Thank you, dear readers, for all your advice / encouragement / prayers / empathy / sympathy. I gleaned a lot of great info from you. I am more than pleased to report, and maybe I am reporting a little early, that I think we have turned a corner already in the sleeping department. The day I posted about our sleep issues, I was running on very little sleep, yet I actually didn't feel all that dysfunctional. I was maybe a little tired, but overall, I felt fine. We had a great little hike in Sabino Canyon and enjoyed some yummy Mexican for dinner. We got the kids to bed early that night and went to bed early ourselves (before 10, which is seriously miraculous in this household). Chase slept, without making a peep that I heard at least, until 5 am. That was over 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep for me. I couldn't remember the last time I got such great sleep. Night #2, Chase was asleep by 7:30 pm (about a half hour earlier then we'd been putting him to bed before) and he woke up briefly at midnight because his nose was stuffed up. We just had to bulb syringe him and calm him down and he went back to sleep until 5 again. I fed him and he went right back to sleep, and so did I. I ended up with close to 8 hours of sleep that night! Then, the crowning moment last night. Again, he was asleep around 7:30, and besides a brief moment around midnight again where he woke up and cried (for only like a minute) he fell right back asleep and I did not hear him until 7:15 am. People, he has NEVER slept for 12 hours before, 10 hours was always his max and it had been a long time.
Three days in a row of great sleep = Sabrina feels amazing. He has slept through the night before from about 2 months of age to about 4 months, so maybe this phase will pass too, but I think we might be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. The only things we really did that differently is let him do a little more tummy time or something to have him cry a bit before bed to get a little extra energy out and I have given him his last feeding in the dark without Adie around. Normally, I would just give him his last feeding while we were reading or something with Adie while getting her ready for bed too. Seems that is doing the trick for now. Now, however, I have a whole plethora of ideas in my arsenal for any potential sleep problems so thank you for your support and advice. It's always welcome.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Endurance
This is not a complaining post, I promise, it's not, but I do need to vent and I do need some fresh ideas because I am all out of them. I think I've mentioned here and there what a non-sleeper our little Mr. Chase is. Well, unfortunately, a bad thing can and has become worse. I am not sure how much more endurance I have. I have been relying on running as a source of getting through the day when I have not been able to get any more sleep. The endorphins seem to keep me from becoming the biggest Monster Mom on the block. However, it's getting to the point where I am not getting enough sleep to even feel capable of rising from my pillow to go running, if I am lucky enough to be sleeping at that point.
Chase used to wake up once a night, around 4 and by the time I got him back to sleep, it was too late for me to fall back asleep and then get up to exercise at 6, so I had very early wake-ups. Then, it regressed to him waking up some time around 1 and then again around 3 or 4. Now, he wakes up multiple times a night especially between the hours of 1 and 5, and often does not want to go back to sleep at least one of those times. It used to be that when he woke up around 4 he would wake up happy, like he'd just gotten enough sleep. Now, he wakes up crying and mad, so I know he is still tired but something is waking him up or preventing him from sleeping and I can't seem to figure out what the problem is.
This last night has taken the cake. We went to meet Brett's sister and her husband last night in Mesa to see the Easter Pageant there (we'd never been and we really enjoyed it). Mesa is two hours from our home and the pageant starts at 8 pm so you can imagine it was a late night by the time we got home. However, we had the kids in their pj's and they slept the entire way home and mostly went straight to bed once we got here. So, we finally got into bed around 12:30 am. By 1:30 Chase was crying again. I went in and put in his binkie which satisfied him right away and I was relieved. Then, he started crying around 3:30. I rocked him for a few minutes to calm him and then set him in the crib on his stomach to see if that would help because it seemed maybe he was a little gassy, but by4 he was done with that. He still hasn't rolled (that what you get when you have really large kids) so he couldn't just flip himself back if he wanted to. I tried to comfort him again but this time he appeared to be hungry, so feed him I did and thought maybe we'd really get some semblance of sleep for a while since I'd already canceled with my running partner for the day. 5:15 rolls around and again the child is inconsolable so I try a few things and finally get him back to sleep just before 6. At this point, I am thinking why did I cancel running? Here I am wide awake, but I guess I always hope that some time things will get better and I'll sleep.
I also must mention that between the hours of 1:30 and 3:30 am, when Chase was actually sleeping, Adie was up throwing up, poor girl. It remains to be seen if it was just something she ate or a stomach bug, but she was back to sleep by 3 and has been just fine since, so I am hoping we've turned a corner there. So, the two hours when I might have gotten some sleep were occupied in other ways. Also, the night before last Chase decided he didn't want to sleep much between the hours of 4 and 6 am, so I was essentially up at 4 and here it is 26 hours later and I think maybe my total sleep time in that whole span of time has been somewhere around 3 hours, broken up less than hour increments. The scariest thing about this whole ordeal is that despite this ridiculous lack of sleep, I am wide awake which means I am going into sleep deprivation insomnia, which isn't pretty. Good thing Brett took today off and has tomorrow off because his sister is here visiting. I might be able to sneak in some nap time if I get tired enough, but once the weekend is over, I am hoping I will have recovered some and figured out what is making Chase refuse to stay asleep when I know he wants to be sleeping.
I have a good life and I don't want to complain, because there are an infinite amount of more difficult challenges. However, something's gotta give here and that's where you come in. Let me list here everything we've tried in an attempt to get this little guy to sleep:
-swaddling
-not swaddling
-partial swaddling
-crying it out (we thought it finally might have worked the other night, only to have him wake up a half hour later)
-co-sleeping
-putting a shirt that smells like one of us in his crib
-putting him sleep on his side
-putting him to sleep on his stomach
-giving him teething medicine before sleeping
-giving him Tylenol before sleeping (maybe he's in pain for something...)
-leaving him in his car seat after he's fallen asleep in the car
-feeding him a number of different types of food right before bed
-not feeding him solids close to bed time
-shifting his bedtime earlier
-shifting his bedtime later
Yes, that is a lot of experimentation, but this kid hasn't been sleeping well since around Thanksgiving so I have had lots of time to experiment. Since it's been such a long-lived problem, I no longer attribute it to teething (he still has 0 teeth, although I thought he had one a long while back, turns out I was hallucinating).
Now, what haven't I tried? What would you try in my situation? The only other thing I can think of that I haven't tried is giving him formula before bed. I don't want to do that for multiple reasons. First, formula is expensive and I have plenty of free milk for him. Second, Chase does not like bottles or sippies much and I don't feel like having that battle at bedtime. Finally, Adie was a pretty darn healthy child until a few months after I weaned her. I don't want to start down the road of formula because I am afraid I'll wean him earlier than I want to. It just seems to happen that once you introduce a little formula, more and more feedings become that. Adie's been a sickling ever since and I always wonder if nursing her a little longer might have done her some good. I am not judging formula-givers here, btw, because everyone does what they need to do and I do find it great that there is a viable option for those who can't nurse for whatever reason. Maybe formula is the solution here, but I'd like to explore a bit more to see if there is anything else out there someone might suggest that could help. Anyone, anyone?
Also, I would be ungrateful if I didn't mention the help I do get with my sleep deprivation. Brett's gotten up many an early morning, or gone into work a little later, to take the kids when I needed to get some sleep in order to function. I have had friends watch Adie so I could sleep when Chase naps and other friends offer to do the same. Adie has also been very tolerant of my sometimes cranky ways, so yes, my situation could be a lot worse, but I don't want it to get worse. Let's head it off at the pass, shall we?
Chase used to wake up once a night, around 4 and by the time I got him back to sleep, it was too late for me to fall back asleep and then get up to exercise at 6, so I had very early wake-ups. Then, it regressed to him waking up some time around 1 and then again around 3 or 4. Now, he wakes up multiple times a night especially between the hours of 1 and 5, and often does not want to go back to sleep at least one of those times. It used to be that when he woke up around 4 he would wake up happy, like he'd just gotten enough sleep. Now, he wakes up crying and mad, so I know he is still tired but something is waking him up or preventing him from sleeping and I can't seem to figure out what the problem is.
This last night has taken the cake. We went to meet Brett's sister and her husband last night in Mesa to see the Easter Pageant there (we'd never been and we really enjoyed it). Mesa is two hours from our home and the pageant starts at 8 pm so you can imagine it was a late night by the time we got home. However, we had the kids in their pj's and they slept the entire way home and mostly went straight to bed once we got here. So, we finally got into bed around 12:30 am. By 1:30 Chase was crying again. I went in and put in his binkie which satisfied him right away and I was relieved. Then, he started crying around 3:30. I rocked him for a few minutes to calm him and then set him in the crib on his stomach to see if that would help because it seemed maybe he was a little gassy, but by4 he was done with that. He still hasn't rolled (that what you get when you have really large kids) so he couldn't just flip himself back if he wanted to. I tried to comfort him again but this time he appeared to be hungry, so feed him I did and thought maybe we'd really get some semblance of sleep for a while since I'd already canceled with my running partner for the day. 5:15 rolls around and again the child is inconsolable so I try a few things and finally get him back to sleep just before 6. At this point, I am thinking why did I cancel running? Here I am wide awake, but I guess I always hope that some time things will get better and I'll sleep.
I also must mention that between the hours of 1:30 and 3:30 am, when Chase was actually sleeping, Adie was up throwing up, poor girl. It remains to be seen if it was just something she ate or a stomach bug, but she was back to sleep by 3 and has been just fine since, so I am hoping we've turned a corner there. So, the two hours when I might have gotten some sleep were occupied in other ways. Also, the night before last Chase decided he didn't want to sleep much between the hours of 4 and 6 am, so I was essentially up at 4 and here it is 26 hours later and I think maybe my total sleep time in that whole span of time has been somewhere around 3 hours, broken up less than hour increments. The scariest thing about this whole ordeal is that despite this ridiculous lack of sleep, I am wide awake which means I am going into sleep deprivation insomnia, which isn't pretty. Good thing Brett took today off and has tomorrow off because his sister is here visiting. I might be able to sneak in some nap time if I get tired enough, but once the weekend is over, I am hoping I will have recovered some and figured out what is making Chase refuse to stay asleep when I know he wants to be sleeping.
I have a good life and I don't want to complain, because there are an infinite amount of more difficult challenges. However, something's gotta give here and that's where you come in. Let me list here everything we've tried in an attempt to get this little guy to sleep:
-swaddling
-not swaddling
-partial swaddling
-crying it out (we thought it finally might have worked the other night, only to have him wake up a half hour later)
-co-sleeping
-putting a shirt that smells like one of us in his crib
-putting him sleep on his side
-putting him to sleep on his stomach
-giving him teething medicine before sleeping
-giving him Tylenol before sleeping (maybe he's in pain for something...)
-leaving him in his car seat after he's fallen asleep in the car
-feeding him a number of different types of food right before bed
-not feeding him solids close to bed time
-shifting his bedtime earlier
-shifting his bedtime later
Yes, that is a lot of experimentation, but this kid hasn't been sleeping well since around Thanksgiving so I have had lots of time to experiment. Since it's been such a long-lived problem, I no longer attribute it to teething (he still has 0 teeth, although I thought he had one a long while back, turns out I was hallucinating).
Now, what haven't I tried? What would you try in my situation? The only other thing I can think of that I haven't tried is giving him formula before bed. I don't want to do that for multiple reasons. First, formula is expensive and I have plenty of free milk for him. Second, Chase does not like bottles or sippies much and I don't feel like having that battle at bedtime. Finally, Adie was a pretty darn healthy child until a few months after I weaned her. I don't want to start down the road of formula because I am afraid I'll wean him earlier than I want to. It just seems to happen that once you introduce a little formula, more and more feedings become that. Adie's been a sickling ever since and I always wonder if nursing her a little longer might have done her some good. I am not judging formula-givers here, btw, because everyone does what they need to do and I do find it great that there is a viable option for those who can't nurse for whatever reason. Maybe formula is the solution here, but I'd like to explore a bit more to see if there is anything else out there someone might suggest that could help. Anyone, anyone?
Also, I would be ungrateful if I didn't mention the help I do get with my sleep deprivation. Brett's gotten up many an early morning, or gone into work a little later, to take the kids when I needed to get some sleep in order to function. I have had friends watch Adie so I could sleep when Chase naps and other friends offer to do the same. Adie has also been very tolerant of my sometimes cranky ways, so yes, my situation could be a lot worse, but I don't want it to get worse. Let's head it off at the pass, shall we?
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Boot Camp
A group from our ward got together today and ran the Beat Cancer Boot Camp 5k for a young mother in our ward who is currently fighting cancer. We wore matching pink camo bandanas and the whole thing was just a blast. I loved it. It doesn't sound your like your average 5k because it wasn't. They started with a warm-up led by a few olympic athletes and a NFL player, which was pretty cool. Then, we ran a 5k that had boot camp style obstacles along the way, including, but not limited to, jumping hay bales, running through tires, lifting ammo cans above our heads, push-ups, pulling fire hoses (the hardest obstacle IMO), climbing walls and slithering through a mud pit. I asked Brett to come along and document the event. We also brought Chase along and he was such a stellar little trooper (despite having to nurse from a mom caked in mud!). We got some really fun pictures, especially of the mud pit, which was the final obstacle, so Brett was able to get a lot of great pictures of us getting very, very dirty.
The bandana before the dirt, sweat and mud got to it.
Our fantastic group
Picture of Chase just because he's cute and he was there is his camo too.
Just a little muddy!
I seriously thought the whole thing was so much fun (besides being temporarily killed by the fire hose obstacle), but the mud pit really was so cool.
Looking good! We were going to take an after shot with everyone, but with everyone trying to get cleaned up and back home we weren't able to get the whole group back together.
My knees suffered some minor casualties.
Mud was everywhere. I recommend closing your mouth when crawling through a mud pit.
The bandana before the dirt, sweat and mud got to it.
Our fantastic group
Picture of Chase just because he's cute and he was there is his camo too.
Just a little muddy!
I seriously thought the whole thing was so much fun (besides being temporarily killed by the fire hose obstacle), but the mud pit really was so cool.
Looking good! We were going to take an after shot with everyone, but with everyone trying to get cleaned up and back home we weren't able to get the whole group back together.
My knees suffered some minor casualties.
Mud was everywhere. I recommend closing your mouth when crawling through a mud pit.I hope to do this race again. We had a great time. If you ever get a chance to crawl through mud or mud wrestle or run a 5k obstacle course, I say go for it!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Do You RSVP?
I haven't been in a blogging mood for a while, but here's a second post in one day. How exciting for all of you! I just read this NY Times oped about how it seems RSVPing is becoming a thing of the past, something I have observed myself. I will admit, I have forgotten to RSVP on a number of occasions, or I have done the dreaded "maybe" far too many times as well (but, I'll blame that mostly on the unpredictable nature of having small children that can throw you for a loop so it's hard to commit sometimes). However, I really do try to make an effort to let people know my intentions when they invite me somewhere because I feel it is a necessary courtesy when someone goes through the effort of hosting or coordinating something to know who is going to be there.
Anyway, it seems our culture refuses to be pinned down. I wonder why it is we refuse to commit to anything these days. I have been thinking about myself and how I often wait until the last minute to commit to anything, and sometimes, at the last minute, have to back out of things because I can't get a babysitter, or the kids get sick or I have a headache, whatever. There are a million things that go wrong at the last second. Maybe that's just what happens to everyone so we've all decided to be non-committal? I am not ready to throw in the towel on RSVPing just yet, but maybe we just should...When I am hosting something though, I admit, I get a little antsy waiting to hear back from people so I can know what to plan for.
Anyway, it seems our culture refuses to be pinned down. I wonder why it is we refuse to commit to anything these days. I have been thinking about myself and how I often wait until the last minute to commit to anything, and sometimes, at the last minute, have to back out of things because I can't get a babysitter, or the kids get sick or I have a headache, whatever. There are a million things that go wrong at the last second. Maybe that's just what happens to everyone so we've all decided to be non-committal? I am not ready to throw in the towel on RSVPing just yet, but maybe we just should...When I am hosting something though, I admit, I get a little antsy waiting to hear back from people so I can know what to plan for.
The Madness is Here!
Here at the Millar household, this time of the year is anticipated with delight. Our brackets are filled out. Brett worked a little extra earlier in the week so he could watch the inaugural game of BYU vs. Florida this morning. We even spent last weekend in Vegas watching the MWC tournament (pics of that trip soon to come). There are 4 Mountain West teams in the tourney this year, which is fantastic. Too bad none of them could be the U of U, but let's not talk about the mess that has become the U of U basketball program. I am also rooting for the USU Aggies. How fun to have 5 teams in that I want to do well. I actually have no expectations that many will go far, but that's what so fun about the NCAA tournament. Anything can happen. Even though I am a Ute at heart, and I loved the U teams of the late 90's (despite the fact that Majerus is a major jerk, he can coach a good bball team), I am 100% behind the Cougars this year. They have some fabulous talent. Now they just need to get up for the big games. They struggle with that in both football and basketball.
Anyway, Happy March Madness to all!
Anyway, Happy March Madness to all!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
So Cal
This past weekend we tripped to the San Diego area for a few days. Our highlights for the weekend included an evening farmers market (lots of food, produce, and music), a trip to the beach (where most of our pictures we'll be showing were taken), a visit to Balboa park (sadly, no pictures of that one, but we will return there in the future), time with friends and family, and a trip to the temple for Sabrina. We hope you enjoy the highlight shots below.
Chase was having a great time hanging out at the beach.
Adie was chasing birds, until they started chasing her.
The birds were big. And close.
Adie on the pier. I love this picture.
The longest pier on the west coast in the background there. Oceanside, CA.
Adie loved showing her dirty shoes. Covered with black sand.
Oooh hey, it's the whole family. You don't get to see those sorts of shots very often, do you?
Chase was having a great time hanging out at the beach.
Adie was chasing birds, until they started chasing her.
The birds were big. And close.
Adie on the pier. I love this picture.
The longest pier on the west coast in the background there. Oceanside, CA.
Adie loved showing her dirty shoes. Covered with black sand.
Oooh hey, it's the whole family. You don't get to see those sorts of shots very often, do you?
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