Payton is not on any type of schedule. He's not on an eating schedule and he's not on a sleeping schedule. It has been nearly impossible to put him on an eating schedule since I've been breastfeeding and having a lot of difficulties with it. Not so much the act of breastfeeding because Payton latches on like a champ. I suppose he got that from his father. No, it has more to do with either my inability to produce enough milk for him or his inability to stay awake to finish eating. Either way, he is always hungry! I spend more time when I'm home with him attached to my boob than doing anything else. To make matters worse, he won't sleep during the day unless he's in the car (and it has to be moving, with no stops!) or in either my or Carlos's arms. Can I add a little more to that? When he's sleeping, he almost always wants my nipple in his mouth. If you're keeping up, you may already know that from The Human Pacifier.
So today I'm doing a little extra work. Instead of sticking a bottle or nipple in his mouth every time he gets fussy, I'm doing something that no one really told me I needed to do... I'm putting Payton on a schedule. Now, that last sentence made me sound really bad. It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that I didn't know what else to do. Since I was breastfeeding, I didn't know how much milk he was getting. So when he got fussy and seemed to be hungry, I tried to feed him again. I was following the on-demand method. I was hoping that eventually my body would get the clue and start producing more milk so the problem would fix itself. Cluelessly, I somehow thought a schedule would emerge out of this process.
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| Payton actually interacting with his toys today. |
Payton will eat every three to four hours, four ounces of a concoction of half formula and half breast milk. After his feeding, I will pump. Hopefully the regularity of the pumping will boost my production. After his feeding I'm doing my best to play with and distract Payton from the idea of eating. I'm going to have to do this until he starts to get used to the schedule (right?). Additionally, I'm working on getting Payton used to the idea of not being held 100% of the time. His last meager one hour nap was a one hour battle in the boppy to get a very obviously tired little child to fall asleep. Tomorrow Carlos has agreed to give me a break. He is going to take care of Payton while I do housework and continue my pumping schedule.
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| The result of our nap battle. |
Did I mention that I have a kidney stone and I feel like crap. Taking care of Payton and taking care of myself seem to be conflicting priorities.
Have any other mommies out there had these types of problems? Am I the only one?
We had heaps of problems with the feeding/sleeping too. it's hard! Around 7 or 8 weeks it started to seem like he was falling into a routine, eating every 3 or 4 hrs and sleeping in between. We were advised to put him in bed at the first tired sign (a yawn, jerky arms, vacant eyes). And then, just when we thought we had it figured out, he changed the schedule on us. Now he sleeps all night pretty much, but during the day wants to eat every 2 hrs and will hardly sleep at all, just a few 20-30min naps. they do keep you on your toes, don't they?? hope the kidney stone resolves soon sandy!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lindsay. It's good to know that other parents are experiencing the same kind of issues as we are. The first day of our schedule went great but day two has been much more of a challenge. Payton is clearly very tired but he won't sleep for more than about 30 minutes either. Mind you, the only time he will really fall asleep is when someone is holding him, but today that's not even working. Hopefully he will sleep well tonight!
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