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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Sleep Deprivation

I will have to say that Leah is by no way an easy baby compared to Jacob.. Jacob was already routine from the beginning it was easy to know when he was hungry or tired or what because he did the same thing each day but Leah! no routine started at all except if you count "be awake when everyone else is sleeping" routine. With Jacob i got about 7hrs or more of sleep each night and with Leah, maybe 4hrs- sometimes only 2hrs of sleep the whole night. It has definitely been rough on me physically as i like to sleep and i am getting it, just very spaced out and not when i exactly want it, which is what causes me to have my nightly crying breakdowns... usually around 1am and then shortly after that she falls asleep for a few hours...

But so far here is our daily routine if thats what you want to call it:

7:15am Jimmy wakes up to go to work , Leah awake and nursing and then falls quickly back to sleep
8:30am Jacob starts waking up, so i get up (Leah still asleep)
9:00am Jacob eats breakfast after a diaper change, Leah awake and gets diaper changed and nursed while Jacob eats. Leah gets her AM medication for reflux 1hr after being nursed.
9:45am Jacob plays and reads book with me or watches a movie with me, while Leah falls into a deep sleep for the next 2 hours
11:30 Jacob down for his nap and Leah awakes for a diaper change and to nurse again and then be wide awake during Jacob's whole nap either fussy or just awake.
2:30 Leah nurses again and then falls fast asleep as Jacob is waking from his 3hr nap hungry for lunch. Jacob gets a diaper change and then I cook and feed him lunch.
3:00pm Playtime with puzzles/books/crayons or with whatever toy interests him as i try desperately to teach him something about colors and shapes. And ALSO, this is my laundry/dishes/straightening time...
5:30pm Jimmy home from work and we eat dinner.. Leah wakes up hungry and wide awake for another 1 hours, diaper change for Leah and Jacob at this time and then Leah nursed. Jimmy plays with Jacob while i get a shower or "me" time once Leah falls asleep. Leah given her PM dose of medicine 1 hr after nursing and when she's half asleep to hopefully keep it down.
8:30pm Jimmy bathes Jacob and he gets put to bed for his 12 hrs of straight sleep. (Leah gets bathed 1-2x a week so sometimes thats squeezed in here too)
9:00pm Leah usually wakes up with full force for her once a day poop and then to want to nurse constantly and spit up and be gassy and unhappy for the next possibly 5+ hrs which is where my crying breakdown comes in to play around 1am when i can't take the screaming anymore...
1:30am Leah finally settles down and falls asleep after nursing one last time and spitting up everywhere.
4:00am Leah awake with a diaper change and then nursed and either will fall right back to sleep if in bed with me or we fight back and forth the next hour trying to get her back to sleep in her bassinet til 5am..
7:15am Jimmy's alarm goes off again and Leah feeding.

**SOMEWHERE in this day we also fit in tantrums, clothes changing from spitup or food messes, time to catch up the blog or be on the internet, grocery shopping, etc***

So right now all in all about 4 hrs of sleep each night, split into 2- 2hr increments is what i have been living off of if i am lucky.... Sorry if that was extremely boring to read, but i hope one day these 2 kids appreciate what I have to go thru each day.

1 comment:

Just the five of us said...

I hope you do not think I am a blog stalker..... I saw the link to your blog on the January 2008 message board. I am Frannybeth incase you were wondering. I am so with you on the sleep deprivation. Sean is great as long as he is being held, and I do not know about you, but I can not sleep a sound sleep if I am holding or sleeping next to my baby. I am so afraid I will roll over on him or something. Anyway, 2 nights ago, when I was begging him to go to sleep at 4am, he smiled at me. It was the most beautiful smile ever. Made it easier to stay up with him. I have a blog too. Feel free to check it out. I feel like I know you just from our few corespondants through the message boards, and you live pretty close, so I thought I would send you a message. Plus it does not hurt that you and my daughter have the same name! LOL

Fran