The last full night of 2009 was a very weird one for us. It was good. It was bad. And it was ugly.
The Good
The Pookie slept over seven hours in a row! I put him down just after 7:00 in his crib in the nursery. He made some coughing noises around 9:00 when I was going to sleep, but that was all. He didn't actually wake up and fuss until 2:20 - 2:30 (on and off fussing before I actually went in). We were absolutely amazing by this, since he hasn't slept longer than 3 hours on his own before, and usually he's up every 2 hours or less.
Although it seems incredible, don't celebrate for me yet. Keep reading...
The Bad
Around 12:30, the Pumpkin came into our room. This was a bit frustrating, because she had been pretty much sleeping through the night for the previous week. She had been waking up early, like 5:00ish, but then lying in bed quietly with us. I had hoped we were done for a while with the middle-of-the-night wakeups, but apparently not quite yet.
The good part about it was that she went almost immediately back to sleep, so there was minimal disruption to our night.
However, it was really uncomfortably hot in the house. I got up to turn down the thermostat and check on the baby, who had been sleeping over 5 hours at this point. I went in, put my hand on him and felt him and saw him breathing, so I went back to bed.
Not so bad, I know. Keep reading...
The Ugly
When the Pookie finally woke up, I went in to feed him and planned to put him back down in his crib. When I lifted him out of the crib, he felt all wet behind his neck and back. My first thought was that sure was sweating a lot, even though I had turned the air down two hours ago.
Then the smell hit me. I quickly realized it was vomit. I picked him up carefully, turned on the light and surveyed the major puddle of drying vomit my child had been sleeping in.
Very gross.
He seemed totally fine otherwise, though it's odd to me that he slept through the vomiting and laid in his own vomit without really waking or fussing about. Especially since he seems to wake up and fuss about EVERYTHING ELSE!
He was fine through my nursing him, my cleaning him up with a quick sink bath, my putting him in a clean sleeper, my changing the sheets while he was entertained by a music-playing toy and my nursing him back to sleep. I ended up putting him back to sleep in his swing because of the time of night and to keep him more upright. It took an hour and a half, but I was pretty well rested and able to deal with it all fine.
Edited to add:We don't know why he threw up. He didn't have a temperature and doesn't seem sick. But it was really hot in the house, and the nursery is the hottest room in the house. Was it the heat? Was it the banana he had at dinner? Was it the soy I now have in my diet to replace the cow's milk? Did the pacifier gag him in some way? Is it some sort of stomach bug? We have no clue, and our doctor's office said that they aren't worried unless he throws up again or shows other signs of sickness.
And on a bad mother note: I'm not sure which is worse: waking up every 2 hours or less, or cleaning up vomit in the middle of the night after sleeping 5 hours with very little disruption! Actually, I do know what's better for me, but it's not better for the baby to sleep in vomit for hours. ;-)
Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve and that your 2010 is filled with a lot of Good, very little Bad and no Ugly!
5 comments:
Oh boy. A couple hopefully reassuring comments:
1. Our Pumpkin always threw up easily. Sometimes we were unable to figure out why. We have family friends whose youngest son (now a senior in high school) was the same way. It sucks, but you won't be alone if Pookie turns out to be a "puker". She's gotten better- her recent throwing up episode was the first in about a year.
2. I'll bet your Pumpkin just had a bad dream. Our Pumpkin has started doing that. She wakes up in the middle of the night every once and awhile, and needs company to go back to sleep. We're finally able to get her to explain things to us the next morning, and it seems she is having bad dreams.
I hope you get some good sleep tonight!
Happy New Year. I hope tonight is a better night. Don't feel bad about the puke. Baby bear once slept through the night for almost 8 hours and when he woke up only then did the smell of poo hit me.
He has a terrible rash afterwards. I felt only slightly guilty because I so needed that sleep.
Noah often vomited and then fell back to sleep in his own baff!! In our case there was always an explanation for it ( fever, stomach virus etc)
Last night (NewYearsEve)was a catastrophe as far as sleep went. The kids were obviously trying to commit carbocide as they binged on pasta, bread and pandoro and still had the gall to tell us they were hungry!! Anyway, both went to bed late and couldn't settle for at least half an hour. An hour later, Noah was still awake and after Lu and I went downstairs he started to cry and complain of a tummyache ( unsurprisingly with all the food he'd eaten). He stayed up watching repeats of Sex and the City with us ( I know, but the final episode with little sex)and after scarring him for life with a scene involving Samantha(!!!) we finally convinced him to go back to bed.
To cut a long story short, Zoe woke up 3 times after midnight, and Noah (stil complaining of a tummy ache)once. Uhhh! And I'd thought Zoe's sleep problems were over.
If this is the only vomit, I wouldn't worry. I have a brother who, as long as he's lived he has been pukey and fainty when he gets too warm. The funny thing is he spends all his time in a kitchen (he's a chef/restaurant owner). Sasha pukes sometimes from post nasal drip, and he always got it bad when teething (and pookie seems the right age). Pookie could fall into one of those categories.
And I think the quicky wakeups are normal at this age. Sasha sometimes needs to potty, but sometimes it seems he's just checking everyones still there.
Don't stress it - you didn't know he was sick. It isn't like you purposely let him lay there. You cleaned it up as soon as you were aware, he's fine, and you got sleep. I call it a parental win. Hopefully he sleeps more like that without the vomit!
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