expatmama11 Yes, it's a struggle to keep her awake while nursing, but as soon as she comes off the boob she starts whining, crying, reaching for more, etc. she's not hungry, as I've typically fed her within the hour. I know it's just a comfort thing.
I'm glad to hear someone else had a rough first night as well! Well, not glad...but you get what I mean
I currently work from home, so I sleep until 30 min before I work, but in a week I'm going back into the office and I have a 30 min drive to work, so I'll be up much earlier and I can't deal with at least 2 wake ups a night.
I know it's just by habit because she wants to eat and then goes down fine. Last night she woke up after only 3 hours of sleeping. It took an hour of checking on her every 10 min for her to finally fall back asleep and then she slept another 4 hours.
Right now I think I'm going to work on just weaning down to 1 wake up/feeding.
Question though for everyone: for babies who drink breastmilk, how much do you think they get during the day? I'm worried maybe she needs more during the day to be able to cut out the nighttime feeds. She gets probably around 20 oz a day during the daytime hours (wake up to bedtime).
We're back on track after the ear infection. It's not as easy as before, but I'm hoping after a couple more days we will get back ton falling asleep on her own. Anyone have trouble with LO waking after one sleep cycle when they first go down at night? Seems like every night I have to go back in about 40 minutes later and shush her back to sleep.
We always had that problem before we started sleep training. Once SL started I think it only took him a day or two to stop those early wake ups. He still does that for naps though, difficult to get him over a 30 minute nap.
When she wakes up do you give her some time to self soothe before going in?
Last night we gave her a little time to self settle and she did! I actually got to sit and have a conversation with my husband! But then she made up for it later when she woke at 3 and had a hard time staying asleep until 6. She was in and out a lot.
Ok. I'm climbing on the sleep training train. It's taken 2+ hours to get LO to bed for weeks. I'm trying to decide how to go about doing this. I do not think I can stay in the room. Pacifiers calm her down, but she is refusing them right now. Impromptu tonight I'm home alone and after 2 hours of trying to get her down I'm checking on her every 10 minutes, I go in, pick her up and settle her down and then put her back in her crib and leave. Should I not be picking her up?
@littleliverpill, she still sleeps on her back, not consistently rolling back to front, she does find back patting/rubbing soothing (it's generally what I do when I pick her up), but unless I can get a binkie in her mouth I can't figure a good way to calm her down without picking her up
gdaisy09 , for Isabel I just patted her tummy or her chest or just held my hand there and shushed or spoke to her softly. Granted, she still cried, but probably for less time and I felt better. I'm vaguely following the Sleep Lady's Shuffle, which is basically a fading method. You just gradually get farther and farther away as you comfort. So far it is going well, especially for falling asleep at bedtime and naptime. Now staying asleep is still a bit tricky. She still has a couple wakeups and sometimes has a hard time settling back down in the early morning. I can give you more info if you'd like. Good luck!
ETA: The longest she cried was the first night and the real crying, not just complaining whimpers, only lasted about 10 minutes.
So the past two nights we have had absolutely no wake-ups. Tonight, she literally cried for 2 minutes before falling asleep. Fingers crossed that this keeps up! Although it took a little longer than I expected, we're definitely seeing progress.
Post by obscurereference on Jun 10, 2016 8:14:20 GMT -5
gdaisy09 I try not to pick up but if she is getting really worked up I will pick her up so she can calm down. My hard and fast rule is to make sure to put her down while awake. Otherwise I kind of wing it.
Also, sometimes I will roll her onto her side to pat her back and that usually calms her pretty quickly.
Post by chuggingwater on Jun 12, 2016 19:36:50 GMT -5
Sleep easy. Sleep easy. Sleep easy.
Can't say enough good things.
I read several different books and this one was just different. Used it for ds2, and will use it for DD if needed. I don't sleep train before 8 or 9 months though. Personl preference.
I read several different books and this one was just different. Used it for ds2, and will use it for DD if needed. I don't sleep train before 8 or 9 months though. Personl preference.
P.s. hiiii
chuggingwater, I looked at the reviews on Amazon, and I'm wondering, how is this different than CIO? I would prefer not to do CIO but am looking for something *anything* that will help my horrendous sleeper, who has been known to wake 6 times in the MOTN and/or take 90 minutes to get back to sleep.
I read several different books and this one was just different. Used it for ds2, and will use it for DD if needed. I don't sleep train before 8 or 9 months though. Personl preference.
P.s. hiiii
chuggingwater, I looked at the reviews on Amazon, and I'm wondering, how is this different than CIO? I would prefer not to do CIO but am looking for something *anything* that will help my horrendous sleeper, who has been known to wake 6 times in the MOTN and/or take 90 minutes to get back to sleep.
It has dream feeds so you know your baby's needs are all met when they do wake MOTN. Not a guessing game of well, they miiiiiiight be hungry. There is crying, don't get me wrong, but IMO third time mom experience, crying is part of learning to self soothe. If there was a different way, I'm all for it.
Fwiw, I'm not big into sleep training/learning. I did it with my oldest when he was 9 or 10 months because I thought it was the thing to do. (He just turned 9.) with #2, I did it when I was at the brink of crazyville. #2 was cosleeping, had to have a boob in his mouth, and the demon eyes popped back open whenever I laid him in his crib. So we did sleep easy with him at 8 or 9 months. He was STTN within a week or so. He is still a fantastic sleeper at 2.5.
Lots of the women on my j14 bmb did sleep easy, and I think very few (i can only think of 2 it didn't work for, and about 20 it did) didn't like it.
Post by obscurereference on Jun 16, 2016 20:44:36 GMT -5
gdaisy09 I would never have been able to do it without my H. Do you always do night solo? I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. Hope you can find a way to get better sleep soon!
gdaisy09, I totally get it. My H was instrumental in this whole process - I frequently needed someone to talk me down and remind me the reasons that we were doing this. Hugs to you and I hope it gets better soon!
And I think I'm back off the sleep training train, this is too hard when I'm home alone all week without anyone to pinch hit during all the screaming
I have so been there (MH works nights). Definitely a different component to sleep learning. I did start it over a long weekend with DS2. It is definitely something you have to push through and feel confident in. Hang in there. Nothing wrong with putting it on the back burner.
gdaisy09, I totally get it. My H was instrumental in this whole process - I frequently needed someone to talk me down and remind me the reasons that we were doing this. Hugs to you and I hope it gets better soon!
This was where fb group from DS2's bmb was a form of survival. Someone was always awake in the MOTN thread to distract me during the scream.
And I think I'm back off the sleep training train, this is too hard when I'm home alone all week without anyone to pinch hit during all the screaming
I am also in the group that could have never done it without my husband. If it would have been me going in to comfort when crying, I would have picked him up for sure.
Post by expatmama11 on Jun 17, 2016 6:24:51 GMT -5
Naps for us are back to being a struggle. 90% of the time they are only 30-40 minutes. I'm not quite sure what to even try anymore. I can't make his awake time longer bc he starts to melt down. He ends up needing to nap so soon after his previous nap bc they are so short. At some point this should change right? It really makes me want to go lay down with him bc I know he will sleep longer but I don't want to mess up our nights by doing it that way again.
physiomeg, M-F I'm solo for bedtime. H was home the end of last week and we started friday night, she went down without many problems on monday, but since then every night gets worse. between naptime and bedtime last night she spent almost 3 hours crying untill I gave in and nursed her to sleep. I feel traumatized. I think it needs to go on the back burner for a few weeks, perhaps we'll see how saturday and sunday go with H home, he seems to have the magic touch
Post by obscurereference on Jun 17, 2016 10:30:04 GMT -5
expatmama11 How many naps is he taking? I read at some point that naps and night sleep are two different animals. Maybe you could lay down with him for his first nap to ensure he gets a nice long sleep and then for the rest of his naps go back to the crib? (Or wherever it is you're wanting him to sleep.) Or the other way could work, too. Lay down with him for his second nap because he'll be getting extra tired after a short nap? Maybe try it one time and if it messes with the night sleep don't keep doing it. That's probably what I would try.
physiomeg, M-F I'm solo for bedtime. H was home the end of last week and we started friday night, she went down without many problems on monday, but since then every night gets worse. between naptime and bedtime last night she spent almost 3 hours crying untill I gave in and nursed her to sleep. I feel traumatized. I think it needs to go on the back burner for a few weeks, perhaps we'll see how saturday and sunday go with H home, he seems to have the magic touch
I'm so sorry. That sounds incredibly rough! You may have said this before, but I can't remember, what method are you following?
expatmama11 How many naps is he taking? I read at some point that naps and night sleep are two different animals. Maybe you could lay down with him for his first nap to ensure he gets a nice long sleep and then for the rest of his naps go back to the crib? (Or wherever it is you're wanting him to sleep.) Or the other way could work, too. Lay down with him for his second nap because he'll be getting extra tired after a short nap? Maybe try it one time and if it messes with the night sleep don't keep doing it. That's probably what I would try.
He is doing 3/30 minute naps. Randomly over the last few weeks he would sleep 1-2hrs for one nap and then 2 shorter ones. He has never been a good napper but when I would wear or lay with him I could get him past that first sleep cycle. He can't seem to do it well by himself. It's exhausting to let him cry bc it doesn't work for naps. I have found if he doesn't transition into the next cycle it's just not going to happen.
Maybe I will give laying with him a try. Ideally I would like him to get a 1-2hr morning nap and then some kind of nap after 2pm.
expatmama11, we are in the exact same boat with naps here. Yesterday I got a fluke 1.5 hours out of her and it actually freaked me out because it's so rare.
expatmama11, I think we're borrowing from a few places. But our night time routine is: bath if she needs it, baby massage, read a few books, nurse and put in bed, a little soothing (shushing and rubbing her belly), the check on her after 5, 5, 10, 10, and then every 15 min. When H is here we never get to the 15 mins, when I'm alone that's about the point I give up
Post by junkytrunk on Jun 17, 2016 16:55:05 GMT -5
gdaisy09 I've kind of stopped too. She goes down fine, but then wakes around 12 and then 4. I decided I was going to try to cut 1 nighttime feed, so that was going to be the 4. Well she would just cry for an hour or more and then finally go back to sleep and I had to be up at 630 anyways. Monday I'll be having to get up earlier. I tried for 5 nights and finally decided it's not working right now. 2 feeds of only 20 min each is much better than sitting there awake for over an hour.
junkytrunk, that kind of sounds like our nights too. For now, while she's still in our room, I'm going to go ahead and keep up the night feeds. I'm going to try again with night weaning when she moves to her room next month.
expatmama11 , I think we're borrowing from a few places. But our night time routine is: bath if she needs it, baby massage, read a few books, nurse and put in bed, a little soothing (shushing and rubbing her belly), the check on her after 5, 5, 10, 10, and then every 15 min. When H is here we never get to the 15 mins, when I'm alone that's about the point I give up
Have you tried staying in the room? I know some people find it harder. For me, I started right next to her bed, patting and shushing for a few nights and then I'm gradually moving farther away and only using my voice to soothe. It seems to be working, but it takes a couple weeks. We didn't have much crying except the first night and I felt okay about it because I was right there with her. It's helped bedtime go better, but she still wakes a couple of times a night. I'm supposed to go back to the spot I was in at bedtime, but that's hard because she's still in the cosleeper, so I'll try that when she moves to the nursery next month.
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