Sleep check in

dizzycooks

It's been awhile since we discussed, but I know several of us have been struggling with our los and sleep.

I think most of the babes are approaching 6 months now so many might be getting more serious about sleep training and I thought I'd see how it's going again.

I hope it's going better for you than it is for me

So what's happening?

My dd2 has been going to bed fabulously lately, no tears, just happy to be in her crib and chatters until she falls asleep.  The difficulty is coming in the middle of the night.  She is up CON-STANT-LY.  Like every hour and fifteen freaking minutes.  I've been nursing her back into a peaceful slumber and she goes right back down, but seriously, mama can't survive on sleep one hour at a time.  Add in a few toddler nightmares and I am toast.  Thankfully, DH deals with those 90% of the time.  I never had to sleep train my older daughter in the middle of the night.  She just plain didn't want to go to bed so we had it out between 7 and 10pm and then she was done.  Actually she figured it out pretty quick.  Now, they share a room and I am so fearful of letting DD2 CIO (or worse Ferber because that involves me repeatedly going in and dd1 starts talking sometimes then) because I don't want to disturb dd1, but I can't keep this up.

What are you doing about it?

I am going to try the back patting at her first wake up (or any really I guess until midnight) in increments like Ferber suggests.  Last night it took 40 minutes, but by 11:45 she was back asleep and didn't wake until 3:15am.  I've decided to just tackle is one waking at a time.  Is that bad?  See concerns.

Concerns?

I don't want to cut off the middle of the night nursing if she needs it and I did get up with dd1 twice until she was almost a year so while I'm not opposed, I need more sleep than I'm getting.  I worry about my supply dropping, especially when I combine this with returning to work and pumping more than I nurse.

Questions?

Do you think it's ok to allow her to nurse later in the night and just train her for the early part of the night? Is that confusing?  Do I just refuse to nurse all night? I don't know how to find a balance and welcome experience and thoughts others may have.

Andrewsgal

DS was up to waking every two hours to eat. Found out my supply was low started addressing the Monday and he has only woken twice the past two nights. Keeping my fingers crossed. The only problem is he won't sleep anywhere but the RNP and naps in the swing. Which sucks when we are traveling this week and are having to pay $50 to check the RNP.

AprilLVE

@dandelionhater, not sure where you're traveling to, but can you just order a new RNP and have it shipped to your hotel?  Same cost, less hassle.

We did CIO about a month ago, and it got us back to where we had been before sleep went to hell at night, which is back to 2 wake-ups to nurse.  She occasionally will re-awaken within a half an hour or so of being laid back down and we just ignore her.  Sometimes she just babbles and a couple of times she has cried for 10 minutes or so.  She's going down at night and for naps very easy and consistently now.  I's still nursing her to sleep for both.

It's nice to hear some of you continued to feed at night for a while.  Since 4 months my pedi has been on my case to cut all night nursing.  It just doesn't feel right, ya know?  I'm ok with our current situation until weaning, honestly.

dizzycooks

Leftie22 said:

Oh, and also, whenever I'm doubting myself and thinking of going back to rocking DD while she screams for an hour, I read this woman's articles to stay strong: https://www.troublesometots.com/cry-it-out/ . It's been really helpful, and has way more troubleshooting than Ferber's book. Since there are so many weird "what if this happens" scenarios when you're sleep training! She also makes me feel less evil.

Can I love this twice? I do feel evil, like I'm so mean some nights.

dmartin726

DS is about 5 months. Up until last week he spent 6 weeks waking up every one to two hours. I would literally pick him up and he would fall back asleep. Repeat all night. Finally I decided something had to change, so I stopped swaddling him last week. He cried and then flipped on his belly and slept all night. I was nervous with him on his belly but he has great neck strength. Now he goes to sleep around 7:30 and wakes at 6am. Sometimes sleeps through and sometimes wakes at 3 but I just calm him down until he falls asleep. Hopefully my every couple hour wake ups are behind me.