Eirik has reverse cycled... after weeks of trying different tricks to get him to sleep and analyzing his sleeping patterns and responses to comforting this is the conclusion I have come to.
To those who don't know, this basiaclly means that since he's away from me all day he makes up for it at night. I have to admit until a few days ago this thought never occured to me becuase Eirik eats while I am at work! A lot of babies who reverse cycle don't take milk in the day hence hte all night nursing sessions. Eirik however will easily guzzle down 12oz while I am gone for about 9oz! (for a breastfed baby thats a lot). Then this week I started connecting the dots and after a few trial and error things this weekend I realized that yes... it was reverse cycling.
We were getting pretty good wtih sleep... around when I went back to work Eirik had started sleeping the occasional 5 - 6 hour stretch. I honestly thought we were going to be sleeping through the night! Then slowly things started getting worse... and worse... and worse. The epic nighttime battles of trying to get him to sleep and down for naps. Thankfully we seem to have gotten a nap and sleep schedule figured out but the one thing that I haven't been able to stop is constant night waking. Between 6 and 10pm he's up every 30 - 60 minutes and after that its about every 2 - 3 hours. I can almost set my clock by his wakings. Every efw weeks he throws me a bone and has a great night of sleep however these nights are few and far between.
If my husband tries to rock him or put him back to sleep its 30 minutes of all out screaming... then he is given to me and within seconds he's back to sleep or just about there.
My research on google has told me that there is no fix to reverse cycling... It seems this is just one of those things that I'm going to have to learn to live with. The best advice I have found is to make sure to do lots of extra breastfeeding at night before bed to "tank them up" so that is my new plan. Fingers crossed this helps at least a little!
I've heard it's the highest compliment a breastfed baby can give his mommy! It'd be incredibly frustrating, though.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! Kylie has started to scream every other night or so if M gives her the last bottle of the day (which he's been doing since she was 4 weeks old. While it's great to feel needed it's completely exhausting too. Sorry hon, I hope this is just a stage and Eirik gives you more good nights soon!!!
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