Monday, February 25, 2013

Night waking...

Ok, so I know I've been a totally absentee "blogger".  To be perfectly honest, we've been struggling with sleep in the Randazzo house and I will only allow myself on the computer if/when Nicolette is asleep.

I don't know what happened to my Sleeping Beauty.  Up until Nicolette was 5 months old she would fall asleep, whenever, wherever and stay asleep for what seemed like forever!  Then things suddenly changed...I would put her down in her crib at bedtime and she would stay asleep for maybe an hour or hour and a half and then she would pop up.  I'd see her little head popped up at the monitor and her trying to push onto all fours to crawl around while crying.  So I'd go back upstairs try to comfort her in the crib (did not work at putting her back to sleep ONE SINGLE TIME over the past 2 months) and I'd end up picking her up, rocking and/or nursing her back to sleep and we'd repeat this cycle over and over either until morning or until I gave up and brought her to bed with me.  (More often than not the latter of the two is how it honestly ended).  I had maybe two nights total over the last 2 1/2 months where she would sleep 5-7 hours without waking.

In the midst of all of this of course I was internet researching and I decided that it must be developmental.  A lot of babies have milestone related night waking.  They get so excited about a new "trick" (i.e. pushing up to all fours, crawling, babbling, etc) that they wake up in the night hours to "practice".  The way she immediately popped up onto all fours I was sure she was waking up to practice pre-crawling and crawling.  Well, milestone related night waking surely cannot last 2 1/2 months NON-STOP right???

Once or twice (against my every gut feeling) I decided to try to do some "sleep training".  I'd stand by the crib and pat Nicolette's back when she would cry and try to calm her down.  This was not successful, not one single time.  I'd wait and try to soothe her but she quickly works herself up into an absolute frenzy...gasping for air sobbing, shrieking frenzy.  I could not deal!  There was one night where I slept on the floor of the nursery and out of sheer exhaustion I did let her cry herself to sleep.  Two days later she had a little tooth popping through and I felt horrible that my baby was in pain that night and I didn't just bring her to bed with us like my gut was telling me to :(

So we're back to co-sleeping but now I'm wondering if there's a bigger issue.  Nicolette earned her nickname "Tootie" early on for good reason...my girl has gas and can rip some big ones.  It doesn't seem to bother her at all during the day (never has) she's happy, smiley, content....just toots and keeps doing whatever she's doing.  This past week I started sitting in the nursery with her more while she's sleeping and I've noticed that she usually toots shortly after waking up and crying so I wonder this whole time, has gas been causing her to wake up????  She'll usually scream/cry, wake up, roll around, toot, then be wide awake crying for a while.  It breaks my heart because I can see that she's in pain, I'll try to bicycle her legs to release the gas and she tightens up stiff as a board making it impossible to move her little legs.  When she's in bed with us she still wakes up, toots and whimpers a little bit but since I'm right here and able to comfort her within seconds she's much quicker to settle down and then doesn't suck in all that extra air from crying and the gas doesn't seem to be as bad as when she's on her own in the crib.

I of course examined her diet to see if there's a culprit...I've switched from Baby Led Weaning to Purees and back and also done a combo and it doesn't seem to change the gas situation so that made me begin to question MY diet.

I have several friends whose babies have dairy and/or soy sensitivities and they've either had to A) give up breastfeeding or B) totally eliminate dairy and soy from their diets to make breastfeeding work.

When Nicolette was a teeny, tiny baby she didn't show any of the classic signs of a dairy/soy sensitivity (i.e. arching back while eating, constant crying, lots of spitting up, vomiting, etc.)  In fact, Nicolette hardly ever spit up, has never vomited and really doesn't cry during the day time at all.  Up until she was 5 months old, night time wasn't really an issue either...then again we were co-sleeping all the time and she would wake several times, fuss a bit and I would easily feed her and she'd be back asleep before ever completely waking up.  Recently I've been reading that night waking can be a sign in older babies of a dairy/soy intolerance.  I don't know if this is what's causing our night waking and gas issues but I'm definitely willing to give it a shot so today was the first day that I consciously went dairy and soy free.

Now this is no easy task for this cheese loving girl.  But at least the dairy is pretty easily identifiable and therefore easier to cut out.  Soy on the other hand is tricky...it is in almost EVERYTHING in some shape or form.  I had the hardest time finding soup today that had no dairy or soy.  You'd think that simple tomato soup would have a short ingredient list...not so.  You really have to read labels so closely and you'll be surprised that it seems like 90% of packaged foods do contain some form of soy.  I've read that it can take anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks for your body to cycle out all of the dairy and soy that's built up so we'll test this out for a month or so and see how it goes.  If you have any yummy soy/dairy free recipes to share with me please do so!  Edamame was my go to snack/meal and I will miss it so!!!!

Sweet dreams!




7 comments:

  1. You should try some probiotics, too! If you don't already. We do Jarrow Dophilius for Babies. It's 1/4tsp one time a day. Will help her tummy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the tip!!! Where do you buy your probiotics?

      Delete
  2. Kelly I am still dealing with sleeping issues and Atticus is almost 16 months. It's starting to take a toll on all of us. I end up bringing him back to bed with me just so we can all get some peace and quiet. I am a big fan of co-sleeping but I am ready to have my bed back. I cannot stand to hear him cry and he WILL cry for 2-3 hours. I am still breastfeeding him and I have never noticed any problems with his diet. Aaaaagggghhh! It's frustrating. I feel your pain. xoxo abby

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry you're dealing with it too Abby...poor babies. Nicolette definitely has a "persistent" personality and I think she would cry for hours if I ever let her. I just feel bad because I can tell that she's in pain from this gas so I've got to figure that out. I don't want to treat it with medicine...would rather find out what is causing it and clear that up! I'll be thinking about you at 3 am knowing you're probably up with me! xo

      Delete
  3. Everything is a phase. Everything! She's undoubtedly going thru more than 1. The most notable thing is her happiness...that's one happy baby who has already formed her own deep understanding that when she's having sad times, mommy is most certainly going to show up for comfort. So bravo for a job well done in the attachment department! My younger baby nursed for a year, easy-peesy. But my first just didnt have the right guts! Doctor-prescribed ga-drops worked wonders for us, administered immediately after a bottle of soy formula. I've usually heard of going dairy free OR soy free...have you tried 1 or the other? Be aware that all vegi/plant-based mommy diets are high gas producers, which could affect baby, too! In the long run, if you get 50 responses, each would be a different solution. Dont let that frustrate you...there's no 1 correct way. Just do what feels true to YOU!. For example, I did sleep-training "lite," in which I would continue guiding my baby into a lying-down position, rubbing his back/patting his bottom, gently pressing his lovey to his cheek, etc. I kept the lights off and I kept him in his crib, teaching him nighttime = cribtime. But i never left him screaming alone in the dark. It just didnt feel right. When I sensed the need (hunger/gas/sick/pain/my own desperate need for sleep), of course I would abandon sleep training and snatch him up. Guess what...within a week or so, my homebrew version of sllep training lite worked, and about a week later I was longing for my co-sleep buddy again! In summary...it's all a phase (whatever IT is), try not to overcorrect, and be true to what feels right. You're doing GREAT!!! Love, Andi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Andi, I miss your sweet wisdom! I know that you are exactly right and there is (and never will be) one solution that fixes whatever "problems" we're going through. I've got an appointment with the ped tomorrow to talk about this gas situation. I'm hoping he'll have some insight as to what might be causing the painful (and incessant) toots. I was just burping her after a feeding and she burped and tooted at the same time! It's be a miracle if she doesn't explode!

      Delete
  4. How often are you feeding avacado? We limit to 1x a week max as we had tummy issues with them

    ReplyDelete