Sleep Matters

This can be read two ways: first, that it matters to be able to sleep; second, that we are dealing with matters of sleep. Both meanings are true for us. We are in the middle of week 3 of sleeping no more than 2 or 3 consecutive hours. And we are near the end of the second month of really disturbed sleep patterns. Baby girl was once sleeping for 4 or 5 hour stretches, waking up to nurse and sleeping for 5 or 6 more. This happened for at least a month or so, but ever since she was 3 months old, that no longer exists for us.

A typical night looks like this:
7-7:15 Put her to bed for the night
8:45ish Go in, pat her on the back, give her the pacifier, turn back on side if needed
9:30 Same
10:45-11ish Give her the pacifier, turn her on her tummy if she will let you, pat on the back or booty
12:30 Pacifier, back on tummy or side, pat on the back
12:45 Same
Sometimes she will go back to sleep for a couple hours so somewhere in between 1 and 4 she will nurse and go back to sleep.
Most nights/mornings she is then awake around 4 or 5 to be put back to sleep and will sleep until 7 or so.

My sweet husband, lovingly gets up and takes turns with me, changing her diaper before he gives her to me to nurse. He does this in spite of the fact that he has a long commute to work and works all day only to come home and make dinner and do the night time stuff all over again.

Everything I have read tells me that sleep is very important for babies to grow properly and such. All the books give suggestions of how to get your baby to sleep better. I believe we are trying everything that we can think of to try and help baby girl sleep....it is not working. Last night, though, my wonderful husband sweetly took the monitor without my knowing and went in to do nightly baby duty. He was up for a few hours in her room, trying to disrupt the pattern of her waking up every 30-45 minutes and was letting me sleep through most of it.

Both of us are running on fumes and are constantly in prayer about this matter. We don't really know what else to do, but to keep trying. There is no crying it out because our sweet little one is very persistent and will only make herself sweaty and hoarse if she is left to cry even for a few minutes. We've read Babywise, the Baby Whisperer, the No-Cry Sleep Solution and anything you can find online. We are resigned to keep on keeping on and I pray that this does not last much longer so that we can begin to feel more rested soon.

"Sleep is for the weak." 

I don't know who originally coined the phrase, but I am learning that I am not as weak as I once was.