Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Riley's hooked on the pills

Riley has been acting weird the past few days so Adam and I decided he needed to be seen by the vet... diagnosis... another flare up of degenerative disc disease. This is either the 4th or 5th time and each time it's 3 medications and a few days before he is back to normal.

The medicine schedule is all mapped out and will last until Sept 7... poor downtrodden doggie. Soon enough he will be flying high on pain medicine ;~)

In other news... Chase has been sleeping for over an hour most naps for the past few days. Sounds great but in actuality it requires me to be in the room at the 30 minute marker when he wakes up (like clockwork... it's actually quite amazing). As soon as I see him sit up, I reinsert the paci and lay him back on his tummy with my hand on his back. More times than not, he never even fully wakes up. Occasionally he will wake up and I can wait him out... enough time lapses and he falls back asleep. On the very rare occasion, nothing works and he gets up and we try again at the next nap. All in all, it's been going a lot better... I am still 'on' for the whole day but I am happier about the sleep that he is getting (consistently 2.5 - 3 hours per day). My hope and strategy is to 'teach' him to lay back down on his own when he wakes up or to learn how to sleep through that sleep cycle that wakes him... we shall see how that goes. For now, I am just happy about the amount of napping.

Conversely his night time sleeping has left little to be desired... last night he cried for over an hour... seems he forgot how to put himself to sleep so we had to retrain. I almost caved on more then one occasion ;~) Hopefully he re-learned and tonight goes better... daddy leaves at bed time so I am not sure I can handle screaming baby without daddy ;~)

The morning sleeping is still iffy... this morning he woke up at 5 but I let him stay there... he fussed but never really got to a full wail. I listened to him (and read a sleep book I have on loan from the library) until I actually fell asleep again. When I woke and saw it was 7 I almost fell out of bed. I have no idea if he fell back asleep or if he was just quiet the last hour but I was amazed that I was still in bed at 7! Hopefully things are shaping up there. We are actually trying an earlier bed time in order to correct the early wake time... seems backwards but the biggest thing I have learned about baby's sleep is 'sleep begets sleep'.

Anywho... sorry if this is boring but it's my full time job so it's what I chat about ;~) Besides, I thought ya'll might like an update!

6 comments:

Carrie and Scott said...

i remember the 30 minute to the minute wake-up. tyler is sitting up when he wakes up too and is having trouble getting back down to go back to sleep. last night i let him cry it out until i saw him just slump over as if he was stretching. he soon flipped over...but I felt bad for him. but you are so right, they need to learn how to get themselves back to sleep, it's so easy to go help them...but then they get used to that. keep it up, we're right there with you!

Micah said...

It sounds like you're a great mom. One day you'll think back to these days and not be able to recollect how challenging it was. You'll just remember the way it felt to be needed by your innocent little baby. I'll never forget the feeling of our little ones drifting to sleep in my arms. The weight of their bodies takes on a whole new characteristic and at that moment they seemed so completely reliant on my care and protection. I love to re-live those types of memories. Take care.

LoveLladro said...

carrie - isn't it a killer! at night i don't mind as much since it's a cry it out mentality around here... during the day is so much harder! this motherhood thing is NOT for sissies!

micah - wow, i couldn't have said that any better myself... that feeling of a sleeping child on you... it's the best. it makes me want to go in there an pick him up... i am not crazy so i won't but next time he is asleep on me, i am going to savor it a little more!

chocolate hug said...

Look at how much progress you've made in one month! I know it's hard to see day to day, but if you go back and read your past blog entries you'll see just how far you and Chase have come! Good job! It sounds like you're figuring out your son too...the best decision I ever made was to pick and plan of attack and then tweak it as I learned about Sam and his needs. It sounds like you're doing just that. Keep it up!

diana

kathi said...

Poor sweet Riley.

Kids, it's all trial and error...and gut instinct. :)

LoveLladro said...

ch - you are absolutely right... I need to keep reminding myself that progress is slow! i am feeling much better about his sleeping now! you are so right... i think it's a rare occasion that one plan works on a kid... i think its a combo of different ideas and trials ;~)

kathi - amen to the trial and error ;~) you got it right about poor riley... he is walking around as we affectionately call 'dopey dog'