My DH just took a job about 150 miles from home. He is away M-F and doesn't see our daughter M-Sa. She is used to seeing him daily. I was told to expect some sleeplessness and crankyness with the change, but how long will it take for her to adjust? She used to sleep 11 or 12 hours at night. Now she is waking up twice. Once a few hours after going to bed and again around 2am. When she wakes up it is almost impossible to get her back to sleep. I have figured out that if I give her a cup of warm milk and some food, she will fall asleep soon there after. But then she is up again in a few hours. When she wakes up in the morning she is absolutely famished and cried uncontrollably until she gets breakfast.
She is also getting a few teeth.
I have tried giving her Camilia, Tylenol, Camamillia, and increasing her caloric intake, and feeding her dinner right before bed.
During the day, EVERYTHING makes her mad. And she litterally eats more than I do in a day!
What do you ladies think is going on?
3/2
The Sleeplessness has not subsided. The Crankyness has. The excessive hunger has not. She seems to be eating a full meal every 2 hours or so.
3/5
I have been giving her oatmeal right before bed and she has slept through the night both times! Hopefully this is the solution, but I won't hold my breath.
Hi Manige - sounds like it could be a growth spurt. Babies know how to regulate their appetites, feed her as much as she wants of a healthy balanced diet. Don't forget that she still needs a relatively high fat diet for her development.
I agree with what others have said.. that you have a growth spurt combined with just bad "life" timing and teething. I too would restrain myself from inter-actig with your daughter too much at night. if you feel like she really must eat, then give her milk.. in the dark. try timing your pain reliever doses so that her warm milk contains te next dose?
be careful though... your daughter is old enough to be aware that she might like having mid-night snack time with mom more often. this can lead to bad habits that will be harder to break later.
addiitonally, for my daughter, motrin always worked better on teething pain than tylenol... also put some of the water filled teethign rings in hte fridge. they are nice to hew on when they are cold.
regardless, i'm betting that in a week or so this will get better.
My ex left when my son was 1. I know he felt a huge change going on but wasn't certain what it was(he was a lot more clingy the first few weeks) but they are very aware of change. Keep her on a strict schedule as that gives them added security and if you are okay she will be too. Solid structure and routine makes them feel safe.
I don't think it has more to do with her teething probably then anything. Try teething tablets and motrin (tylenol does little for the pain of teething).
Have your husband call during the week at night and put him on speaker phone so she can hear his voice, even get a webcam ( you can get them very inexpensively) so she can see him. That will help with the transition of him being gone.
Don't give her food or milk during the night as that will set her up with a pattern of waking continually. Try just rubbing her back, give her some motrin or teething tablets and get her settled back in. Even try white noise machines. Teething can cause sleep disruptions big time. Growth spurts too with the hunger thing but you don't want to create bad habits and give food at night at her age.
Even the best sleepers will go through periods of disrupted sleep and wake up a few times.. Just keep her schedule structured, don't give her food or milk during the night, if she is eating a snack close to bedtime, brush her teeth and put her to bed, that should hold her until morning.
Hugs, they sense a change has happened but she isn't sure what it is. I am sure she misses her daddy, just letting her hear his voice or seeing him on the computer may help.
I know my son would say "dadda" and look for him, which broke my heart but he soon adjusted to the life change when I came up with a very structured routine for him.
Good luck
She might also be going through a growth spurt while dealing with the new schedule. It's so hard to tell when they are that little. Good luck, sorry I couldn't be more help.. (As I type I have a screaming 1 yr old and I can't figure out why lately she is acting the same way as yours..)
Sounds like you're doing lots of wonderful things for your daughter. It also sounds like a combination of teething, a possible growth spurt, and getting used to a new schedule.
As for getting used to a new schedule: My husband travels for long periods of time with work (3 weeks+), but when he's not working, he spends lots of time with our children. The first 2 weeks when he leaves are particularly hard for them (and for me). By the third week we all start to feel more settled with our routine. I find my children need extra one on one time with me, more cuddles, and I need to find a way to get some good alone time too to give me the energy I need to be a patient "single" parent. Doesn't it usually take something like 2 or 3 weeks to establish/break a habit? This rule seems to apply to settling into new routines.
I do agree that maybe your little one is teething and/ or going through a growth spurt. However, as someone who had to be apart from her husband for two months (leaving me alone with my little girl) I do believe that some of this is definately due to your husband's absense. If you have access to the internet at home and if your husband does too then you could use Skpe to talk with him "face to face".
I know that this request was about your little one but I did ask my husband if there was anything that could make the process better for him and he gave me a couple of suggestions. Make sure that you don't make him worse for being gone. I.E. don't send tons of pictures of all the things he is missing. We have a family blog and I would update it periodically and he could look at it when he wanted to. He also liked to talk on the phone to her to let her hear his voice.
Best of luck with all of this. It definately sucks to be apart from your husband especially when you have a young baby at home. Hang in there and try to find as much support as you can.
M.
