In the end, we actually had a good night. Awake at 1 and 5:30. I fed Ellen both times, wrongly assuming she was up for the day at 5:30, and she fell back asleep.
What was different last night to make it better?
- Ellen had slightly larger bottles at daycare
- Ellen screamed for 45 minutes before going to sleep.
- We gave Ellen tylenol before bed.
Tonight, I’d like to remove item 2 and see how things go. We will keep items 1 and 3 to see if the results are the same. If it works again, maybe we will remove the Tylenol and see what happens. I suspect the Tylenol played a major role in the improved sleep, but I think a controlled experiment is required to figure it out.
No matter what, one decent night of sleep does a lot to set me up to handle subsequent bad nights. I feel much more prepared to face the world after sleeping two 4 hour chunks instead of four 45-90 minute chunks!
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