Sleep, Where Art Thou?

As a continuation of my ongoing saga of Elusive Sleep, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with Cole's nighttime habits. Lately, during the day, he's been a real angel. Smiling more often every day, even cooing (when he's in his favorite place - the bath! He's truly his mother's son). He sticks to the "schedule" well all day long. I made the cycle of E.A.S.Y shorter so that his nap times aren't longer than two hours at most, and he's adjusted perfectly. But nights aren't getting better - they're getting worse. I had been counting on my 3-4 hour stretch (between 8 or 9 and midnight) and he's suddenly become a night owl, and I don't even have that! Luckily, dh stayed up with him last night so I could get my needed 3 hours, but after he brought him up at midnight, Cole was back to his usual up-every-hour routine. And I'm not kidding when I say that NOTHING works to keep him happy except constant nursing. I'm not exactly walking the halls (he's not screaming) but ignoring his grunts doesn't help because they *will* escalate to cries if I don't attend to him. Swaddling only goes so far. Last night he was swaddled tightly and in the bassinet, but after an hour he had peed through all of that, and I had to change him and wrap him in another blanket. And no matter how much circulation I cut off wrapping him tightly, the little Houdini has no problem getting his arms out of that.

I'm seriously at a loss here. I have tried everything the books and my friends have suggested, and I can not get this kid to stay asleep. I'm lucky that he naps regularly throughout the day, but ack, I spend every day worrying about how he'll sleep at night. I am not greedy. I wouldn't mind waking up every 3 hours to feed him. I don't have to sleep straight through. But every hour is ridiculous. I find myself counting down to that magical 3-month mark when I feel comfortable letting him CIO. I don't have any moral problem with CIO but I feel that 6 weeks is too young.

I feel like a broken record with my friends. Every prayer request is for Cole's sleep, and I sometimes feel discouraged, and start questioning why I pray for specific things if they just plain aren't going to happen. I'm getting stretched and am learning all about patience and reliance on God's strength and energy, and He hasn't let me down, but I do sort of feel like I'm on Mute when I pray for things to get better with his sleep.

This whole stage is short-lived, and I know that soon it will be a distant memory, probably so much so that I'll actually yearn for another baby (which isn't going to happen, barring any miracles, by the way). But right now I'm in the moment, and the "moment" isn't a whole lot of fun.

Luckily, I'm getting to know this little man more every day, and figuring out his personality and every day he becomes more fun to parent. Of course, right this very minute he's screaming his tooshie off, so I guess I'm done venting.