a post about sleep (again)- Sorry..but help me

abba916

Ok so my son is not so into the swaddle- he likes it "sometimes" but most nights he is not a fan..however, the nights he is swaddled he sleeps so much better (like 5 hours)- the nights he isnt his light sleep phases are him thrashing about and then he wakes up (like 2-3 hours)..

the only other way he sleeps for 5 hours at a time is in our ams or next to us (I might be taking the snuggle nest out of the bed and just keeping him under my "wing") 

thoughts? advice? should I just swaddle him and let him cry and try to get him down that way?

 

**just an aside- I usually give him his night bottle and when he is drowsy awake I put the swaddle on- some nights he doesnt care and then some nights he wakes up and starts to cry and will fuss until its off** 

emiliemetcalf

Fortunately, T liked the swaddle until now.  But some other things that worked for us were cluster-feeding before bed (I FF too), bedtime routine and having her sleep on an incline (in her bouncy seat).  I personally do not co-sleep because my bed is not big enough for DH, me, cat and baby, but if that's what works for now, I say go for it!  I still nap with T everyday because it is the only way to get her to take a nap for longer than 30 minutes.

Telyco

I would keep the swaddle and soothe him to sleep. If you get rid of it altogether - you may find you'll have those nights anyway (he could wake right up and cry because of gas, etc....both of my kids cry/cried before they go to sleep...Leah is much better than Evan, though - He would take 45 minutes of soothing!) so you might as well do the thing that gets him more sleep. I think I would also choose what habit is easier to break down the line...if you are willing to be a co-sleeper for a while then it's totally fine. But short term solutions can sometimes create bigger 'issues.' 

5 hours is great!!! Whatever you go with, I would try and keep it as consistant as possible. I really think that smooths all bumps in the road a lot faster. GL! Before you know it he'll be doing 12 hrs, piece of cake : )

day194

My little guy didn't sleep well either.  Have you tried swaddling before you give him the bottle?  That way you wouldn't have to jostle him around so much when he's already drowsy, but you can give him the bottle right after to calm him if he didn't like getting swaddled. 

L liked the swaddle only if he could have one arm free.  He also had to sleep on an incline and until 4 months old slept in the bouncer seat that sat in the bassinet next to our bed. Then he slept in one of those wedge sleep positioners for a couple of months (until he was rolling and could brake out of it).  It took awhile about at 6.5 months we did some CIO (i didn't want to do it before then) and after 2 days of that we had a good night time sleeper.  He reverted a bit for awhile because of trouble with ear infections, but he's starting to sleep well again.

mrsoc

We used a swaddle until about 2 weeks ago.  Evan slept great with it. 

I know that every baby is different, but we have a nightly routine that we started since Evan was pretty young....bath, pjs, bottle, book, prayers, rock....bed while still a little sleepy.  We would swaddle him when we put him into bed and play his FP seahorse. 

GL! 

abba916

ok so you guys do a nightly bath? does your LOs skin get dry?

what do you do if your LO falls asleep during bottle? 

my LO goes to bed with a paci- if it falls out before he is asleep he wakes- if your LO has one- do you just go in and put it in again?

Telyco

We did a nightly bath with Evan for a long time...his skin never was dry (but it is now for some reason)

I always woke him to finish feedings...and tried to keep him up a bit after (EASY method) The only feeding I didn't do that for was the 4am one.

With Evan's binky...we would always use it to get him to sleep but wouldn't let him sleep with it. My sister would complain about having to replace it like 20 times a night with my nephew so we didn't want to start that. He ended up finding his thumb which was a godsend!! 

day194

abba916:

ok so you guys do a nightly bath? does your LOs skin get dry?

No we do ever other night.  He has really dry skin and eczema, which has gotten pretty bad this winter.  We load him up with some heavy duty lotion (aveeno or aquafor) after his bath. 

what do you do if your LO falls asleep during bottle? 

I nursed, but when he was little I let him nurse to sleep.  When he was probably about 6 months old we started to try to put him down drowsy but awake.

my LO goes to bed with a paci- if it falls out before he is asleep he wakes- if your LO has one- do you just go in and put it in again? 

For the first 4 months it was easy because he was in our room next to our bed in the bassinet, so I'd just stick it back in his mouth and he'd usually go back to sleep unless he needed to nurse.  Once he was in his own room, we'd go in and try giving him the paci.  Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't.  He still wakes up at night sometimes.  We've found he'll take the paci and go back to sleep easier for my DH.  He sees me and wants to nurse.  Last night we had this problem and I was up pretty much from 3am on and couldn't get him back to sleep.