Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Is it naptime yet?

It's late. I walk down the hall to my room. Bedtime, my favorite part of the day. I crawl into bed and sink way down under the covers because it's about 10 degrees colder in my room than in the rest of the house. Graham turns out the lights, I heave a huge sigh because finally I can sleep. Time to renew after a long day. I close my eyes....

And Silas starts to cry.

I groan, wait a minute to see if he's serious and pull myself out of bed to feed him. Then again two hours later, and two hours after that, and two hours after that (if I'm lucky)... until finally it's morning and everyone is up.

This is every night for the past year. I'm exhausted and don't think my husband gets it. 'Cause he sleeps right through it all. He does have to wake up pretty early but he's getting a minimum of 5 hours uninterrupted sleep.

A while back I started to ween Silas and try to train him to self-soothe back to sleep. Then about a month ago he had a check-up and the Dr. was concerned about his weight. He had dropped from the 50th percentile in weight to the 7th %. I felt like not feeding him when he woke up was not an option. When we took him back for a weight check right before Thanksgiving he had actually lost more weight and this REALLY concerned the doctor. She wanted him on Pedia-Sure for extra calories. I hoped this might make him sleep better but no. She sent him to Cooks for a battery of test. Most of the results came back normal in a day or two and Dr. Shaw expressed interest in referring him to a GI specialist and then an endocrinologist (in case it was something the basic tests missed).

My mommy diagnosis: He's been walking for the past 3 months. He eats constantly. His metabolism has to be good and he's burning LOTS of calories. The kid does NOT sit still. He's almost exclusively nursing again so I know he's getting the 'good stuff' but this is DRAINING what little energy I do have.

He has his one year check up tomorrow and we'll discuss it then. I pray I'll be bold to really tell her I don't think anything is wrong... I just want to figure out how to get him to sleep at night.

or how to work in a nap everyday.

2 comments:

Amy said...

My first thought was, "But isn't Silas walking?" Seems to me he's just a pretty active B.O.Y. Hope everything with the doc shows OK! Sorry ur not getting much sleep.

Stephanie said...

I would tend to agree with your Mom (and Amy). Most kids start to lose weight when they can move...especially walk (or run!).

On the sleep front - I am totally there with you. Lucy woke up every hour when she was a year old. Sam has good nights and bad. Since my milk supply is much lower due to pregnancy I am willing to nurse him whenever...I don't know how much longer I will have milk for him. However, it is VERY draining...and I am not even doing real school with big kids. So I am sure this is really hard for you. I'll pray that the Lord gives you wisdom on what decisions to make. :)