another sleep ? from me--what's new?! LONG

NowDNAtoo

 

I've been reading Dr. Ferber's book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" while holding Nicholas when he naps.  It's a fascinating book! 

 

 Let me start with saying Nicholas will be 3 months next week.  From what I've read in this & other books babies "settle" and tend tosleep better and through the night in the 3-4 month range.  Well, Nicholas will go to sleep once I have him completely out and stay asleep for 30-50 minutes.  If I try to put him down drowsy it's a no go.  When he wakes up he cries until I pick him up & soothe him, then he falls back asleep into his REM cycle.  However, if I try to put him back down he immediately wakes up and needs to be held. 

 

From what I read in the book it sounds like Nicholas has a sleep association with being in my arms and when he wakes up and doesn't find this he can't fall back to sleep on his own.  Dr. Ferber recommends a progressive approach to going in and reassuring him that I'm there, but not rocking back to sleep like I've been trying to do.

 

I guess my question is...can I try his method before Nicholas is reaching 4 months or should I wait a little longer to try?  Holding him for approx. 20 hours a day is getting to be a bit of a strain.

 

Thanks!  Dena

Baby4OT

"Ferberization" is really for older babies. I forget what he says in his book about the earliest to start it, but I read a lot of sleep books when I was having a hard time putting DD to sleep, and most recommended 4-6 months as the EARLIEST to do any type of sleep training. Will he stay asleep in a bouncy seat or swing for any length of time? Oh, and I know LOTS of babies who don't STTN at 3-4 months old. He's not even 3 months yet. I KNOW it's hard and the sleeplessness sucks (I'm dreading that part of having a newborn in a few more months!), but he's really not ready for sleep training yet. 30-50 minutes sounds so difficult! Can your DH take some turns? For my DD, BFing was the only way to get her to sleep for a long time, so DH couldn't help with that. But, thankfully, she slept longer than an hour at a time.

Temp769118375005138

Definitely too young for sleep training.  My pedi says not before 6 months (and even then he doesn't advocate CIO).  Get a sling or a Moby and wear him so you don't constantly have to hold him.  What about a swing?  Joshua would sleep for HOURS in that thing.  I was very sad when he outgrew it.  

asolare

yeah, i'm still wondering if you ever tried a vibrating bouncy or a swing....

kbird

Can you revisit swaddling? ?We had a tough first month, but then tried swaddling tight (rather than our weak, loose swaddles), and cranking a white noise machine. ?Also, we let dd sleep in her carseat many nights - I think she liked how snug it made her feel. ?But she never really settled into sleeping long stretches until she was a year, and I transitioned from breast milk to whole milk. ?But just be reassued you will get a good night sleep again. ?Maybe not for a few months.... but soon.

spiffyone

if you are interested in trying swaddling again, i suggest trying the swaddleme blanket (as we refer to it the baby straight jacket).  it comes in 2 sizes, small and large.  little man is fitting well in his small so i need to get the large soon.  K would only sleep for 3 hours at a time and as soon as we started with the swaddleme, he moved to sttn.  i also agree that if you can get him to sleep in the swing or in the bouncy do it!  my pedi told me they didn't care where they slept as long as it wasn't on you at night.  so the swing, bouncy, pnp, anything!

tracy042206

I would wait a little while too.  Maggie had lots of sleep issues as well and she really resolved them for herself.  I would rock her to sleep every night and then one day she just refused to fall asleep that way so I put her down and she played a little and fell asleep on her own.  We were like you for naps - either hold her or the swing and she eventually transitioned herself out of that too - every few weeks we kept trying the crib for naps and eventually she really was too big for the swing anymore.

She also eventually developed issues with me just putting her down and would cry.  That was around 6mo old and then we did use CIO.  It was hard but she really didn't cry hard for very long (45min was the longest) and she stopped crying after 3 nights.  We didn't have problems with her nioght wakings though - just the initial going to sleep on her own part.