Vent-56 minutes

chimirossi

56 minutes...that's how long it just took me to get my 9 week old to keep his eyes closed for his nap. He will probably (if I'm lucky) sleep a mere 20-30 minutes. All that work for such a short nap. I get so frustrated. I rock him until he is drowsy but not totally asleep. Eyes pop open and won't stay shut. I leave for 5 minutes. Then come back after the crying doesn't stop. I rock him with pacifier until he is totally passed out. Then I put him in his rock n play. Then his eyes open. Then the screaming starts again. It goes on like this for what seems like forever! He's got white noise. He's in a super dark room. He fed, his diaper is clean, he's totally exhausted and heavy-eyed. I feel like I just don't have the patience (please no rude comments) to handle this well. Everything about motherhood is great, but I get so darn annoyed when he won't just sleep when he tired. This is irrational, I know, as it isn't his fault. I just can't help that this is how I feel! Anyone else feel my pain?

breezypip

Yeah, I spent a couple of hours today trying to get my very tired DD down for a nap and she has not actually napped once today. She's of course cranky now and so am I. My sure bet for a nap today - her swing and swaddled - failed.

grkgdss00

Just want to say you aren't alone! I do this every day with my 7w old!! I know it's way too early to start sleep training, but My LO fights naps and only wants to sleep on me. I've been trying to get her to a) SLEEP - because she isn't getting nearly enough daytime sleep, and b) sleep in her crib so she can get used to it for nighttime transition soon. But, she won't sleep anywhere but on me or her swing (swinging), crib aside.  The moment I put her down she wakes up. AGHHHHHToday I started doing a nap routine that I saw in another post which is - stick to the same routine, location, etc EVERY time. Even if it means doing it over and over. If they wake up, start it over again or have a few minutes of awake time stimulation and when they show sleepy cues go through it again. This gets them used to the nap and location and idea and can feel safe (same idea with bedtime). I stuck to it today, and she's asleep in her crib while i'm writing this and has been for 30 minutes (small victory). I plan on sticking to this every time she gets sleepy and pray it works. Otherwise I'll be dealing with an overtired baby AGAIN - which has been the case the past week+ and makes evenings suck. Hang in there! 

ETA: shes EBF and still wakes every 2-3 hours at night. We need sleep!

laurabwalker

Yes I have also been doing this most of the day. My Ellie is queen sleep fighter! She sleeps in her swing though and that's just how it is. She sleeps for 4 hours at night and then is up every twenty minutes from 2-7, it's exhausting. 

teachmegs817

My LO is 10w today, but 4w adjusted age.  He is starting to take 2-3, 25-45 cat naps a day and maybe 1, 1 1/2-2 1/2 hour nap. The last 2 days he has slept only 3-4 hours during the day when my mom is watching him.  That's from 7am-4-4:30 when DH or I get home from work.  He isn't really fussy or cranky when he's awake.  He's just awake a lot more during the day now. It does kind of worry me, because I think he should be taking 2-3, of those 1 1/2-2 1/2 hour naps a day at this point.  But, at the same time, my mother does not swaddle him because she thinks they look like a straight jacket on him, lol.  She puts him in a sleep sack or does a swaddle using a blanket, but his arms are able to get free.  He's a spaz with his arms and they tend to wake him up if he isn't bundled tight.

There are so many things I want to try doing to get him transitioned into his crib too.  1 is to just get him sleeping more in the crib.  On the weekends, I try and put him down in the crib for 1 nap and we do a lot of tummy time in the crib.  We also want to get him out of the swaddle and into a sleep sack with his arms out.  I know he can't use the swaddle forever, so it would be nice to break him from it now.  His darn little arms still flail about so much, I can't seem to get him to sleep without one at the moment.

He is formula fed and eats 3.5-4oz at every feeding.  The longest he's gone is 4 1/2 hours between feedings during the night.  He still wakes up 2-3 times a night, usually just twice.  Once around 11:30pm-midnight, and again around 3:30-4:30 am.  We put him down to bed and go to bed ourselves, after his 8-8:30 bottle.  During the day though he still eats just about every 3 hours.  

yummydumplin

Well most of you won't like my structure but it really works n doesn't take long. I usually change my baby diaper then lay baby on his side while I lay down n breastfeed him.. I act as his pacifier till he falls asleep then when he's asleep like probably 10 mins. I gently remove my boob n my blouse and lay My blouse beside him for scent purposes so he thinks I'm still there and i quietly get out the bed. He sleeps 30 minutes n if really tired you can get an hour.
Pro-doesn't take long n less stressful and you get time to relax too n bond with your baby.

Cons- if you pick your baby up n put them in a crib they will wake up. Also you run the risk of falling asleep too if that's not your plan. N co-sleeping is risky if you are a bad sleeper. U don't wanna squash your baby.. 

missphil

yummydumplin said:

Well most of you won't like my structure but it really works n doesn't take long. I usually change my baby diaper then lay baby on his side while I lay down n breastfeed him.. I act as his pacifier till he falls asleep then when he's asleep like probably 10 mins. I gently remove my boob n my blouse and lay My blouse beside him for scent purposes so he thinks I'm still there and i quietly get out the bed. He sleeps 30 minutes n if really tired you can get an hour.
Pro-doesn't take long n less stressful and you get time to relax too n bond with your baby.

Cons- if you pick your baby up n put them in a crib they will wake up. Also you run the risk of falling asleep too if that's not your plan. N co-sleeping is risky if you are a bad sleeper. U don't wanna squash your baby.. 

I do this too!

chimirossi

My baby won't go to sleep on the boob. He's very alert when he eats, except at bedtime. 

chillmama1518

When I really want my guy to nap and he's fighting sleep I put him in the moby wrap and go about my day. He zonks out and I have my hands free to do stuff. Not too worried about sleep training yet as its still too early for "bad habits" at 8 weeks

chodge29

I feel your pain!  Little man has been fighting sleep the past three days (He is 8 weeks). Nothing has changed he just doesn't want to sleep during the day. He might have slept three hours total today and just went down now at 11pm after a good hour of being exhausted/fussy. If it's like the last two nights he will wake up around 2 and again around 5 or 6. I love him being awake and he is a happy little guy till around 10 but I think he gets over tired then it makes him fussy until he finally gives in. Hope your little one gets to napping again soon.

ammnam14

It took  3 hours for DD to go to bed. She was just not having it!!!! Idk who cried more, me or her. I'm so exhausted.

Court11152325

I also wear DD in a wrap if she's fighting sleep and won't go down. On the weekends DH will do it. She can sleep for a good 2-3 hours like this, especially if we go for a walk first. We have a papoose wrap and we just use the front wrap cross carry (FWCC) with her.

sarahjulypsu

I second wrap when all else fails. I try to start getting her ready for nap before I see signs of tiredness. She is 8 weeks old and seems to have an hour to hour and half before she needs a nap. I do our routine and lay her down awake. If I get her down before she is overtired I'm good but if I miss that window I'm basically screwed. Maybe your LO's are overtired? 

Bombmom3

Are you consuming any caffeine during the day?  Some babies are super, SUPER sensitive to even trace amounts.  I've lucked out with all my kiddos - I could guzzle high test coffee 24/7 and it never seemed to keep them awake (God help me if I ate broccoli or humus, though - they'd be up with gas pains for a week).  I have a few friends, though, where if they just had one cup in the morning it screwed up their baby's entire day sleep wise - they'd not take their morning naps, then be too over tired to get restful sleep then be up all night, which in turn made mom reach for her caffeine fix to manage to stay alert.  

Not it sure if that's contributing to the issue here or not.  Just trying to help problem solve. 

12815AEEA

I have very little patience when my little one won't go to sleep and I know she's tired. I feel your pain and you are NOT alone. 

laurabwalker

Bombmom3 said:

Are you consuming any caffeine during the day?  Some babies are super, SUPER sensitive to even trace amounts.  I've lucked out with all my kiddos - I could guzzle high test coffee 24/7 and it never seemed to keep them awake (God help me if I ate broccoli or humus, though - they'd be up with gas pains for a week).  I have a few friends, though, where if they just had one cup in the morning it screwed up their baby's entire day sleep wise - they'd not take their morning naps, then be too over tired to get restful sleep then be up all night, which in turn made mom reach for her caffeine fix to manage to stay alert.  

Not it sure if that's contributing to the issue here or not.  Just trying to help problem solve. 

Yes my LO is like this and I cut out caffeine and just have one cup decaf in the am because I love coffee so much

blended10

My lo this week will only sleep in my arms. She's 9 weeks. It sucks. My house is s disaster. I am, however, caught up on my dvr & last night she slept 8.hours.straight (hallelujah!) so f it. She's sleeping in my arms. 
You are not alone!!!

dmendo01

Def not alone. DD fighting sleep is the most frustrating thing ever! I would rather listen to her cry than deal with sleep fighting. And I agree with baby wearing even not as last resort. 

eliseandbaby

laurabwalker said:

Yes I have also been doing this most of the day. My Ellie is queen sleep fighter! She sleeps in her swing though and that's just how it is. She sleeps for 4 hours at night and then is up every twenty minutes from 2-7, it's exhausting. 

Yes... This is my life too. Ugh

laurabwalker

eliseandbaby said:

laurabwalker said:

Yes I have also been doing this most of the day. My Ellie is queen sleep fighter! She sleeps in her swing though and that's just how it is. She sleeps for 4 hours at night and then is up every twenty minutes from 2-7, it's exhausting. 

Yes... This is my life too. Ugh

Xo this to shall pass

MomofEv+1

I feel your pain. This is just the age unfortunately. When all else fails, I put mine in her carrier so she can nap and I can get stuff done. 

BethP321

This probably sounds terrible, and I know some/most moms will disagree with this.  But...  We learned that baby boy loves to sleep on his tummy.  When he's crabby or tired I'll put him on his stomach, and sometimes we'll have tummy time for a few minutes and he's out like a light.  I'll watch him for a while before I go to bed, but we're working on letting him fall asleep on his tummy and then putting him on his back when we out him in the crib.  Before this, he would not sleep.  I had to nurse or rock him until he fell asleep and move him Into the swing, but he wouldn't sleep for more than 3 or 4 hours at night.  Now he's sleeping at least 6 every night.  We haven't been able to use the crib before this week, and he's 9 weeks.

Knottie35278873

Lurking from N15


If it makes you feel any better, my son is 17 weeks old and I spend anywhere up to an hour trying to get him down for a nap in his crib. He'll sleep just fine if he's on me or beside me so that's why we bed shared up until he was around 3 months, but we're in the process of transitioning him to his crib at nights and for naps (it's in my bedroom though so not too far away) and oh my goodness it's been a roller coaster lol. Half the time I can get him to sleep in the crib with only a little bouncing and turn on the white noise and lay him down and he's out. The other half of the time he fights me for like an hour and I have to pick him up a million times (I'm not good at letting him cry it out but to each their own) and it's so so stressful. It doesn't help at all that my husband works out of state 5 days a week and is exhausted when he is home so I'm always the one doing majority of the work with our son and it's hard. Thankfully I have a lot of patience but on the days where I don't get much sleep, I usually end up crying while trying to put him to sleep and he's fighting me because I feel like I'm about to scream because I don't know what to do lol. The hardest part is knowing that he'd be just fine if he was sleeping with me. It's very tempting to just let him sleep in my bed beside me forever haha. But our babies will eventually be sleeping just fine and we'll wonder why we ever panicked so much, I just try to remind myself of that. But yeah I feel your pain girl, you're not alone lol