Going on 7 weeks now

So 2 weeks ago if I can even remember correctly, the baby stopped sleeping all the time during the day. Actually I think she started being more alert the week before but not for very long at a time and when she started crying, I just always assumed she was hungry again and would nurse her and lo and behold she fell asleep. Hrm. I finally read a sleep book that coworkerS dropped off and realized that she starts crying after some time being awake because she is tired not hungry. That would explain my 4 hour attempt to calm the baby at one point by nursing constantly and ending up with a ton of spit up and vomit.

So the last 2 weeks have been brutal to an already sleep deprived me. To make things worse, I now have problems falling back asleep at night after each feeding which drives me insane. I can see why people just sleep with their babies in bed and nurse while lying down. For 1 week, her night sleep durations dropped back to 2 hours at a time and at one point 1-1.5 hours at a time and this regression almost made me cry. At one point, I asked C if we could return her. I read babycenter forums in desperation hoping this was the 6 week growth spurt but everything in the books and online hinted that these development cycles are all based on her estimated due date and not her birth date which was even more depressing. So it was either her 6 week growth spurt or her 3 week growth spurt. Ugh. Here is to hoping it was her 6 week one.

So what does one do when you are going crazy with fatigue. You shop on amazon for products that promise more sleep. I ended up ordering the rock n play sleeper . For some reason, I attributed logic to the baby which I know isn't rational but I had this theory that sometimes she would wake up not due to hunger at night but because something else startled her (like a big fart during her light sleep cycle) and she couldn't soothe herself back to sleep. This night sleep is like a big science experiment but I change too many variables at a time and I know there is no rhyme or reason to it. But at least I can pretend I can control it somehow. It's crazy how I've analyzed her sleep patterns based on all the variables of the day.

Things I have speculated:

The bassinet needs warmer sheets so she doesn't wakeup when we move her from our arms and put her down.

She's too cold - now she is swaddled in a fleece swaddle and I run the heater all the time in our room.

Her diaper bothers her - now she sleeps in disposables at night (the compostable one is not as wicking)

She is gassy so her farts wake her up - I stopped eating dairy

I need to fill her up with more food during the day - I stuffed her this morning which resulted in her spitting up all over me

I need to stuff her with food right before she goes to sleep at night - I nurse her repeatedly tho I can't really tell if she is that hungry.

So every night I approach sleeptime with dread and also hope - not knowing what I will get that night. But after a week of shorter and shorter sleep (Thu night I got up 5 times! - it almost killed me), I was rewarded friday night with a 4.5 hour sleep stretch from 10pm to 2:30am, then the next wakeup after 2.5 hours of sleep and then a 2 hour stretch. So I only got up twice! Unfortunately I was so excited after that first stretch, I couldn't fall back asleep after for the second stretch. F me. This is what happens when you have an obsessive personality.

But too many variables changed for friday night. She woke up 50 minutes after we put her down for the night so I nursed her then. I also had her sleeping in the new rock n play sleeper. Or it could be nothing at all related because that's how babies are (that's probably the best theory).