Sleep Disorder Central

Oh lord help us! Our house was once a place of quiet nights and peaceful sleep....about 4 weeks ago anyway. Right before I went back to work Parker decided he wanted to stop sleeping through the night and start waking up repeatedly. Sometimes it would be to eat...sometimes simply to play. That got old REALLY fast!

Yesterday, I had to take Parker to the pediatrician because the day care called to say they were concerned because he hadn't been taking his bottles well. I added it up and he'd only taken 9 ounces of formula in a 12 hour period....very unlike him! I called the pediatrician's office and the nurse said that sometimes they'll quit taking a bottle when their ears are hurting them and he could be getting an ear infection without running a fever. So of course I immediately make an appointment for that afternoon because I'm not going to get caught with a little one and an ear infection over the weekend!

Turns our Parker's as healthy as a horse. Ears? Clear. Nose? Clear. Chest? Clear. Throat? Fine. He was playing on the examination table, chattering and laughing and squealing. Oh well...call me the neurotic first time Mom. As I was talking to the doctor...I mention how his sleep habits had changed and we discussed how I was putting him to bed. As it turns out I had changed up his routine at night and this probably changed how he was sleeping. Before I went to work I had established a good evening routine and put him down before he was fully asleep so he would work to pacify and soothe himself to sleep. Once I started working our nighttime routine started changing and I, wanting to spend more time with him, would rock him until he was fully asleep and then put him down. The doctor said this wasn't a good routine to be in and that I needed to get back into putting him down when he was drowsy but not fully asleep so that he could put himself to sleep. He said we'd be better off down the road if I did this now.

So last night I did as he said...went back to our routine before I went to work and what do you know....he went to bed around 8:30pm and slept until 4am and then took a bottle and slept until 7:40am. Pretty darn good for a 4 month old. Now...if I can work on him taking his bottle a little later and hold him off until about 5:30pm or so...we'll be cooking with Crisco! :-)

I'm pretty glad that he and I both have managed to deal with this disruption in our schedule/sleep routine and not gotten sick. **knock on wood** Here's to hoping that the next few days get us back in a good sleeping routine....and we'll add some cereal into his nighttime bottle in a few days to see if that helps too. :-)

L.