For the past 5 days and nights I have not slept. Baby T has been waking every hour from about 1am – 7am. He cries until I go in, I stick his pacifier back in his mouth and he goes back to sleep until the next hour.
For the past 5 days my husband and I have believed that it is the curse of the pacifier, teething, or perhaps he’s getting sick.
We tried Tempra. We tried Tylenol. We tried Advil. Nothing was helping my son feel better and he was just getting fussier and fussier. And then it happened during the afternoons too.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I was worried sick that something was wrong with my baby. There were no teeth showing so I couldn’t blame the teething. There were no cold/flu symptoms so I couldn’t blame an illness. It couldn’t all be about the pacifier because for almost 5 months, he’s never woken up for it that many times.
Yesterday morning, when he started getting fussy only at 9am, I decided I would not take any chances any longer, I’m going to the doctor. SOMETHING is going on. I could not take another night of no sleep without knowing if there was something wrong with my baby.
I’ll be the first to admit I can be paranoid, even may possess some hypochondria. But when you have a baby who really only cries when he’s tired to crying 5 nights straight, you know something isn’t right!
I explained everything (probably in more detail than necessary) to my pediatrician. He did a complete examination…checked his throat, checked his ears, checked his breathing, checked his stomach, checked his legs… He even checked his fingers and toes to make sure that, get this, a strand of hair wasn’t wrapped around one cutting off circulation! True story of another mom’s baby! He checked everything, and NOTHING.
So, what does he say to me?
Doc: “Deb, have you started solids yet?”
Me: “Um, no, not yet, why?”
Doc: “Deb, he’s hungry”
Me: “He’s hungry? Thats why he’s waking up all night long and is fussy? Noooo…”
Doc: “Deb, start tonight and give more formula because your breastmilk isn’t giving enough and see what happens”
Me: BLANK STARE
Was this it? Was this the answer? Could it be the reason T has been so fussy and not sleeping well?
Well, yesterday I put it to the test. I breastfed only once in the morning and gave formula the rest of the day. I gave T 1 tablespoon of rice cereal for dinner. One more bottle before bed and the test had begun.
What happened you ask? T woke up ONCE last night!!! ONCE!!
I’m in shock and honestly, feel so naive!!! I’ve been depriving my boy of food!!! Changing that schedule just slightly with more food and formula made all the difference and I can see the change in T’s behaviour today already.
I think if my baby could talk he would have told me, “Mommy, feed me!!!”. Now I think he’d say, “BURP. AHHHH. Thanks Mommy”.
