Jacob, Sleep, Ears, & Dairy...

...they do seem to all be related!
I've shared before how we've been struggling with Jacob's sleep. For a while now he's been getting up three-four times a night, for reasons varying from "I'm scared," "I had a bad dream," "My ear hurts," "I need my blankets back on," to just crying out in his sleep.

At first we thought it was just the house we had been staying in, since as soon as we moved into our new place, we had 2 full weeks of great sleep for everyone! Then it started in again. It was to the point that Mark and I felt like walking zombies. Keep in mind that as infants, all of our kids started sleeping through the night by the time they were two months old! So this has definitely been worse than having a newborn! And we were just going crazy trying to be proactive and preventative with him. For example, practice sessions for getting his blankets back on by himself, which we would encourage and praise him for...which in the middle of the night turned into "I need you to come watch me put my blankets back on." Sounds funny now, but at 3 a.m., it definitely is not.

Then in January he got an ear infection, so we took him to the chiropractor for an adjustment. (I know that may sound strange to some of you, but that's how we keep our kids healthy. In the combined 9+ years of our kids lives, antibiotics have been needed only once...and that time we were out of state away from our chiropractor)! I mentioned to her the sleeping trouble we were having, and she immediately said, "He's got a food allergy." Well, the connection between sleep and allergies was new to me, but just googling it proved that it wasn't new!

SO, the first potential food-culprit we're removing is dairy (his ear troubles makes it the most likely). We've been at it for almost 3 weeks now, and it's time-consuming, trying to work around a staple food group.

The good news is that we're seeing progress. Almost immediately after removing dairy from his diet, he began waking just once each night...significant difference for us (depending on who could pretend to be sleeping the soundest, one of us could sleep through the night-just kidding)! It can typically take 6 weeks to get a system cleared out from a food allergy, so we're pleased that we're seeing results already.

We were just at the chiropractor again on Friday, and his ears are clearing up. She'll take a look at the food diary I've been keeping for Jacob, to see if anything else stands out as a culprit...I'm praying that wheat is not one of his allergies. Dairy has been relatively easy to cut out (though our pancake recipe still needs some work!), but wheat would be a huge pain! And, along with his ears clearing up, HE HAS SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR THE PAST 4 NIGHTS!!!

So, that's where a bit of my time and attention have been, keeping a food diary, searching the internet for dairy-free recipes, etc. Thanks for your prayers on this whole sleeping thing, and pray that it continues!