XP: Please help me with MOTN nursing and crib transition. (also on Nov. 2010)
I have bedshared with DS his entire first year and while it has gone well for us, he continued to nurse a few times at night and I felt a change was needed to eliminate the night nursing and ultimately the night wakings. He always initially went to sleep in his pack in play in my room and I'd bring him in bed with me at his first waking (usually around 11:00pm) and bedshare thereafter.
Two weeks ago I stopped nursing him to sleep when he first went down for the night (hoping to eliminate the nursing sleep association) and he handled the transition very well. He will now go to sleep on his own in his pack in play at the start of the night. (Small success!)
Last week I stopped nursing him when he woke up at night and at the same time I stopped bringing him into bed with me. I figured it would be too hard to stop the night nursing if I was right next to him in bed. Last week I was able to pacify him in the pack in play in my room during the MOTN.
I felt I was making some progress so this weekend I tried transitioning him to his crib in his room and the MOTN wakings got instantly worse (although he'll still put himself to sleep just fine at the start of the night in his crib in his room). For the last three nights, when he wakes in the MOTN, he does not start out with a whimper or cry that I'm able to soothe with reasonable effort--rather, he escalates to all out hyperventilating within seconds and takes a very long time (hours) to soothe to sleep.
I am determined to try to be consistent with him but I am exhausted. Right now, when he wakes during the night I start out by quietly "sshhhh-ing" next to his crib (which worked pretty well last week when he was in his pack in play) or sometimes just pat his back for a bit. But, the last few nights this hasn't worked. After 30 minutes or more, he hasn't been calming down at all (only getting more hysterical) so I've picked him up very briefly to calm him down and put him back down and resumed the "sshhh-ing". Last night I did this from 11pm-2:30am. DH works out of town and is only home on the weekends so I don't have him to help me at night.
I think it may be teething related (he's had a runny nose the last few days), but I'm not certain if the transitions are just too much at once also (ending nursing to sleep, ending nursing during the night, ending bedsharing, and now a new bed in a new room).
So, for those of you who have read this long and have tackled the MOTN nursing and crib transition or other MOTN wakings--how did you handle it? I appreciate your thoughts!!
ETA: Tonight I plan to give him a little motrin or tylenol in case it is teething, but I'm still unsure if the transitions have been too much too fast. I'm considering moving his pack in play to his room tonight to see if that eases the transition to a new room.
Re: XP: Please help me with MOTN nursing and crib transition. (also on Nov. 2010)
I don't know your son but it sounds like you made too many transitions too close together. Since you just stopped nursing him to sleep 2 weeks ago I would keep him in your room (in the pack n play) to sooth him when he wakes up. I would keep him in your room for at least 1-2 more weeks and continue to shush and pat him back to sleep when he wakes up at night. Hopefully his wake ups will be fewer and fewer when he realizes that you're not going to nurse him to sleep. Then I would take the pack n play into his room and try the same shush and pat technique in his room for a week. Then transition to the crib.
I never bed shared with DD but she did wake up 2-4 times a night to nurse until 14 months. She has been able to put herself to sleep without nursing since 10 months. To get to sleep without nursing I put her in her crib, made a floor bed for myself, and lied down on the floor until she was asleep. At 14 months I started doing the same thing for night wakings and it worked! She now STTN most nights or only wakes up once.
I'm sure the crying is killing your as well as the lack of sleep. Good luck and hang in there! It will get better!
My kiddo is getting her canine teeth in and is miserable all night. Tylenol doesn't help at all. She has been waking up every hour.
When all things are "normal" she sleeps for about 6 hours, then wakes up once or twice. teething throws that schedule to the wind.