I really thought I was done with sleep issues. I really did. Stella was sleeping through the night with one feeding, and was taking 2 naps a day. I was almost smug about this, really. All those moms with babies waking up multiple times, having to drive the little monsters around to take naps? I had them beat. Let me say it was not always easy, it took a lot of patience to get to this point but we got there. I may not be able to take a shower every day, but my baby can sleep!

Nope.

So two weeks ago Stella got a horrible stomach but when caused her to have the worst diarrhea for almost a week. We stopped feeding her everything except rice cereal, yogurt, bananas and apples. She nursed a lot more than she has in months. And she woke up. A couple times a night, so I had to feed her, obviously. She was barely eating anything so It was back to on demand feedings, something I thought was long over. She had her nine month appointment a week after the plague, and she had lost a pound in a week, so of course I had to keep feeding her at night.

Finally, her poop seems to be back to normal, as is her appetite. She’s eating everything again and lots of it. Yay!! No more night feedings!!! I guess I should’ve explained this to Stella, because she’s still waking up, and not going back to sleep until she’s fed dammit! Last night she at at 12, 3 and 4:30. Which means it’s time, once again to implement sleep training. I know there are strong opinions on sleep training, and I have them too. I’m for it, all the way.

Stella was a dream baby. At six weeks she was sleeping from about 10pm to 7am without waking. At that time I was going to a breastfeeding support group and would listen to the stories of these poor women whose babies were waking every hour or two. “Oh you poor, pitiful mama” I would think, showing empathy on my face and joyous victory in my heart. Stella was better! She was superior!! She was the GREAT SLEEPING BABY!! Oh shit…

At about 4 months, my little superior angel outgrew her bassinet and had to move to the crib. At about 4 months, my GREAT SLEEPING BABY!! became my worst nightmare, and started waking up every hour or so. The longest stretch of sleep was maybe 3 hours. Maybe. This was torture for everyone, of course me especially.

After about a month of this, and no sleep and no remaining brain cells I decided to do what I said I never would and sleep train. I figured, she cries every time she’s in the carseat and still seems to love me, so let’s see. We did a plan where we went and checked on her every 5 minutes, telling her we love her and she can do it! You can sleep! 3 hours later the first night she did sleep. Then 45 minutes the next and less than 5 on the third. Hooray!

There was a mild setback around teething time where she’d wake pretty much like clockwork around 3 for over an hour but after that it’s been great. Until the sickness. So tonight, it’s back to the sleep training. I pray she won’t wake for all our sakes, but we shall see…