sleep…or not
It’s hard work trying to break familial weight records. Geoff was 18 pounds at 4 months; Matt was 19 pounds at 6 months; Jaeger is well on his way to beat them both. How does he do it? He eats ’round the clock. He eats every 2 hours during the day and has continued to eat every 3 hours at night. Conniving with his brother, Hans has woken up in the middle of the night for inexplicable reasons the few times Jaeger has slept longer, although it’s not below him to wake up between Jaeger’s 3-hour periods, also. He doesn’t go through growth spurts; his life is a growth spurt.
Jaeger knows the difference between day and night. At night he doesn’t want to talk or play or throw fits; he simply wants to eat, then contentedly sleep some more. From 1-2 months, he would have a 6-hour stretch, but his one 8-hour marathon a month ago signaled the end of all reasonable lengths of sleep.
So, I’m not sure what to do at this point. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to sleep at least 6 hours together, if not 8. He certainly has enough fat to hold him through! But when he wants to eat, the pacifier doesn’t fool him for an instance, and I’m reluctant to let him cry it out. He’s still too little for that, I think (perhaps little is the wrong word; when Hans was his size we let him cry himself to sleep, but he was 7 months old!).
I am too worn down and in the middle of it to come up with creative solutions. My solution so far has been to purchase a 3-pound package of French roast coffee beans at Costco for my French press (as opposed to Matt’s German constant-steep). I welcome any other suggestions (or donations of coffee and Diet Pepsi).
Dearest girl, doesn’t it seem like it will NEVER end? How well I remember those days. Just keep reminding yourself, this too shall pass. Have you tried the vacuum cleaner trick that I remember your mom using with the twins?
My gut reaction says that there is a food allergy involved here. You might try cutting out wheat, beans, soy, dairy, eggs, strawberries, etc. and slowly add them back into your diet several days apart. I had a friend whose son had the same compaints as Jaeger, and she had to really cut back on her food intake. There must be some wisdom somewhere on the web.
Love, Connie
Yikes! My only fear in marrying Matt was having children with food allergies…I fear you are correct. So far, I’ve cut dairy out and it’s helped a great deal with his gas. Now I’m afraid he’s just used to waking up at the various times because it’s pretty regularly at the same times…1am, 3am, 5:30am.