Sleep

Sleep. It makes all the difference. I’ve been behind on my blogging because until now I had been seriously sleep deprived. I was grumpy and tired looking.

The problem was, Hannah was waking up every 3 hours or so at night, and at random times. She would scream and then when I picked her up, she would burp and then, if she wasn’t too awakened, would go back to sleep after burping. This is probably not uncommon in babies up to 3 or even 6 months, but Hannah started getting worse at around 6 months.

We tried everything: sleep behaviour books up the ying-yang; I took her to our doctor; then the pediatrician; we tried all sorts of homeopathic drops and Ovol; we took stool samples (the most disgusting task yet as a parent); I cut out gluten (wheat) and lactose from her diet; I changed her crib position; I changed when I fed her; I tried night feedings, evening feedings and just-cereal feedings. The pediatrician said her digestive system was immature, and then on the next visit he thought she must be a ruminator/tooth grinder (which can cause air swallowing) and advised giving her Tylenol or Advil at night to knock her out. I tried this for one night and not only did it not work, I felt wrong about it.

Finally, I read that some babies don’t tolerate the iron supplement that is typically added to enrich baby cereals. So, I cut out the cereal (pablum) from her diet. Problem solved…I think. We are going onto night five and she has given us up to 7 hours straight. I think her sleep habits took a bit of a hit from all the commotion because she still wakes up once but she doesn’t burp. I am hoping that now we can get back into a rhythm.

With the lack of sleep I actually wondered if I was going to be able to go through with IM Canada in August. David encouraged me to wait until making any decision and now I’m glad I put it out of my mind. I’m also into a recovery week so I’m going to try to concentrate on taking advantage of this and resting up!