Well, DUH.

So you know how I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with Abram, and why he wasn't sleeping at night? Yeah, well...mystery solved. And I feel pretty stupid.

He had his GI scan and they said they didn't see any reflux. I figured they didn't look long enough or he didn't drink enough of the barium (both of which may still be true). But the more I tried to hash it all out in my head the next few days, the more I was struck by the thought: he just seems uncomfortable.

As it turns out, hunger is uncomfortable. The kid was just hungry. THAT'S IT.

The thought crossed my mind one very early morning after no sleep: What if he's just legitimately hungry all night? Then later that day my Aunt Kathy suggested I beef up his daytime meals a bit.

So Abe ate his regular couple of purees, but then I added in little bites of whatever I was eating, plus a few more hearty meals throughout the day. Then I pumped a bottle and he sucked down a good 5 ounces before bed. He only woke up once that night. Haaaaaallelujah!

My general feeling of denseness is overshadowed by my immense relief of getting to sleep at night again. You'd think by the third kid I'd know ya have to feed 'em.

It just seemed simpler to nurse him for the most part since it was easy on-the-go and required no work in the kitchen. One less meal to prepare, right?

Oh well, I can make light of it now since I'm not on the brink of psychosis from no sleep. Come to think of it, maybe that's why it took me so long to see the problem. My brain was definitely not firing on all cylinders for awhile there.

Not that I'm making any promises that it is now or anything, but at least I have one of my great loves back in my life...my beloved sleep.

8 Months

Oh, he's cute alright. But nighttime?

Nighttime is BRUTAL. Brutal, I tell you.

Abram slept through the night early on, but then he had all his ear troubles and nights were ruined for a couple months. Then hallelujah -- he got his tubes done and I looked forward to sleeping again. 

But it was not in the cards. Maybe he's still getting used to the feeling of the tubes, we thought. Give it a couple of weeks. 

Then he learned he could scream. Really, really loudly. So instead of waking up crying throughout the night, now he SHRIEKS. I'm not exaggerating here, I promise. It's ear piercing. One night, Mitch had to move from the couch into J's bed because Abe's screams were keeping him up. The living room and my bedroom are on opposite ends of the house, mind you. 

I've considered making a little video so you could really get the sense of it, but unless you turned your volume up to the top level and held the speaker next to your ear, you wouldn't get the full effect. And I wouldn't want to cheapen the experience like that.

At his 6 month appointment (when he was nearly 8 months), he was 27.8 inches and 58th percentile, and 17.5 lbs, only the 18th percentile.

Our latest guess is reflux. I guess I'm so used to my babies having it (both J and Evie did), I missed the symptoms from Abe. He's scheduled for an upper GI scan Monday so we can figure this thing out. 

I just want to sleep somewhat normally again. Please. 

7 Months

Playing catch up a little, but here's Abe's 7 month picture. He might be teething, but I'm not sure. All I know is I couldn't sit him down without tears until I handed him the spoon to gnaw on. 

He got his tubes in a couple weeks ago. It was much easier than I imagined. No needles, no recovery to speak of. As soon as he got back to mama and got to eat, all was right with the world. 

    Still a little groggy, but feeling better!

Daddy just put his crib together last night and we'll give it a shot tonight. It's not that different than being right next to me really, we're putting it up 3-sided beside the bed like a co-sleeper like we did with Evie. I tried letting him sleep unswaddled last night and it lasted a whole hour and a half. He woke me up so often in that short time, I thought it must be almost morning. Yeah, it was 11:30 pm. So...I guess we'll keep our little baby burrito a while longer. 

        (Yeah, he uses Evie's old wraps. He's secure in his masculinity.)

      He loved the swing at the park. He laughed the entire time he was in it. 

Looking back on old posts, I see Evie got a tooth around 8.5 months, J started standing while hanging onto furniture around then, and both started eating more adult foods. Looks like we've got some big stuff coming up for Mr. Abram!