Rumor has it that all of our babies have the same New Year's resolution: sleep. I hope these little creatures start to turn a corner soon. But if not, let's commiserate together!
Rumor has it that all of our babies have the same New Year's resolution: sleep. I hope these little creatures start to turn a corner soon. But if not, let's commiserate together!
Thanks for starting this! I totally forgot it was Sunday. I wish I could say B has been sleeping better, but the opposite has been happening. I think I'm slowly rotting From the inside out. It's killing me.
I put him down awake tonight at 7:30 and he went right to sleep. He woke up at midnight, ate for 10 minutes and passes out on the boob. He woke up and H is trying to soothe him. I feel like he depends on nursing too much to fall asleep. But if he over eats....his reflux flares up. It's a terrible cycle and I'm not sure what to do.
Rumor has it that all of our babies have the same New Year's resolution: sleep. I hope these little creatures start to turn a corner soon. But if not, let's commiserate together!
Thanks for starting this! I totally forgot it was Sunday. I wish I could say B has been sleeping better, but the opposite has been happening. I think I'm slowly rotting From the inside out. It's killing me.
I put him down awake tonight at 7:30 and he went right to sleep. He woke up at midnight, ate for 10 minutes and passes out on the boob. He woke up and H is trying to soothe him. I feel like he depends on nursing too much to fall asleep. But if he over eats....his reflux flares up. It's a terrible cycle and I'm not sure what to do.
This was our issue as well, which is why we decided to start sleep training. It took 2 nights to break the nursing to sleep association. Those 2 nights were pretty miserable, but I'm so glad we did it. Nights are so much better now. I can't remember what you said about sleep training, are you planning to sleep train but waiting a little longer?
Thanks for starting this! I totally forgot it was Sunday. I wish I could say B has been sleeping better, but the opposite has been happening. I think I'm slowly rotting From the inside out. It's killing me.
I put him down awake tonight at 7:30 and he went right to sleep. He woke up at midnight, ate for 10 minutes and passes out on the boob. He woke up and H is trying to soothe him. I feel like he depends on nursing too much to fall asleep. But if he over eats....his reflux flares up. It's a terrible cycle and I'm not sure what to do.
This was our issue as well, which is why we decided to start sleep training. It took 2 nights to break the nursing to sleep association. Those 2 nights were pretty miserable, but I'm so glad we did it. Nights are so much better now. I can't remember what you said about sleep training, are you planning to sleep train but waiting a little longer?
I am on team Sleep Train. I wasn't comfortable with it just yet, but I'm getting desperate. Originally I wanted to wait until he was 6 months old, but that's at the end of January.
Right now there are a few things keeping me from starting tonight. He has a nasty cold. Boogers are pouring out of his face all night. The other is B moves around....a lot. He rolls over both ways, scoots into the top of his crib, gets his arms stuck. I wanted to see if this got better with time. It seems to have gotten a little better, but not great.
The first half of his night is always the best. He sleeps 4 hours straight and he's starving when he wakes up. I'm not ready to drop that feeding just yet. After that, he wakes up every 1.5 hours until we start our day at 7. I'm not sure what to do about the second half of the night. Only nurse after it's been 4 hours? Let him cry with checks every few minutes?
This was our issue as well, which is why we decided to start sleep training. It took 2 nights to break the nursing to sleep association. Those 2 nights were pretty miserable, but I'm so glad we did it. Nights are so much better now. I can't remember what you said about sleep training, are you planning to sleep train but waiting a little longer?
I am on team Sleep Train. I wasn't comfortable with it just yet, but I'm getting desperate. Originally I wanted to wait until he was 6 months old, but that's at the end of January.
Right now there are a few things keeping me from starting tonight. He has a nasty cold. Boogers are pouring out of his face all night. The other is B moves around....a lot. He rolls over both ways, scoots into the top of his crib, gets his arms stuck. I wanted to see if this got better with time. It seems to have gotten a little better, but not great.
The first half of his night is always the best. He sleeps 4 hours straight and he's starving when he wakes up. I'm not ready to drop that feeding just yet. After that, he wakes up every 1.5 hours until we start our day at 7. I'm not sure what to do about the second half of the night. Only nurse after it's been 4 hours? Let him cry with checks every few minutes?
Do you have the Ferber book, "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems"? It discusses breaking the nurse to sleep association and the progressive waiting approach for night wakings. You can address each issue separately or at the same time. I was in the same boat as you a couple weeks ago, at the end of my rope and wanting to wait until as close to 6 months as possible, but what helped was reading the section of the book that describes how babies need their parents to teach them how to sleep, and how nursing them to sleep is actually hindering their learning how to sleep on their own because it's actually teaching them to wake up hungry and expect to be fed at all hours of the night. (Holy run-on sentence!). FTR, E also has had a cold that involves lots of snot and congestion, but I think being overtired was preventing her from being able to kick the cold so we decided to give it a go anyway and her cold has gotten a little better every day now that she's sleeping well at night. Anyway I'm not trying to push you to ST before you're ready, I just wanted to share our experience because it sounds like our babies have similar things going on. Oh, and I forgot to mention E has reflux also, and co-sleeping and nursing all night was a viscous cycle of bad reflux symptoms--spitting up and waking up, then needing to nurse to go back to sleep. Rinse and repeat all night long.
prvc678 what is Ferber's method for limiting night nursing? Since starting sleep training, things are improving. I put him down awake and he falls asleep easily at night and for naps. And MOTN feeds are quick - no more nursing/rocking to sleep so that is good. However, he's no longer ok w me not feeding him every time he wakes up. Friday I said I wasn't going to feed him when it had been only 2 hours, but he cried for 2 hours even w us doing checks! And I fed him eventually anyway. So I'm basically feeding him 4 times a night which seems crazy. I need to limit night nursing ASAP!
prvc678 what is Ferber's method for limiting night nursing? Since starting sleep training, things are improving. I put him down awake and he falls asleep easily at night and for naps. And MOTN feeds are quick - no more nursing/rocking to sleep so that is good. However, he's no longer ok w me not feeding him every time he wakes up. Friday I said I wasn't going to feed him when it had been only 2 hours, but he cried for 2 hours even w us doing checks! And I fed him eventually anyway. So I'm basically feeding him 4 times a night which seems crazy. I need to limit night nursing ASAP!
It's similar to the progressive checks in that you increase the intervals between feedings every night. So night #1, if baby wakes up and it has been less than 2 hours since the last feeding, you start the checks while baby self-soothes back to sleep (or 3 hours or whatever you're comfortable with as a starting point). You increase each night by 30 min (so 2.5 hour minimum between feedings on night #2) until you're at the number of feedings you're ok with, or until you eliminate night feedings altogether, if that's what you want to do. The biggest sticking point is that you have to hold firm and be consistent. If you give in just once, it's like starting over completely.
Our first night was rough, I'm not going to lie. I fed E at 7:30 (they recommend starting the nightly routine 30ish min later than your desired bedtime at first, to make sure baby is good and tired), I kinda had to jostle her awake so she wasn't passed out when I laid her down. She immediately started crying and we started the progressive checks (1 min, 3 min, 5 min, and that was all that was needed the first time). She slept until 9:00, then we started the checks over again since it hadn't quite been 2 hours. She was back asleep by 9:30, slept until 12:00, then I fed her and put her back down. She started crying right away, but only took 2 checks before putting herself to sleep. She woke up at 1:30, started checks again, and she was asleep about 15 min later. Woke up at 3:00, one more feeding followed by 2 checks, then she was asleep until 5:30, at which point we got up for he day. The last two nights have been much better, with no wake ups on Friday night (!!), one wake up on Sat night, and two wakeups last night. Considering that we were previously cosleeping with wakeups every 45 min-2 hours, we are seeing drastic improvements! One thing the book says is that if you're trying to break the nurse to sleep association as well as teaching self-soothing for putting themselves to sleep or back to sleep, you can stretch out the feedings first and still pick baby up or rock or soothe in other ways besides feeding, before working on the falling to sleep alone part. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well, so not sure if that all makes sense. But I would highly recommend reading the book if you haven't.
prvc678, that makes a lot of sense. I am following a similar sleep book (sleep easy solution), but I wasn't a fan of its method of limiting nighttime feeds so I think I'll try this approach. You're explaining it well, but I just put it on hold at the library so I can read it in more detail. Thanks!
Irene has her first two teeth cutting through right now so our sleep is crap right now. We're also away at the ILs for another week and the crib here is really creaky. I'm making up for lack of sleep in chocolate and carbs. 🍪🍫🍪
Well, B is already up. Tonight is going to be great.
Hang in there, and keep reminding yourself it won't be like this forever. Maybe you could make yourself a countdown to the day you start sleep training, just as a reminder that there is light at the end of the tunnel? I don't know, maybe that's silly...
Well, B is already up. Tonight is going to be great.
Hang in there, and keep reminding yourself it won't be like this forever. Maybe you could make yourself a countdown to the day you start sleep training, just as a reminder that there is light at the end of the tunnel? I don't know, maybe that's silly...
Oh I already know he turns 6 months old in 18 days lol! We might start before that, but I want to read through Ferbers book before we do. Maybe that's what I'll do while I pump at work tomorrow.
Hey ladies! I'm here too. Sam went down at 8:40 which is pretty typical but was up crying at 11:15 when he's never up until 12:30 at the earliest, so I'm not sure what's going on... Really hoping it's just a fluke and not an indication of the type of night we have in store!
Joining the misery train! M was suuuuch a good sleeper for so long. For the most part, she would sleep from 7-7 almost every night. And if she was up, it was one time for a quick feed and would go right back down. But basically since Thanksgiving week she's been up multiple times and struggled to get back down. The last few nights have been kind of strange... she goes down relatively easily around 7pm, like normal, but then is up every hour to 1.5 hours until around 11:30, then sleeps until 630/7. And when she wakes up its with the blood curdling "something hurts mommy" cries that break your heart. It makes me feel like there's something going on other than just a sleep regression? But maybe not.
Sleep training Step 1 is going well over here. When she wakes up, I got in and pat her and talk to her instead of picking her up. Now it usually takes less than 2 min for her to go back to sleep. Last night she only had one evening wakeup, which is the best in a loooong time. When she wakes up after 1 or so, I feed her, and that's still just once. I'm not really sure what Step 2 will be... going in to soothe her but not touching her and standing farther away from the crib? Hmmm
We've been sort of half-ass sleep training. It's been great for getting him down for naps and bedtime, but since he's still waking up so frequently at night we're clearly not doing it correctly.
prvc678 thank you for explaining night nursing! I have the book but haven't found the time to read it yet so I appreciate your cliff notes version. I think maybe it'll have to be our next step to get me some more sleep.
I started trying to limit night nursing last night. Usually she wants to be fed every 2-3 hours with no long stretch in there. She kept flailing and whining. Then when I let her nurse she wouldn't but wouldn't go back to sleep either. I hope tonight is better. Me so tired.
My baby now sleeps on his belly. I put him on his back, but he immediately flips over and wedges himself against his crib bars with one arm hanging out. Trying to not be nervous about him not being on his back. Maybe just maybe belly sleeping is the answer to our sleep issues!
Twisted off the nipple of the bottle and poured it on flint. I have no words. He's freaking out clearly because he's just had most of a bottle of formula dumped on his head. Wtf??? I need more sleep. But now I need to change us both and make a new bottle. Ugh!!
rungirlrun flint does that too as of two days ago. I read that once they start flipping themselves over sids risk plummets though they should still continue to be put down on their backs.
My baby now sleeps on his belly. I put him on his back, but he immediately flips over and wedges himself against his crib bars with one arm hanging out. Trying to not be nervous about him not being on his back. Maybe just maybe belly sleeping is the answer to our sleep issues!
I hope belly sleeping does help you with all your sleep issues! How's it going so far?
B has been sleeping on his back since he could roll, so about two months ago. It absolutely helped get some longer stretches. Hope it helps some rungirlrun!
We had a good night! We got home late from PT so he didn't go down until quarter to 8. He woke up at 12 & 4 to eat and is still sleeping now! I managed to shower, pump, drink hot coffee and straighten my hair. I hear him babbling in his crib now!
B has been sleeping on his back since he could roll, so about two months ago. It absolutely helped get some longer stretches. Hope it helps some rungirlrun!
We had a good night! We got home late from PT so he didn't go down until quarter to 8. He woke up at 12 & 4 to eat and is still sleeping now! I managed to shower, pump, drink hot coffee and straighten my hair. I hear him babbling in his crib now!
Yay! So happy to read this! You deserved a decent night for once. 😁
J has been sleeping mostly on her belly for about a month now. One day she rolled over in her swaddle so I stopped swaddling and she rolls around constantly at night now. It freaked me out at first but I'm getting used to it. I really don't like that her pacifier gets stuck under her neck sometimes.
Last night was horrible. I don't even really remember anything I just know we were up a lot. I'm out of coffee too.
The night was ok. Up at 10, 12:40, and 3:30. He's still sleeping at 7. So I can deal with it, but if we could get down to 2 wakeups, that would be great. But he's definitely better at rolling back to belly so we had several moments of screaming each time I put him down. I put him on his back, he immediately rolls, and then lifts his head for tummy time. This causes screaming bc he doesn't want to do tummy time. He wants to sleep. Eventually I'd just leave him bc me trying to move him to help him out didn't work. At least he passed out each time. Here's to hoping things continue to improve!
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