Sleep Issues

Cale was sleeping so well (most of the time, and in comparison to the past two months and especially the past week) from birth until six months of age that the decline to worse and worse sleeping patterns has been distressing. So, back to the research! First, how much sleep does he need? Of course there's a wide range for individual variation, but at 9 months, the healthy average is 11 hours at night, and 3 hours in two daytime naps. Wow. Nowhere close. We slid from 2 hours on his own down to 10 minutes, and sleeping together wasn't restful for either of us. A 1991 reference and a newer 2007 reference both say falling asleep with a parent is linked to night waking. Falling asleep with a parent is the main behavior (to change) mentioned in a review of the first article. Since Cale's been falling sound asleep while nursing, I figured that was the problem. He used to get so drowsy while nursing, and I would put him in his crib awake-but-not-for-long. Argh! [Here I'm thinking it's my fault for allowing him to slip into poor sleep hygiene.]

Then I looked back at my own post on sleeping at 9 months, and discovered that night sleeping peaks at six months, and drops at nine months (and doesn't get much better by one year). So I was discouraged, not sure there was any cure other than time! [Now I'm thinking it can't even be fixed.]

Two nights ago, Cale woke up when I put him in his crib, and he wouldn't let me set him down. I'd spent so much time trying to get him down that I told him he was just going to have to hang out with me doing Mommy things until I was ready to go to bed with him. He fell asleep on my shoulder within half an hour while I was on my computer. I put him in his crib, and he slept there for almost 5 hours!!! I slept on my own for most of that time, and it was fabulous! I was perfectly happy to let him nurse and cuddle until morning after that treat. Last night I wanted to send out one email before his bedtime routine, and once again Cale fell asleep on my shoulder. He slept 7 hours in his crib last night! On top of that, when I was ready to go to bed last night, I heard Cale shaking the rails of his crib, but not calling out for me. He does know how to put himself back to sleep! It was music to my ears to hear him awake but not needing me.

My first theory was that the improvement was putting him to sleep with boredom, instead of nursing him to sleep. You know what they say about nursing babies to sleep: Baby falls asleep in his favorite place (Mommy's lap) doing his favorite activity (nursing); when Baby wakes up, he's alone in the dark so no wonder he cries! With a normal healthy baby, I'd try bedtime variations that require less parental intervention, like going from nursing to sleep to falling asleep from boredom. I think it's a reasonable step toward independent falling asleep. But I don't think (anymore) that that applies to Cale yet.

But then something clicked for me! Now that I've had some sleep, I can sometimes think again! (It's so nice; you should try it! Sleep is good stuff.) When is breast feeding ever wrong? Clearly though, Cale sleeps better when he doesn't breast feed before bed. We all know breast milk is the best food in the world for babies, by a huge margin. Since breast milk speeds through his system faster, maybe he gets hungry sooner? No, I've actually tested not letting him nurse when I pick him up to start a tiresome full-contact baby-cuddling night, and he's fine either way. He'll nurse if I offer, but if I don't offer then he's fine waiting until 5 or 6 in the morning when he actually is hungry. So it's not hunger. In retrospect, I can't believe I didn't see this sooner, but there's only one reason why my breast milk causes any problem for Cale. His allergies. His allergy to milk is major, as evidenced by his pooping response. (His barley allergy showed up as a primary reaction, meaning he ate baby food with barley and was out-of-sorts afterwards; it hasn't been tested through me.) His allergy to soy and eggs is minor, and was only detected by Cale sleeping poorly when I had two Boca burgers for dinner and when I had an omelette for dinner. Thunderclap! Minor food allergies to what I eat show up as a sleeping problem! Cale's absolutely terrible sleeping patterns lately have nothing to do with sleep declines at nine months, nothing to do with falling asleep with a parent, and everything to do with his allergies. Good sleep hygiene is good, but Cale's problem is allergies.

I need to try a complete elimination diet. Or, conversely, only eat food stuffs that are in his baby food. There's something here, and if I can get some sleep, I might be able to figure it out!