Sunday, January 17, 2010

Big eater

Micah has not been sleeping well lately. During the past week, he's been waking up every 3 hours or so at night wanting to eat. I feed him and he goes back to sleep, but if I lay him down in his crib, he immediately wakes up. I usually end up just bringing him in the bed with us because it's much more convenient to feed him and we both end up getting more sleep. I called his pediatrician's office a few days ago and asked if I could start feeding him rice cereal during the day because I think he's hungry, and they said yes! So we started feeding him rice cereal 3 days ago. His sleeping has gotten a little better. He's still waking up a good bit, but not wanting to eat and I can rock him back to sleep.


I'm facing a tough decision at this point. I've read several different theories and talked to many people about getting a baby to sleep. I've always nursed Micah to sleep or rocked him to sleep, then layed him down. This is one of my favorite things to do as a mom. I feel like this is such a bonding time for us and I know that he won't always let me rock him to sleep. I may sound cheesy and sentimental, but I want to cherish this time with my baby because he's already growing so fast! I've heard that you should lay a baby down while he's awake so he'll be able to soothe himself back to sleep if he wakes up. This means that I would have to let Micah cry himself to sleep, and I don't know if I can handle that. Will is all for trying that, in hopes that he will start to sleep through the night, but I want to wait until he's six months old to try it (I'm actually hoping he'll start to sleep better before we have to so this). I talked to a friend yesterday whose baby is 13 months old, and she told me that she always nursed her baby to sleep and rocked her to sleep when she would let her. She even let her sleep in the bed with her sometimes, and her baby now sleeps 12 hours at night, goes to sleep on her own, and she never let her cry herself to sleep. I know that every baby is different, and I feel like my job as a mom is to meet Micah's needs. I think that's what I'll continue to do. I'm learning every day about being a parent, and most of it has been through trial and error. I'm gonna keep rocking Micah to sleep and hopefully that rice cereal will kick in soon...

1 comment:

  1. mmm rice cereal... that pic is awesome! He's a natural with the spoon :)

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