1 Mother 2 Another

Guess what’s on my mind.


Here’s Cora’s typical nighttime schedule right now:


9 p.m. Cora goes through her bedtime routine, with a nursing and
rocking to sleep. I usually escape around 9:45.

10:30 p.m. Cora wakes up and must eat again.

12:30 a.m. Cora wakes up and must eat again.

2:30 a.m. Cora wakes up and must eat again.

4:30 a.m. Cora wakes up and must eat again.

6:30 Cora wakes up and must eat again.

8:30 or 9 a.m. Cora gets up.

This would be a normal schedule if Cora
was six weeks old, but she is SIX MONTHS OLD! And this schedule has
only been for the past couple of weeks; before that it’d been
marginally better. I remember when Cora was 8 weeks old and
sleeping until 5 a.m., and I thought, “Cool! This kid’s
going to be the easy one.” Idiot.


Cora first started pushing forward that 5 a.m. feeding, until she
ended up with a rough schedule at about 3 ½ months of
getting up to eat at 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. This was frustrating, but
livable. But this recent “I can’t get to sleep for an
hour and a half, and then must wake up constantly” is killing
me. At 2 a.m. she’ll eat and then sit there in the rocking
chair, wide-eyed, blowing raspberries and trying to talk to me. I
refuse to make eye contact and eventually she gets the hint,
getting quiet then falling asleep, but it’s a trial.


I think this is partly a developmental surge and will (hopefully)
be outgrown soon, but mostly a sleep-training thing. We have yet to
sleep-train her and she is now wanting to nurse every time she
wakes up. I sense some real hunger many times, but think it’s
quickly ossifying into habit. I’m a big believer in sleep
training, but we’ve yet to do it for two reasons: first,
she’s still swaddled, and second, it’ll definitely keep
Maddie up.


The swaddling we keep trying to drop, but so far without success.
I’m not sure I’m ready to leave a kid to cry it out who
can’t comfort herself with her thumb since her arms are
strapped to her sides, so I hope the swaddling goes soon though I
fear it’s become another sleep crutch for her that
she’ll have to be weaned off of. As for the Maddie thing,
we’ve made a date on the calendar – the first weekend
we get back from our Thanksgiving travels, Maddie will spend both
nights with Gamma and Cora will get a sleep-training intensive.
Hopefully that will help us get on track and help Cora to learn to
sleep through the night.


Until then, I stagger hollow-eyed through the days, praying that
Cora and Maddie will nap simultaneously. They pretty much never do.
Which means I resort to sugar to get through the rest of the day.


Chocolate: The Other Nap Time.