Further Assaults on Sleep

For the last few days I have been getting less sleep than usual. Wren has started waking around 2.30am again and although I am not getting up to help him back to sleep then, I do go in at 4.45am for his morning "muk". On a good day he goes back to sleep for an hour or more but recently he says "more muk, mama" when I try and put him back to sleep.

Then there is Frost. Over the past month his reading has become more fluent and he has started reading books that interest him. On Sunday Josh picked Animorphs #1 from the library and he has been reading it when he runs out of playdates and screen time. This includes until 10pm at night and from 6am in the morning! Argh. I am very pleased that he is enjoying reading but do I have to limit reading times too?

Wren's sleep is a bit more difficult to handle. He has gone through periods of sleeping very well but now that I know about his high blood pressure and how hard his heart is working I don't feel good about leaving him to cry in a wakeful state. At two he is quite sleepy so he is not as worked up as he gets at 4.45am but 4.45am??? That's dark still, again. I am not so cheery in the 4s.

I have considered that he will sleep better when I stop nursing but right now, I feel it is still good for him and he is a complete nursing addict. He wants to nurse if he is hurt [falls over, bangs toe], or scared [BIG airplane / jay! jay! / nut! nut! / dog!] or feels like some attention [make tain tak NOW!] or is hungry, or thirsty or wants me to sit down. I have tried to cut him off a bit or distract him for many of these needs and he is very sweet at bed and naptime. He rushes to the bed in his room and lies down shouting "night night, muk!" often adding "NOW" if I am slow to arrive.

He doesn't nurse passively either - its very athletic. He pokes his feet between my legs and then pulls them out, pokes them through again and pulls them out. He grabs fistfuls of my shirt and twists it. He pokes my chin, grins, rolls as far as he can while still nursing and then, if I cut him off, grabs hold again and looks up with a mischievous smile and a "more? muk?" hope. With this level of activity it is taking longer to put him to bed, even at 8pm, and I usually have to put him in bed and sing to him to calm his inevitable protest when I finally tire of the performance.

I shall have to add "consult lactation consultant at hospital" to my long list of things to do. I want to make sure Wren still has a chance for "muk" after surgery, even if he can't eat for a few days.