Eureka!

So with Emma's sixth week of life also came her six week growth spurt...or should I say the devil!

I've come to notice since she has been born that during growth spurts, things go a little haywire in terms of our "routine". I use that term loosely as no infant actually has a routine, but she has gotten in the habit of feeding every three hours during the day and sleeping 4-5 hours at night, and sometimes, when we're lucky, 6 hours. We've been SUPER lucky that she typically only wakes up once in the middle of the night. As I've mentioned in past posts, I get use to this "routine" and then it all changes. Granted, the growth spurts only last a few days and then we're right back to where we were (happy baby and happy mama!)

This most recent change has thrown this mama for a loop! I haven't been this exhausted since she was a newborn but I know that this too shall pass :) She has recently started to refuse to breastfeed at night. At first, I thought I was doing something wrong. I would cry right along with her because the only thing that would soothe her would be to put her back to sleep but I was terrified that she wasn't getting anything to eat. I was afraid it might be reflux or gas but nothing seemed to help. I got great advice from so many people and I am so grateful for the help and encouragement, more than you all know!

I received a little shock when I called her pediatrician and he suggested it might be behavioral. I immediately thought "Are you crazy? She's only 6 weeks old!" After seeing something on a community blog on a baby sight about "breast refusal", I decided to look into it. What do you know! It described what Emma and I were going through to a T! And it was, in fact, behavioral. Other mothers that experienced it said that it's a matter of sticking to your guns and continuing to try and nurse through the tears and screams. And wouldn't you know that doing just that worked! We had our first try last night and after screaming and crying for 30 minutes on each side, Miss E finally gave it up and nursed! I imagine that this will probably last a few more days and I'm actually ok with that since I know how to handle this now :)

The next hurdle is sleep! Emma has started to realize that if she wakes up enough times fussing, we'll put her back in bed with us...little stinker. If she's tired enough or good and asleep before we put her to bed, she'll sleep good in her crib (right now, good is 4 hours). It's bad but I keep thinking of her as a newborn and she'll be two months old in just two short weeks! She's already testing us, little diva ;) It's so easy to just have her in the bed with us so that I can just reach over and feed her when she wakes up but both Rory and I need our sleep, especially with me going back to work in two weeks. We're still putting her in a wrapped snoogle since she can't roll over and she absolutely hates being put on her back! Sometimes she sleeps good on her tummy but it's hard to put her in her crib on her stomach without her waking up. So we'll stick with the snoogle for now until she can start rolling over :) at least she's out of our bed for now!

Here's hoping that this change runs it's course quickly so this mama can get more than a few hours of sleep at night!

God Bless!