Hi folks ? just hoping I can get some thoughts and advice from someone who may have experienced something similar. Although I?ve lurked a huge amount whilst pregnant and since our daughter was born I post very rarely, I?ve probably given far too much information but please be gentle!
The cast
DD is now 8 weeks old and exclusively breastfed. She had a moderate tongue tie, which was snipped last week. Between the last growth spurt and her tongue tie being snipped (~10 days) she had almost gone backwards, feeding every two hours during the day and very sleepy, to the extent it was difficult to find any time when she was awake and happy enough to have a bath. The only ?positive? side was that she slept solid (and quietly ? see below!) from 10-11pm until 6-7am. With hindsight this wasn?t a good thing as it was probably due to being undernourished as since the tongue tie was snipped she has been transformed ? feeding more efficiently and for longer during the day, going longer between feeds, having significant amounts of time awake and alert during the day and generally back to her normal pre-growth spurt sunny self.
Me & DH: I have always been a poor sleeper, struggling to get to sleep at the start of the night and sleeping very lightly and woken easily at the end of the night. We are both routine type of people but also fairly chilled out. We don?t really have a ?parenting philosophy? as such, apart from that there are three people in this family, all of whom are equal and have needs that need meeting and this requires balance and compromise.
The problem
DD is a very windy baby, which is the one thing that hasn?t changed so far post tongue tie removal. Provided she is winded thoroughly it doesn?t seem to concern her and she will go to sleep without a problem, it is just stopping me from sleeping at night as she grunts and thrashes a lot during her sleep as she deals with any residual wind and also as she comes into a lighter phase of sleep before waking up. When she is put down after a night feed (usually half asleep but not fully conked out), she does then settle down and sleep quietly after a while, however, I really struggle to get back to sleep. Last night she fed at 11.30, was down in her cot nosily asleep at 12.30 and woke for a feed at 5 am, down and noisly asleep at 5.30 and still asleep now (quietly) at nearly 9 am ? I unfortunately only managed an hours sleep before the 11.30 feed and 3 hours sleep before the 5 am feed.
The solution?
Now the tongue tie is fixed, we would like to start getting her into a gentle routine. We also need to find ways to help me sleep better. Although she is only 8 weeks old we are seriously considering moving her into her own room (only across the landing!) as by this morning both me and my husband had retreated to the spare room leaving her with the master ensuite all to herself! The upsides are that she should be far from my ears to dampen the grunting and thrashing noises to allow me to sleep but I will should easily hear her if she starts to wake properly. On the downside, we are fully aware of the SIDs advice wrt to babies being in your room, but are happy with our assessment of the relative risks involved and consider the risks associated with me not getting enough sleep to function to be of greater consideration. I also won?t be able to feed her in bed, but given that she doesn?t like feeding lying down due to the wind I don?t think it will make that much difference anyway.
Does anyone have any advice on the wind, suggestions that may be helpful, things we haven?t considered etc? Or should I stop over-analyzing and just go for it?! I should say we are using infacol religiously and gripe water whenever she will let us give it to her!