Getting Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night (after 10 months of bad sleep habits)

We were not one of those lucky parents whose child began sleeping through the night mere weeks, or days even, after they were born. Some infants have no sleep issues at all, of which I am insanely jealous. Our boy definitely does not fall into that category.

I didn't mind waking up numerous times a night to nurse him, because he'd almost always go right back to sleep. For a short while, we actually bed shared, which made sleep so much easier for everyone involved - I could fall asleep while nursing without getting a crick in my neck from sitting in the rocking chair, and G would sleep much longer and more peacefully when he was with us.

But he was getting bigger by the day, and even our normally roomy Queen bed suddenly started feeling small with the three of us in it together. Plus, he started getting to the age when he didn't need to nurse 4 or 5 times a night, but I would be so tired that if he stirred I'd pull him to me without even a glance at the clock to see how long it had been since he last nursed. And, being a stay-at-home-mom, I wanted to make sure my husband got as much sleep as possible, since he had to be up early every day to go to work. I could always catch a nap during the day if needed, so I'd wake him up only if needed. So the minute baby fussed and began waking, I'd latch him on and go back to sleep.

We moved him into his own room permanently when he was 4 months old. The transition really wasn't so bad; he handled moving from our bed to his crib well. I still was waking up and nursing him 4 times a night or so on average - and because I'd often fall asleep in the chair nursing him, I probably spent more time asleep in his room than I did in my own bed. Everything seemed to be going well, and when he was nearly 6 months old, he began going 5 or 6 hours between feeds at night - which meant there were some nights I only nursed him once or twice!

5 Reasons I Don't Pick Up My Crying Baby

I recently read an article titled "Good Mothers Pick Up Their Crying Baby" - and this post is inspired by that article. Even though in the end, that article wasn't even about crying babies and whether or not to pick them up. (It was actually about not being so judgmental of other people and mothers and instead trying to understand their situation).

I don't always pick up my baby boy when he cries. Does this make me a bad mother? Perhaps in some peoples' eyes. But I think I have pretty good reasons not to:

1) Because I'm on the toilet. Or in the shower. Sometimes it is literally impossible to pick up your baby, and instead are forced to resort to saying loudly, "I'll be right there baby!!" as you wipe (or dry off, or spit out the toothpaste, etc).

2) If I'm out grocery shopping by myself, I usually have baby in the stroller and have a small shopping basket in hand. If he starts to cry, I'll try to make him happy while he's still in his seat. I will pick him up if he won't calm back down, but that then means I can no longer push the stroller and continue with my shopping. (I can't push a stroller, hold a baby, and hold a basket all at the same time). Plus, then I'm just stuck in the middle of an aisle, possibly getting in the way of other shoppers. I will have to leave the store eventually. So sometimes that means I have to put my crying baby back into the stroller so that I can either continue shopping or just give up and leave. Regardless, that means he's crying in the stroller and I'm not able to pick him up.

3) Sometimes, you have your little one strapped into the car seat (which is attached to the stroller) and are happily strolling through a [insert store/location/shop/etc name here]. Right towards the end of your excursion, baby starts to cry. When I'm in this situation, I don't want to pick him up because that means unbuckling him from his car seat, and we're only mere minutes from getting back into the car... I don't want to take him out of his seat for a few minutes, only to have to then buckle him back up moments later. Snapping baby into the car seat can be a real fight sometimes! It's easier to just race back to the car with him crying than to deal with those straps.

4) Perhaps this doesn't quite apply, but sometimes I don't "pick up my crying baby" because he's already strapped to me. If I'm wearing him in the Ergo or a wrap and he starts crying... I can't really do much. I'm not exactly going to try to take him out of the darned thing while out in public - usually I'm wearing him because I need my hands (and also because he's normally happier in it!) Also, what am I supposed to do with the carrier once he's out of it? Carry him in one hand, the wrap in another, and diaper bag in my third hand...? So if he cries... all I can do is bounce and sway and try to soothe him until I can get back to the car or house to take him out.

5) Our five-month-old is now getting to the point where he's enjoying time out of our arms. So sometimes he's fussing, and I pick him up, he's still fussing. I'll try walking, rocking, bouncing, swaying, singing, sitting, standing, the whole shebang... and then I put him down to give my arms a break, and guess what?! He stopped crying. This isn't always the case, but there are times when he's sitting there fussing or crying and I know holding him isn't what he wants and therefore won't work.

This is by no means meant to start a debate on whether or not to use the "cry it out" method. It was merely meant to be a somewhat humorous illustration on times I don't pick him up when he's crying. :P

What are some reasons you don't pick up your baby when he cries?

Breastfeeding Issues: Hyperlactation

I was producing so much, I began to feel like one of the sea nymphs on the Fountain of Neptune.

I was blessed to have a fairly great breastfeeding experience with very few issues. My boy latched on within an hour of being born, all by himself too! He then quickly bulked up and was back at birth weight within a week. It all seemed to be going well that first month - no pain, no fussing, lots of weight gain... But right after he turned a month old we started having issues.