Thursday, January 22, 2009

Yesterday was a disaster

Not food wise, but otherwise yesterday was just a train wreck from the moment I woke up. Well the many moment's I woke up. Sadie was up, again, every hour, to be held, rocked, to have the snot removed from her nose, to eat, to play... whatever it was, she was up all night long. When Marco came in at 8 to tell me I had to get ready for work I had a major breakdown. I was sobbing uncontrollably and I had a pounding migraine (which I get when I am overly tired). I have read everything, I have listened to people's opinions and suggestions and I have tried most things. Short from letting her cry it out (which I don't ever see it as something Marco and I will feel comfortable doing (and yes, I know, never say never but I feel pretty strongly about this and I believe he does as well)) we are trying everything to get this baby to sleep. We are walking zombies and it's taking its toll.

Marco keeps holding on to "she's just a baby, she'll grow out of it soon." which maybe is a better attitude to have than I do but I just feel that it's never going to happen. She will be 6 months old on the 1st of Feb. Since the US, so mid December, she has not slept for more than 3 hours consecutive. Not once. She's had a runny nose since the plane ride over to the US and no matter what I do I can't get rid of it. I am afraid to keep giving her benadryl because, well how long can you safely give it to a baby her age? I have no idea (Teena?) and the doctor's here don't give bendryl to babies so it's no use even asking. I keep hoping she will start rolling both ways so I can peacefully lay her on her belly through the night without the constant worry of "Oh my God what if she's not breathing." She naps so well like that.

I also went to go get her a white noise machine yesterday and the idiots at Mediamarkt wouldn't accept my credit card because I didn't have my passport with me. I had 15 kinds of ID including 4 with photos but this jackas who probably makes 4 euros an hour and doesn't care at all if the busines makes moneh wouldn't accept any other form of ID but a passport. Who in the hell carries their passport with them? I would have asked to speak to the manager but we didn't have time. Marco gave her an earful though which shocked the hell out of me because he never says anything. I mut be rubbing off on hi In the car we laughed about what a fun couple we were. LOL We're going to try and get one today but I will NOT be shopping there again. And too bad for them, we were just getting ready to buy a new washer and mor than likely were going to buy it from them. Not any more!

So, yesterday was just my breaking point. Up all night, working at a stressful job 4 days a week and trying to remain semi-human is just impossible for me right now. I am at my wits end and I am just begging for the god of sleepy babies to please come visit our house.

That said, Marco sent me to bed and I slept through breakfast so this is what I ate yesterday...

coffe - cream and splenda

Mcdonalds - cesear salaed with grilled chicken, dressing, croutons and a fruit and yogurt cup. Diet coke.

snack-
one orange fruitbar thingy for 99 calories

supper
I sauted the following and ate the whole damned thing:
small onion
yellow bell pepper
super small zuchini
very small eggplant

And that was it.

7 comments:

Jenn said...

Do you want me to come over and do the cry it out thing for you?

Bek said...

Hey Sarah,

I thought we'd sussed the sleep thing and then about 5-6 months it all went pear shaped. So did most of the babies in my mothers group. WIth teething, viruses and who knows what else there was a few tough months, but it is normal and it does pass.
We used a white noise which was great but if we were away and forgot to take it we just put the radio on off the station.
Eventually Lucy started only waking once or twice a night, which is still hard but heaps better, and for the last 5 nights she has slept 8pm-6am! She is one now so thats a while away but just do what feels right to you and it will get better

Sleep deprivation is nasty, thats how come its used to torture people. Be kind to yourself, can you do shifts with your partner. Thats how we got through, If you get sleep every second night it works a bit better.

Hang in there, well done for not eating your stress!

Bek

becklette said...

i don't think they're even giving babies much by way of meds here anymore. but you know how the medical wisdom swings wildly every ten minutes... though, if she's been runny for an unreasonably long time, maybe it's bacterial and won't go away without an antibiotic?

i, by the way, totally carry my passport everywhere, even though i only leave the country once every 3 or 4 years, and even then it's mostly mexico or canada. because i lived in la for 3 months and they thought my pa id was fake.

(also, the very quiet radio static trick works on my husband, too.)

Teale said...

I can't imagine the frustration of never getting a good night's sleep! I'm not a mother, but what worked for my best friend who has a child was switching nights w/her husband. One night he got up when the baby cried, the next night she did. It at least allowed them each a good night's sleep every other day!

Serenity said...

I can attest to the 6 month sleep thing, though not nearly as bad as you're going through. We never did CIO either, and for the most part we're through it.

Here's what we DID do though. We put Baby O down earlier every night. Literally we'd put him to sleep at 6 if he seemed even REMOTELY ready to sleep.

We also fed him more during the day. He was refusing bottles but LOVED eating solid foods, so I let his daycare provider give him as much cereal as he wanted. Babies WILL stop eating when they're not hungry, I was told, so we fed him until he stopped eating.

We also would let him lay in his crib if he was awake and not crying until we were ready to get him. Mostly this happened in the mornings if he was up early; he'd lay there and talk to himself, roll around, etc. Sometimes he'd fall back asleep, other times he'd get annoyed and fuss. But I think it's given him the ability to put himself back to sleep sometimes. And it was fairly low maintenance for us.

We also never use white noise, but we play the local classical station on the radio at night when he goes to sleep and during the day when he's napping. I do think it helps.

And yes. I agree with bekkles - take shifts. You do the early night shift, Marco does the late night. Etc. Catch up on sleep when you can.

*hug* There's a reason that sleep deprivation is used as torture. I really hope this phase passes soon for you both.

xx

(luvsafinn from the MSN board, I blog as Serenity!)

Serenity said...

To clarify the "earlier to bed" thing - we found that if Baby O was overtired, he was up EVERY.TWO.HOURS. Which made him even MORE tired. The quality of his sleep with an earlier bedtime was SO much better.

Just a thought. If she's up a lot, she could be overtired too. Which will make her manic and sleep even less. Which makes her wake up more. It's a vicious cycle.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sarah! Sorry to hear of the sleep thing...that sucks. I will tell you what has always worked for me...a box can on medium speed. They are 10 dollars at walmart and work like a charm for both of my girls. I also started them both on spoon fed cereal and fruit at the beginning of their 3rd month and always gave it before the bottle. Worked every time. Congrats on the weight loss. That is awesome! You love the wii? I do like mine, just wish I had more time to do it. Well talk to you soon! Love ya!