Thursday, September 27, 2012

Three Cups of Coffee.

Watching the mtn bikers. Burke, VT. Labor Day 2012.  

I don't want to give the impression that Alice and I have it all together.  We certainly do not.  Each day seems to have a different set of challenges, some of which we conquer, some of which we don't.  Alice refusing to nap.  An overly tired Mommy.  Loads of laundry.  A messy kitchen.  Some days we do pretty well and we accomplish a lot.  Other days, I brush my teeth for the first time well after lunch.

My coffee consumption has gone up a bit as of late.  That one cup just hasn't been doing the trick the last week or so.  And I know why.  Since moving Alice to her own room, I am back to waking up one, two, sometimes three times in a night to stick her pacifier back in, or to feed her, or to rock her back to sleep.  When she slept in her crib in our room, I brought her to bed with us when she woke up anytime after around 2:30AM.  She would nurse.  We would both sleep.  And I woke up feeling somewhat refreshed.  Until about a month ago when co-sleeping stopped working for us and we were all waking up exhausted.

Now that I am back to getting up to feed Alice, I feel like I'm back to those early sleep-deprived zombie days.

Okay.  It isn't that bad.  But I am waking up significantly less refreshed.  I feel foggy-headed when 6:30AM rolls around and Alice is ready to start her day.  So I drink more coffee.  My one cup is now up to two cups.  Actually three.  But it takes me most of the morning and into the afternoon to finish all that coffee.  Those cups end up in the microwave for a quick reheat more than I'd like to admit.

We are working on getting Alice to drop that night feed (any suggestions?!) and and she is slowly getting better.  As I type this I am in disbelief as she did not do her usual 3AM wake up this morning and slept straight through till just after 5AM.  I'm not getting my hopes up, though, as things with this kid can change in a hot second.  So, in the meantime, I'll continue with my three-cups-a-day habit and I'll make a point to grab a nap when I can.  

How many cups of coffee do you drink a day?  I've always been a one to two cup person.  Three is definitely new for me.  But that doesn't compare to what I used to drink when I worked night shifts in the ICU.  I drank one, sometimes TWO cans of Monster energy drink a night back then.  So terrible.  It's a wonder I am still alive today!         

7 comments:

  1. I huh I drank coffee but for some reason I never gone into it... so I just suffer through exhausted :) we coslept until W was three months when it became clear that we had the lightest sleeper on the planet and he needed his own space. To this day when we have to share a room at a hotel or something it's a disaster. Once he was in his own room he would wake up once and we'd bring him to our bed at around 5am when he woke again. Finally at around 8 months we did our own version of sleep training. I was hesitant but exhausted and luckily three tough days and we've had a 12 hours a night sleeper ever since. Doesn't work for everyone but it worked for us!

    Good luck, the sleep part does get better :)

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  2. Just one. I worry more will make Nolan too hyper through my breastmilk.

    Sorry about the increased wake ups. I am no help!

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  3. Um that first sentence is supposed to say * I wish I drank coffee but I never got into it... Bad iPhone! ;)

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  4. so, you're a noreplycomment blogger which means i can't email you back when you comment to tell you that NO WAY there is no baby smuppy in me ;)

    just the birth control pills messing with my hormones.

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  5. Ooooh, if I could drink coffee all day long I would! I think I over did it in the years I worked in coffee shops because now I'm super sensitive to it and it kicks off some anxious feelings in my chest that are no fun.

    With Gus we just started letting him fuss a few minutes to see what happened. Eventually he started working it out on his own/not waking up at all. I think his body just got into the routine of waking up fully, or at least waking up enough to nurse, and it just kept at it even when he didn't need to wake up to eat. BUT every baby is different so good luck!!

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  6. I drink so much coffee. At least three cups a day. I got a much better sleep when I bought Lulu into bed with us. Since she's been in her own room she wakes up all the time & we have to re-settle her at least once between midnight & 6am. My friend just took her baby to sleep school to get her sleep patterns worked out and Lulu's pattern is what the sleep school got her baby to do, so there is no magic trick. Except coffee for the mum, on demand.

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  7. Wow, things have changed since your were a baby. Maybe these are old wives tales, but I was told that if you drank caffeine, or really spicy foods, it "flavored your breast milk" and would cause the baby to have an upset stomach

    Caffeine keeps you awake, it will keep your baby awake. Spicy food may burn your mouth and make you have an upset stomach, it will do the same for baby.

    Just "old wives tales"? I tried almost anything to get you to stay asleep when I was nursing you. So, I stopped drinking diet cokes, spicy foods, etc for a couple of months. That's when you started sleeping through the night.

    Could be a coincidence or maybe it was "the old wives tales" really did work. Good luck and I love you!

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