So right after I penned my heartfelt thoughts on how motherhood is getting to be really easy and how much I love it, Frankie decided to test my limits with an awful new phase of waking up every two hours all. night. long. and generally being really grumpy about sleep. It's been going on almost two weeks and is frankly worse than the newborn stage as I expected him to be over this by now. It's just occurring to me that maybe he is teething?? Seems a little early for it at just over 4 months, but I ordered some natural teething remedies online just to be on the safe side. Argh. Motherhood, always throwing you a curveball right when you think you've got everything under control. But wait, that's just life, isn't it? Anyway, if you have any experience with or thoughts about 4-month sleep regressions or teething or babies who are making their mothers' heads explode, please send them my way—I'm all eyes!
In other news, I've been talking to our awesome pastor about starting a group for young moms at our church. Tomorrow night I'm meeting up with another young mom from the parish to brainstorm ideas and make a plan. The one tiny hitch is that I've never been in a moms' group before and don't really know what should be included in one. If you've been in a moms' group at church, what would you recommend to do or not do? Favorite activities, events, outreach, etc.? And if you haven't been in a group, what would you want to see in one? What kind of moms' group would you want to join? Thanks ladies!!
My daughter is a few weeks older and started doing the same thing. We went from 8 straight hours of sleep a night to waking up every 2 hours. She cut her first tooth last week and 4 months 3 weeks. Now she will sleep about 4 or 5 hours. It gets better :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Kathleen—I really needed to hear that!
DeleteWill had a 4 month sleep regression!!! It is a thing. An awful, very real thing. He was learning how to roll and it just messed with his sleep because ALL he wanted to do was roll over and then get upset that he rolled over. It lasted about a month for us, but once he was over it, he started sleeping like a dream. I always accused him of teething as well, but he literally just popped his first tooth yesterday (at 7.5 months), so who knows if it started bothering him that early.
ReplyDeleteOh my. Pio did the same thing to me. He was sleeping five hour stretches and I thought it would only get longer. Then he started eating every two hours at night!!! Ahhhhhh. Made me so tired during the day. Could possibly be teething, but I think it could also be a growth spurt. Another possibility is that his body is just naturally waking up and he doesn't really need to eat but just needs to be soothed back to sleep. There's this French concept I came across called "The Pause" and basically if the baby wakes up in the middle of the night, don't rush to feed the baby right away. Wait maybe 5 - 15 min and if the baby doesn't fall back asleep, then feed the baby. Another thing that has been helping Pio to get longer stretches at night is stuffing him full at his last feeding. I've been giving him baby food and formula towards the evening to make sure he is full. He doesn't seem to get particularly full when he's breastfeeding. He gets fussier breastfeeding and stops sooner. Maybe my milk is changing already because we're expecting #2? Not sure... Hope some of that helps! A good night's sleep is soooooooooooooo important for momma. Makes a world of difference. Maybe on the weekends while he is going through this phase, Frank could take one of his feedings at night to give you a longer block (formula or pumped breast milk in a bottle).
ReplyDeleteThe things I like about our moms' group are:
ReplyDelete- we pray together - someone opens and closes the prayer and then anyone who wants can pray for their intentions.
- there are older moms and younger moms
- there are older kids (homeschooled teens) who help supervise the littles while the moms chat, but we're all in the same room together so it's easy for my kids to check in or for us to intervene if needed.
- we do a potluck of snacks (hard boiled eggs, pastries, fruit, veggies) and there's always coffee.
Good luck with yours! And with your babe!
My rule of thumb is always, "When in doubt, blame it on teething!" It's generally true, especially since they start "teething" 2-3 months before you see the first tooth poke through, in my experience!
ReplyDeleteUghhh, the four month sleep regression is my least favorite part of parenting (thus far). Both of girls still slept for long chucks, but had so much trouble getting to sleep in the first place. We ended up sleep training both of them at five months because we figured if they were going to be crying whether we were holding them or not. That way we were at least able to teach them out how to get the sleep they so desperately needed. Claire especially. She would do things like wake up at 4:00 am and not get a wink of sleep (despite my trying every single thing I could think of) until 6:00 pm. Fourteen hours later! She was sooooo miserable, poor little babe.
ReplyDeleteI am in charge of the mom's group at our church! We meet from 10:00 to 11:30 in the church nursery. We open and close in prayer, but we spend the rest of the time with the kids playing and the moms chatting. We give the kids a snack, but don't have one ourselves. Although coffee is a great idea! Not all of us are able to attend (due to babies napping or school drop-off or what have you) but some of us meet beforehand for mass at 8:40 and then a children's holy (half) hour from 9:30 to 10:00. Usually we just drop into the adoration chapel for a few minutes though, since babies and toddlers can't keep quiet for longer than that. We meet once a month in the evening for a mom's (and nursing babies) book club as well. We're reading Parenting With Grace this semester. It's pretty much just moms of young kids. There's a morning bible study that moms of older school-age kids attend. It has childcare but it's two-hours (kinda long to leave your young children that don't want you to leave!) and it involves a fair amount of homework outside the morning study, so it's not very popular among us moms of all little ones.
Real quick because I've ben thinking about you and wanting to share this with you - but kept forgetting! http://kellymom.com/parenting/nighttime/4mo-sleep/ 4 month sleep regression is SO a thing. The upside though? It's a phase. Hang in there lovey!
ReplyDeleteAs for moms groups, we have a great one here in Pittsburgh.There are mom's nights out (we meet up without non-nurslings at a coffee or ice cream shop), mom's nights in (meet at a mom's house to have snacks and chats, again, without non-nursers), pray & plays (play dates while the moms pray the rosary or something similar) and basic play dates. Hope that helps!
That article makes me feel a lot better! Also, I love your thoughts and tips regarding the moms' group. Thanks Caitlyn!!
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