!).  About this time my sister calls me (I called her earlier to see if she could come help me pick up the crib).  So now I'm in a predicament... do I do the whole jump my car off or do I just let her help me and jump the car later?  Yes, I did the easy thing let her help.  We met at the bottom of our apartments and went back to the store.  Crib slid right in, and we were off.  Success!

Back at the apartment, Mike and Sarah are hanging out.  Once I got home I realized that her crib sheets were sitting at his mom's house (Long story, and this is long enough...).  So I sent him on a mission to pick those up.  Because once I get this crib set up, she's sleeping in it!  Plus Mike is not the handiest of men, I love him to pieces, but his creative mind just doesn't work that way.  So me and my sister were going to put it together.  Only Sarah decides wake up and be a fussy fusserton.  So my sweet wonderful sister put her crib together while I tended to baby.  She did a fantastic job!  When Mike got back I helped, but that was really only to put the last two pieces on it.  TaDah!!  Sarah has a crib!  Her own little bed to sleep in!  Yay!!!

I got out her bedding set, which was sitting in the bottom of her closet just waiting to be used.  Put all the pieces on it (including the clean sheets Mike brought back) and stood there just looking at her crib.  It was a magical moment, half sad, half giddy.  I mean I never got to put her nursery together because she's been sharing our room and until we move (another long story) she's going to be with us.  But this made it like her own little corner of the world.  Plus she's outgrown her bassinet, her very first bed ever.  There's just something about your baby outgrowing clothes or her bassinet that is so sad.  I mean I'm so happy she's healthy and growing, but every time I pack something away I get this twinge of "she's not a newborn anymore".  She's still little, don't get me wrong, but she's not a newborn...

Last Night. Sarah sleeping in her crib

So the first night, we put her to sleep in her crib, she slept soundly until about 3 AM, when she woke up terrified.  I mean that "where am I there's something very wrong" cry.  Hello, this is a new bed, in a new place(ment) and she didn't recognize where she was.  So it took a little while to settle her down and get her back to sleep.  And because we hadn't moved her bassinet out yet, we let her sleep in her seat one last time...  Last night, however, she slept all night in her big baby bed.  She woke up once, but since everything was moved out, we didn't give her the option of her seat by the bassinet.  The bassinet is gone (well packed away ~ but to her, it's gone).  She was a little restless, I think she was searching for my hand or skin.  But other than that, she did great!!  Hopefully tonight will go even smoother as she gets used to being in her bed.  And that, my friends, is our story of sleep readjustment.  We're still working through some things, but I think we're nearing the end of our journey to get Sarah into her crib.  We probably won't get a good night's sleep this week, but as she learns that this is where she sleeps, it'll get easier.  This is a really long post.  Thanks for sticking it out if you've read this far and feel free to ask me questions if you have any...