Sleep Trouble

Ash&Vic

Lately LO has been waking up at 5AM ready for the day. I nurse her and try to get a couple extra hours out of her and she pops back up all smiles as soon as I lay her in her crib. Since we don't start our day around here until 7AM, I bring her to my bed and she nurses on and off like if she's at an all you can eat buffet until its time to get up. This in itself is kind of annoying because she man handles me when she's nursing and is constantly on and off. I know she isn't hungry and is just comfort nursing at this point. If I try to switch it out with a pacifier she gets ticked off and if I close up shop she spends the rest of the time crawling back and forth between DH and I trying to stand up and smacking us to get our attention.

The past couple of nights though she's been waking up in the middle of the night and expecting to go to our bed. The night before last we were up from 1:30 to almost 4:00 trying to put her back down. We finally managed to get her down in her crib and then she woke up for the day at 6:00. We were exhausted yesterday. I nearly fell asleep in one of my meetings. My husband and I both work full-time, demanding jobs and can't function on such little sleep.

So last night she woke up at 3AM. I nursed her and went to put her back in her crib and she kept crying every time we laid her down....even though she was sleeping each time we would make our attempt. Finally at 4:00 we gave up and put her in bed with us.

I'm worried this is becoming her thing and we will eventually have her sleeping in our bed most of the night. I know this works for some families, but it does not work for us. Once she comes in our bed neither one of us are able to sleep much.

FWIW, she goes to sleep without our assistance at the beginning of the night and in the past hasn't had trouble going back to sleep in her crib when she woke up in the middle of the night. 

I never had this experience with DD1 since she has always slept like a champ in her crib. I have no idea what to do. Please help this tired mommy!

CAA0508

Have you done any sleep training? When my DD wakes up in the middle of the night, I nurse her and put her back in her crib. Sometimes she goes right back to sleep and sometimes she doesn't. She might play for a little bit or she might cry. Either way, I go back to bed. She never cries for long. You just have to teach them to put herself back to sleep after a MOTN wake up.

Ash&Vic

For the first 4 months she would literally go back to sleep all by herself after I would feed her in the middle of the night. It was incredible!

At about four months she was put in a Pavlik Harness to treat her hip dysplasia and she started giving us a harder time to get back to sleep (understandably so). At this point I started bouncing her to sleep on an exercise ball. On bad nights I would nurse her to sleep.

Shortly after she got off the Pavlik harness she was still giving us a harder time to go to sleep. I tried for two nights to let her cry and it was a total disaster. Aside from the fact that she would get even more worked up when I would go in to check on her. It never resulted in her falling asleep on her own and it caused DD1 to wake up crying. Fortunately DD1 is easy to get back down...but still! So we started working on teaching her to go to sleep the drowsy but awake way. This worked pretty well, but there are nights when she nurses herself completely to sleep and I just lay her down and walk out of the room. Lately though she just pops back up as soon as her head touches the sheets and cries if I don't get her.

jllmb79

I did Feber's progressive waiting at 10 months for both my DDs.  DD#1 was so easy...she was asleep with in 30 mins the first night and after her middle of the night feeding went right back to sleep. The following nights got easier and easier.  

DD#2 was a bit harder 2 hours of checks and lying her back down first night, 1 hour second night, 40 minutes third night, and a last went to right to sleep night 4.  

Read Ferbers book if you want and decide if it is for you. It worked for us and my kids are getting great sleep now and so am I. ( I also use to co sleep  after the first waking and miss it but she gets better sleep now)

poppyc8

do you have a comfy chair in the nursery you can nurse and then rock her? that way she understands she needs to stay in her own room? on the nights where i am super exhausted the cozy chair is my godsend because i can relax and then usually put him back down within 30-1hr. 

as far as the early wake ups we go through phases where he wakes up early. we just end up letting him play in his crib for half hour then getting up for the day.  he stands and jumps in his crib now so i think he is just super excited to start the day early.