That's just my pet snake, Reggie
One of the things that's been hard to deal with when it comes to Lil J having these croupy breathing episodes is the fact that the doctors and nurses we've seen have all told us that we need to try to keep Lil J from getting upset because crying makes it harder for him to breathe. Now, getting a 5-month-old to not cry at all is about as likely as Mariah Carey not wearing Lycra, so I'm not even going to try that. But even just keeping him crying calmly is hard. I mean, this little guy is generally pretty happy, but, man, when he's hungry, you have to insert food in mouth in less than 15 seconds or his face starts turning a disturbing shade of crimson. He's very serious about his food. But I've decided that until he starts to breathe normally again, I'm not even going to try to sleep train him or space out his feedings like I "should." I just don't care anymore. If he wants to fall asleep in my arms after I've fed him twice in an hour, so be it. It's like I always say: I can only care about so much at any one time. If I'm worried about Burmese farmers and then there's an earthquake in China, Burma has to take a back seat. I'm sorry, but that's my emotional quota. I'm not going to drive myself crazy worrying. I am only one Ann.
posted by Ann at 9:51 AM
8 Comments:
I don't think that if you don't sleep train him now that he still won't be sleep trained when he's 30... and if eating makes him happy, I say let him eat. Eating makes me happy too... maybe not the healthiest attitude, but at least I'm no homicidal maniac! The most important thing right now is getting him healthy!
I agree...you need to do what is best for you and Jonathan right now and NOT stress about what you "should" be doing at this stage. I literally threw a baby book about sleep out the back door when EH was an infant b/c I drove myself to near-madness trying to get her on a schedule. All of that comes with time, you can't force it. As soon as I threw out the book and calmed down and quit stressing about it, the sleep and scheduling happened on its own.
I third that!
You're his Mom and can decide to do what is best for YOUR baby! No book or doctor can challenge that! I say do what you think works best for you!
I hope the little guy gets better soon!
Thank you! I appreciate all the support! This was kind of ironic--I thought that Lil J would have a really rough night of sleeping last night because of all the interruptions at the hospital and the medicine, but he slept from 10 to 5:40, thus giving me a much-needed break, too. I suspect it won't last, but it was nice for one night :)
Honestly, I don't think you can or should try to sleep train a five month old. The only thing you "should" be doing right now is what is best for you and Lil J. If that means feeding him whenever he wants, on demand, then do that. If that means holding him until he falls asleep, do that. If you want to do it, you'll have plenty of time for sleep training him later, I promise.
And FWIW, we never did any sleep training or eating schedule with Harrison - I nursed him on demand basically until I stopped nursing, and he slept in a co-sleeper attached to our bed until he was 8 months old. Somewhere along the way, he just started sleeping through the night, and that was that. At some point he dropped down to nursing twice a day, and then one day around 16 months, he decided he was done nursing, and that was that, too. It was way easier on all of us than trying to make him fit into some schedule from some book he hadn't read. :)
Anyone else notice that "the books" are often quite a bit off? At 2 months I thought I was a horrible mom b/c I didn't have Logan on a 2 nap/day schedule!
That really is nice to hear that there are other ways to do this besides what the books are telling me. The one my pediatrician gave us constantly has me freaked out because, yeah, we're behind on EVERYTHING. But it seems like Lil J always gets there...I think he just does stuff when he's ready. So, you're right, I'll relax about the sleep training and all that. Heck, if he got my sleep genes, he'll never sleep well anyway.
Please don't freak out about being "behind!!" All babies are different and progress at different times! I second Jocelyn...the routines/patterns will emerge and be what is good for all of you. I was worried about weaning, switching to a cup and it was NOTHING. EH basically decided one day she didn't want to nurse anymore and that was it...next, I handed her a sippee cup and she used it, no drama! :)
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