This is the second night in a row where I put LEL in her crib and she quietly moans and groans for a bit (10mins) then falls asleep on her own! I have no idea where this baby came from! Usually she cries and cries and I pick her up after a few minutes and rock her back to sleep, then the minute she hits the sheets she wakes up again and we repeat this process at least 3 times before we have success.
Just last Wednesday and Thursday nights: she went to sleep late (11pm, not her usual 8pm) and still woke up 4-5 times for various reasons and then for good around 6am. It wore me out, and I even cancelled my Dr.'s appt because of this. A lot of people assume that with her light sleeping at night she must be a great napper during the day...try no. She only sleeps for 20mins every few hours. It has seriously worn me lately. Because of this, I broke down and searched for ANY aid to help her sleep better. I didn't want to try anything too out there, just something to encourage longer sleeping periods. She does have her own schedule for a reason, it is natural...but come on, waking up every 2-3 hrs at 5 months? I felt this was a little extreme.
I read about this formula, Enfamil Restfull (now market as A.R. for acid reflex) that is rice based and takes longer to digest...therefore, allowing babies to sleep in longer intervals. I thought this seemed like a great possible solution to this ongoing issue. I mean, she is already eating rice cereal and this would just give her that little extra help to feel full and not get so restless.
I started it Friday night. She put herself to sleep around 8:30pm and didn't wake until 2am (BIG improvement for her). I did feed her again then (her usual formula this time) and she slept until 6:30am, where she then got up for the day. With that pattern I am trying it again tonight. 6oz A.R. formula at around 7:45pm, she put herself asleep at around 8:30pm again...and the rest we will have to wait and see!
If it works long term I will be one happy camper! Sleeping for longer than 3hrs at a time is a treat for me! Now, I know a lot of moms on forums have kind of bashed this engineered way of feeding babies, but it is not like I am feeding this to a 1 or 2 month old just so I can get some shut-eye, I am giving it to my 5 month old who still had the sleeping patterns of a little newborn! If this can get her on more of a infant schedule I am all for it! Even if she just wakes up the 1 time, I am fine with it! Hope I didn't jinx it with my excitement!
All moms (and future moms): if you have a babers like mine, I (so far) recommend this for your older baby! Even if LEL doesn't benefit from this long term, it is definitely worth a try! Here's to another sleepfull night...hopefully ;-)
P.S. Miss Lorelai Elizabeth turned 5 months old today...so big! I will post pics later.
M LEWIS
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