Sleep

Who would have thought this sweet, mellow guy would hate sleeping at night??

Let me rephrase that; he enjoys sleeping at night (and all day!). He just HATES sleeping in his crib at night! It never fails. He will sleep well during the day; even spending some of his sleep time in his crib. But once night time rolls around (specifically when I want to go to bed....) it turns into a scream-fest.

I bought him a "womb bear" because I thought maybe it was too quiet; a lot of NICU babies have a hard time adjusting to the quiet of home after a noisy NICU.  And that does help a little, he calms down a bit when it's on, just not enough to sleep well.

I've tried swaddling him. I've swaddled him tight. I've swaddled him loose. I've swaddled with his hands in and with his hands out.

I've tried putting him down with a pacifier and without. This is difficult though. He still breaths fast and will get into periods where he "huffs" pretty hard. When he does this, his mouth is open (almost like a dog panting) and out pops the paci no matter what. And that usually makes him mad too.

I have two plug in lights in the room; so it isn't too dark. But it isn't super bright either.

But it never fails. Within 10 minutes of me putting him in his crib, he starts grunting. And then he whimpers. And then he screams! We do this over and over; after every bottle feed (so every 3 hours!). And I'll usually be back and forth to his room; adjusting him, popping the paci back in, rocking, smoothing his hair. When I'm in the room, he settles down. As soon as I lay back in bed, he starts all over. We go around and around for a while until exhaustion wins and I pick him up, bring him to my room and we fall asleep together.  Of course, he sleep WONDERFUL with me.  I even have to wake him when it's bottle time!

So we're going to try and find a bassinet to put in my room. Maybe that will help. Hopefully it'll help, at least until he is bigger.  Maybe the size of the crib is overwhelming for him. He did spend his first week tucked inside a little box.


Maybe he's just lonely and loves to be cuddled.

And I love you Liam and I love cuddling with you.....but this Mommy needs some sleep!