My Night Owl

Just when our nights were starting to get better, Laila decided to start waking up twice a night to eat. When she is done with her second bottle, she doesn't want to go back to bed. She wants to stay up, chit chat and play with her feet.

This has lead to complete and total exhaustion for me because I get up at 5 a.m. for work.

I'm not sure if it's the 4 month wakeful period, teething, hunger, or simply because she stopped sleeping in bed with us.

And last night was THE worst, ever!

It started out with Laila's bath, which she loves. She loves her ducky, the warm water with bubbles surrouding her. It's soothing and is an excellent way to prepare her for bedtime.

I dressed her, prepared her bottle. And BAM! She starts screaming, kicking, punching and nothing would calm her down. And that part was normal for Justin and I because we've experienced it a lot but when we offered her her bottle, she woudn't take it. She continued to kick and scream and throw some punches at Justin and I.

She eventually fell asleep in Daddy's arms and was put in her pack n play to sleep. Around 10 o'clock she awoke with some wimpers so I simply pat her belly and put her paci back in her mouth and she was out like a light.

I laid there, remembering she hadn't had a bottle since 3:30 p.m. and I'm sure she is starving so I decided to go and prepare a bottle for her since I figured she would be back up soon enough to eat.

Midnight came and Laila woke up, crying as loud as ever. I picked her up and offered her the bottle and she would NOT take it! She was so upset and I had NO idea why. Instead, I gave her her paci and she calmed down. I was exhausted but apparently, she wasn't. She wanted to stay awake and eat her feet.

So we stay awake. Until 2:45 a.m. Around 2:30 I offered her another bottle since she was getting upset again. This time she took it, but nothing was coming out. I could hear her sucking but not swallowing and the bottle was still filled with 4 ounces of breast milk, just like it was 1 minute ago.

Turns out, the nipple was clogged and I had no idea :[ Poor Laila. I quickly snatched another nipple and replaced the old one and everything was all better. After her bottle, she went to bed.

5 o'clock came quickly and I was completely exhausted. Heck, I'm still exhausted.

I just don't know to do, what to think. What is going on with my baby? I don't understand why she all the sudden wants to constantly wake up in the middle of night and have a par-tay? (She started this Sunday night)

I've heard people say to put rice cereal in her bedtime bottle, but I'm just not ready for that. Although, I'm starting to think she is..I'm just not..that's another thing that is reminding me that my beautiful baby is growing up everyday.

And on top of that, I worked my butt off to be able to produce barely half an ounce to producing 30 ounces, and I want her to be on breast milk as long as possible.

Any ladies have advice? I really miss those long 6 hour stretches of sleep.