Sleep

Sleep is elusive with an infant, and being tired wasn't as big of a deal when I was staying home, but this past work week has been a blur of sleepy days. Reese is on a 10-2-6 schedule but he was also waking up at 4 a.m. ready to eat again almost everyday.

After conferring with friends at work about the amounts they feed their kids and the length of time others babies sleep, we made some changes to Reese's diet this week.

When we had our two month check up (before Thanksgiving) I asked Dr. Greer about when we should start feeding Reese more. His answer was that we would know. Well, we thought we knew before and that was how our little Reese gained three pounds in three weeks. We overfed him! Although recently I had been feeling like he might need more food during the day, I was also (understandably) doubting my instincts.

After much discussion at home, Reese is now eating around five ounces of formula every four hours and a little bit extra a night. We even sneak in a teensy bit of rice cereal to his 10 p.m. bottle. So far, the results had been mixed. He was still waking up at 2 a.m. to eat but not waking up at 4 a.m.. I read in one of my books that we should try weening him off the 2 a.m. bottle by slowly decreasing the amount. So Lofton started only giving him two ounces instead of the usual four-five. According to the book, this gradual weening (we will continue cutting back) is supposed to make Reese think it isn't worth his time to wake up during the night if he isn't going to get to eat! Metabolically, children don't need to eat during the night once they reach eleven pounds- which we weighed at four weeks!

I am happy to report that he slept much longer last night! Last night we went to dinner after the game and didn't get home until about 8:30 p.m. Reese slept through most of dinner, but was wide awake for the car ride home (i.e he was screaming-- have I mentioned he's bi-polar?). We fed him his bottle a little early, about 9:30, and then Lofton put him down for the night.

When I heard him stirring on the monitor I nudged Lofton awake so he could go feed him (Lofton takes the middle of the night shift because if I get up I can't go back to sleep). I reached over and grabbed my phone to see what time it was-- fully expecting it to say 1:30 or 2, but NO, it was 4:30 a.m. 4:30!!!!

Please Lord, let this trend continue!

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