advice on humidifier and sleep (sorry long)

sas2551

Hi all, it's been a while- so I'll reintroduce: I used to comment on posts a bit in the early days when I was pregnant, but have been mostly lurking, now I'm boldly going to post my first question!. We have a lovely little lady who was due 18 October but ended up having to evict her on 03 November! I hope its ok to post here since this is the month I went through pregnancy with. Anyway.....I know people aren't fond of sleep posts, so I'll run and hide back under my rock if I get flamed- lol.....only posting because I'm seriously going crazy with sleep deprivation ;-)

DD slept like a champ right from the early days, would wake up for feedings once/twice per night and go straight back down. We went to Australia with her at 7 weeks (to meet grandparents) and she did great with the transition, a bit fussy for the first few days but then started sleeping for 8hours solid per night. Now we're back in the midwest and she has got progressively worse, now I'm getting about 2-3 hours of sleep a night (and having to work the next day), she sleeps for around 3-4 hours when she first goes down, then I feed her and have to rock her to deep sleep before trying to put her in her crib again. The problem is when she wakes at night- takes a couple of hours to sooth and rock her in a baby bjorn back to sleep (with several tries putting her down- unless she's in a deep sleep she wakes and cries as soon as she touches the mattress). Then she sleeps for around an hour and wakes again! and the 1-2hours soothing 1 hour sleep cycle continues until morning. I've tried putting her down sleepy but awake to encourage self soothing, but she just cries. I've tried letting her cry for 10min before picking her up, only once she went to sleep on her own after crying, and I don't want to let her cry it out for longer.

I'm wondering if anyone has found that a warm mist humidifier has helped with a similar situation (need warm because her room is cool as-is) and if so if you could share the brand- She's had a lot of changes but isn't really fussy until it comes time to go to sleep. She's not swaddled because she's rolling, and doesn't use a pacifier because she wakes crying as soon as it falls out of her mouth....it's been about a week so hopefully just a phase, and maybe it's to be expected with change and will get better on it's own, but wondering if the dry air might be bothering her.

any suggestions for help with babies that take forever to sooth in the middle of the night would be great!!

aruss072

From what I've read around the 4 month mark babies that have previously slept through the night start waking up again. Unfortunately it's a phase and baby will get past it too. My little one is doing the same thing. We're up about every hour after midnight.

SecretHoodie

We found a humidifier to be good as far as white noise too. I'll have to check and see what brand it is.

sas2551

aruss072 said:

From what I've read around the 4 month mark babies that have previously slept through the night start waking up again. Unfortunately it's a phase and baby will get past it too. My little one is doing the same thing. We're up about every hour after midnight.

Oh I feel your pain!!! day napping is also tough for us- she's a little sleep fighter!

BabyBsOven

I don't know your thoughts on co sleeping but that's been a lifesaver for me. We were getting a 7hr stretch, then a 4 hr stretch in the crib but are up almost every hour now (wonder weeks leap, teething, sleep regression, call it what you will). At the first wake up now, at about 10pm, I just bring him to bed with me and he's out again till 3am. We will go back to the crib when this hour waking thing is over. Good luck!

pattygrazioso

Baby Merlin magic sleepsuit saved my life. My daughter was waking every 1.5 hrs. I cluster feed from 7 to 10pm....she'll sleep all the way through to 5 am. 7 solid!

lilly&rose

sleep regression, brain development.. 

Also sleep sacks are great transition to swaddle and help keeping babies at the right temperature. My LO loves her baby deedee sleep sack. She seems to be the perfect temp, not cold & not hot. Here's the link babydeedee.com

sas2551

thanks everyone for the advice- I got a warm mist humidifier and a white noise machine, may have helped a little but not much....then it kept getting worse, and down to 20 min naps 3x per day and if she woke after 2am it could take up to 4 hours of rocking (and her crying) to get back down. Last week (at a bit over 4 months) I decided it was time to try the putting down sleepy but awake to try to teach to self sooth. I started on the first nap of the day, she cried of course so I went in and soothed her after 3min, then sat across the room from her and she fell asleep a couple of min later, 2nd nap of the day she cried for about 3 min then went straight to sleep- similar for third nap. Then night time I woke her before putting her down, only a couple min crying and then she slept for 11 hours!!!!!!, second day similar story and 11.5 hours night sleep. I was expecting to still get up to feed her at night, really just hoping to teach her how to put herself to sleep after she was fed, but so far she's not waking up during the night. There have been far less tears with this than with trying to nurse/rock her to sleep. I finally feel human again and she is much happier!! fingers crossed it continues.

I know most people seem to say sleep training after 6 months, but this has been a lifesaver for us, and she cried much less during the brief "training" than when she was relying on me to get to sleep. I think she was showing signs that she was ready to self sooth, like figuring out how to suck her thumb, and on a couple of naps when she woke and started crying 5 min after I put her down, she went back to sleep before I got to her room to pick her up- so maybe it was just a combination of her being ready and already starting to figure it out and us giving her the opportunity to get it.

Bigboobsmcgee

sas2551 said:

thanks everyone for the advice- I got a warm mist humidifier and a white noise machine, may have helped a little but not much....then it kept getting worse, and down to 20 min naps 3x per day and if she woke after 2am it could take up to 4 hours of rocking (and her crying) to get back down. Last week (at a bit over 4 months) I decided it was time to try the putting down sleepy but awake to try to teach to self sooth. I started on the first nap of the day, she cried of course so I went in and soothed her after 3min, then sat across the room from her and she fell asleep a couple of min later, 2nd nap of the day she cried for about 3 min then went straight to sleep- similar for third nap. Then night time I woke her before putting her down, only a couple min crying and then she slept for 11 hours!!!!!!, second day similar story and 11.5 hours night sleep. I was expecting to still get up to feed her at night, really just hoping to teach her how to put herself to sleep after she was fed, but so far she's not waking up during the night. There have been far less tears with this than with trying to nurse/rock her to sleep. I finally feel human again and she is much happier!! fingers crossed it continues.

I know most people seem to say sleep training after 6 months, but this has been a lifesaver for us, and she cried much less during the brief "training" than when she was relying on me to get to sleep. I think she was showing signs that she was ready to self sooth, like figuring out how to suck her thumb, and on a couple of naps when she woke and started crying 5 min after I put her down, she went back to sleep before I got to her room to pick her up- so maybe it was just a combination of her being ready and already starting to figure it out and us giving her the opportunity to get it.

We did the exact same thing with DD and she's been sleeping much better. If she's fed, has a clean diaper and is obviously tired then in her crib she goes. After a few minutes of wiggling around and fussing, she's out cold. When you pick your LO up every time they fuss, they will NEVER learn to sleep on their own and the vicious cycle continues.

SecretHoodie

We started doing this with my son around...3 months, maybe? I didn't think of it as sleep training, though I suppose it is. It's just that he's such a social butterfly that if there is ANYONE in there for him to talk to or stare at, he will NOT go to sleep unless he's just exhausted. So it made sense to put him the crib drowsy and let him fall asleep on his own with minimal distractions. He'll fuss for five minutes or so sometimes, but then he's usually fine.

opaque1997

We did the same at 3 months (and have re done it here and there as needed) and we and her are sleeping so much better - I'll warn you - it not always magic.  Hannah is very capabable of putting herself to sleep and at night goes down mostly awake and doesn't even cry - goes right to sleep - however... that doesn't stop her from deciding that 4am is time to get up for the day - with smiles and giggles and everything