sleepless in carolina...

   The past few nights, I have gotten very little sleep. This is because of a few different things. One being that entertaining a 3 and a half month old takes up A LOT of time! Especially right now. He is at the age where is is becoming WAY more aware of his surroundings and wanting to take it all in and discover new things. He is constantly grabbing his toes, losing interest in toys in about 5 minutes, wanting to stare at the TV, play with my cell phone... you name it, he wants to conquer it.
   Some of his most recent discoveries include: discovering his tongue (which is quite hilarious), pushing buttons on my cell phone (it's a touch screen, but still!), watching movies/TV, pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and trying to put it back in (he hasn't gotten that last part down quite yet...), and he has decided he likes looking at books/magazines. In fact, I was reading a book on the Kindle app on my phone last night and he was laying next to me, moving his head from side to side as if he were reading too! It cracked me up! Then today, Zach was reading a magazine and Jack started getting fussy because Zach wasn't showing/reading it to him. I believe we are going to have our hands full with this one...
   As thankful as I am for all these wonderful new developments, they are starting to wear me out! I have come to the conclusion that Jack is going through what they call the "4 month wakeful period." Doesn't it just sound like a joy?! Well, it is very true to it's name! Basically, babies around 4 months old start waking up in the middle of the night. Not just "my-paci-fell-out-please-put-it-back-in" kind of waking up... I mean kicking and squirming and wide awake and wanting to play. Plain and simple: it sucks.
   I have been reading about this period online to try and figure out what on earth I can do about it. I've seen a lot of sites that say "let him cry it out," which pretty much means what it says. Let him cry. They say to check on him after a few minutes, but not to pick him up or talk to him or anything like that. Well let me just say that first of all... HE IS 3 AND A HALF MONTHS OLD! If he is crying, there is more than likely a reason for it. So OF COURSE I'm going to pick him up and soothe him! Sorry if you are a fan of the "cry it out" method, but I am NOT! I just can't imagine letting my 4 month old baby lay there and cry. It could be gas, maybe he's hungry, or heck... he could just want his mommy because he had a bad dream! And yes, I believe he has bad dreams. I have seen him make sad faces in his sleep and even heard him start wailing in the middle of his sleep and wake himself up from it. It's not like he can tell me what's wrong. So "let him cry it out," is not an option.
   Finally I came to a site that made perfect sense of the situation! First of all, if you did not know, Jack is exclusively breastfed. This site that I found has an article that was written by a lactation consultant. In the article, the LC talks about how during this time, babies are developing a whole lot (tell me about it)! Because of all their new developments and wanting to take in their surroundings, breastfed babies eat less during the day. I had never thought about it until I read that article, but it has proven true for Jack!
   This is a quote from the article that describes exactly what breastfeeding a baby around this age can be like:
"Has NO ONE stopped to consider the developmental stage of the breastfeeding baby that begins at about four months and can go on to 6 or 7 months? Think about your four month old breastfeeding -- what are they doing? This baby is on and off the breast -- so interested in the world around him he can hardly stand it. "Oh look! There's the dog! Hi, Mommy, I love you SOOOO much! The phone?! A car went by. The TV is on. Big sister comes into the room....hey, there's just too much going on for me to concentrate on eating. I think I'm full now. I'll see you later.....'"
   She then goes on to discuss how so many people tell new moms that "the baby can't possibly be hungry -- just let him cry it out," and how this is not the approach to take. She also talks about how bottle feeding babies don't wake up as often around this time because mom is able to hand the bottle to the baby and they can sit there and eat AND watch the world around them. This all made perfect sense to me.
   HOWEVER... the past week or so, Jack has been napping less during the day and the past 2 nights, he has woken up at about 3:00 AM and not wanted to go back to sleep... even after eating. So, needless to say, I have been getting very little sleep! Normally, I would get things like laundry and dishes done during Jack's nap time or even get in a nap for myself. But because of the lovely 30 minute cat naps he has been taking during the day, it is almost impossible for me to get much done! Therefore, I have been attempting to catch up at night once he is asleep, which happens by about 10:30 PM. By the time I'm done, it's 2:00 AM and Jack wakes up within the next hour. I'm then up until almost 5:00 AM. I JUST WANT TO SLEEP!
   Prior to this phase, Jack was going through his lovely 3 month growth spurt. Then he wanted to be attached to me ALL THE TIME! He wanted to nurse every 2 hours and sometimes every 30 minutes! He went to sleep at 10:30ish, woke up at midnight, and then again between 2:00 and 5:00 AM. This stuff is killing me! It's like he's gone back to being a newborn... minus the long naps!
   But the upside to all of this is getting to watch my little boy discover SO many new things! Like the day he found his tongue. I swear, it was the funniest thing ever! He had been fussing because he wanted his paci so he stuck his hand in his mouth to suck on it and then all of a sudden, you could see the look of "what is THAT?!" come across his face. Then he pulls his hand back out, kinda looks at it, pops it back in his mouth, grabs his tongue, and his eyes got HUGE! He then spent several hours with his hand in his mouth, playing with his tongue, and has been doing it every so often ever since. He even figured out that both Zach and I have tongues too. I stuck mine out at him the other day and he grabbed it and started playing with my tongue. Do you have any idea how weird it is to feel little fingers grabbing your tongue? Not only is it weird, it's just flat out funny because they are SO fascinated by it!
   Anyway, I believe I have written enough for tonight. I believe this post has made up quite a bit for the fact that I haven't written in awhile. As you can see, I've been very busy with the discoveries of tongues, Charlie, cell phones, etc. Good night! 


(For those of you who are interested, here is a link to the article I was talking about:
http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/4mo-sleep.html)