Thursday, January 21, 2010
OK so I tried.....and failed!!! Thank you so much for all the advice...I tried everything.. the whole bedtime routine, I put him down and he went to sleep woke up a couple hours later and I was going to let him cry it out. I went in every 10-15 minutes and calmed him down for a minute and he would almost go to sleep and then BAM he would start crying again.... This went on for over an hour and a half. Then I was too tired and couldn't handle it anymore so I went and got him and fed him and he went back to sleep and then woke up again like 15 minutes later. And the rest of the night... no bueno. What should I have done?? Kept letting him cry??
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5 comments:
Hang in there! It's so frustrating when they're sleeping good and then stop! Has he been sick or getting teeth? Gavin would always start waking up at night if he was getting teeth or not feeling good. I'm not sure if you can expect them to sleep as good during those times anyways. Teeth, ear infections, reflux always seems to flare up at night. I started Gavin on cereal at 4-51/2 months and I didn't notice it made any difference in his sleeping. We actually stopped and started again later because he didn't have the right tongue movement (up and down) to keep the cereal in his mouth.
Some things that helped Gavin with sleeping even though he hated it was swaddling, bed time routine, and putting his binky back in at night vs. feeding him to go back to sleep. I have a book that I'd be happy to mail you called Healthy Sleep habits, happy child. The main idea I liked from the book was about sleep rhythms and how timing is so important with sleep. It talks about how there is a window of time when the baby shows early signs of drowsiness and if you catch them in this state the baby will want to go to sleep easily. I found this to be really helpful. Some of the early signs were less movement in their body and eye contact, eye rubbing, less activity in general among others. They also recommend you control environment like make sure the room is dark, not giving baby as much attention around nap time, keeping things quiet like no tv, not as much talking to the baby so they understand that there is difference between awake time and sleep time. I had a hard time letting Gavin cry it out too and figured he was a good sleeper most of the time so I didn't ever really let him cry it out unless it was for a few minutes. Sometimes they just go back to sleep on their own if you do let them fuss for a minute. Well, good luck and try and take a nap when he does so you can survive!
bummer. does he take his binky good? if so i would give him his binky instead of feeding him, like jacqueline said... if you haven't already tried that.
i'm sorry you're so frustrated i used to have plenty of those nights. it would be so mush easier if they could just talk to us and tell us what was wrong!
for about a week taytum started waking up every hour at night and it ended up being she was hot. so i just kept her in her swaddle with no other blankets and she slept better. i always thought she was freezing. poor girl i was cooking her! i have to swaddle her still because she wakes herself up with her hands-could that be it?
another thing, taytum spits up a lot, so i prop her in between blankets on her side with her upper body a little bit elevated and she sleeps good. i think she has a little bit of reflux so when she's on her back it bugs her.
this is what TOTALLY changed my world! and i'm not exaggerating!
the book i was telling you about is all about wake time and sleep time and distinguishing between the two. the whole book is based on sleep cycle. baby wakes up, gets changed, eats, plays, then goes down to sleep. so wake, eat, play, sleep. i had it wrong because i used to nurse her to sleep so then when she was awake and i was trying to stay on a feeding schedule it wasn't quite time to feed her again and she was just grumpy. as soon as i switched the order she was sleeping good. and then when she was awake she was full and rested so her awake time was much more pleasant. it all happens in a cycle. so if you're feeding him every 3 hours then the schedule goes like this. baby wakes up at 8am you change him, he eats, and plays and goes down for a nap and by 11 am he's awake and fed again. then it starts over so by 2 pm baby is awake and fed again.
according to that book if you start that schedule the baby will start distinguishing the difference between awake and sleep time and they just sleep through the night.
you should google the crying it out method. they have lots of helpful stuff about it. i google everything!! so i you need me to google something for you, i sure can! most babies get the hang of it after a couple of days but it's not for every baby i don't think. once you start you have to stick with it for every nap and bedtime or you have to start all over with it.
i'm serious you can call me and we can figure this out :)!! good luck dear!
haha didn't realize how long that was until it posted! maybe i should have just e-mailed you!
at first she cried for ten minutes and i'd go give her her binky. i had a hard time letting her cry longer than that. sometimes i'd have to go in 5 or more times and calm her down. even now if i let her get to tired she might cry for a minute or two and go to sleep or i'll go give her the bink. normally she goes down for naps without a fuss but generally by nighttime even with her naps she fights going to sleep a little bit. and cuz she's pretty stubborn and she doesn't like to do what she doesn't want to do.
her naps are normally 1 1/2- 2 hrs long. sometimes shorter or longer. the longest it's been is 3 hrs. it's hard to stick to such a strict schedule. if i'm somewhere i can go lay her in a separate room or something i will, but you still have to have a life. i agree we should get together and talk about how hard this mommy thing can be at times!:)
Hey! It was good to see you the other night. Kayson is so so cute! We will have to plan something when you guys are free. We never do anything either.
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