What would you do?

BeagleMom2012 · October 2012

LO will be 9 weeks tomorrow. As he has gotten older, he has slept less and less during the day and more at night. But this past week he has hardly napped at all, but I can tell that he gets so sleepy! A few times he gets overtired and is just a bawling mess. He will fall asleep maybe 3 times during the day, but will only stay asleep between 15 and 30 minutes. He wakes up crying and I usually go pick him up and rock him. If I see that he's not going back to sleep then I will read or play with him and just give up on the nap. But today when he started crying after waking up, I didn't go to him immediately and let him cry for about 10 minutes and he fell asleep and has been asleep for over an hour. I felt super guilty for letting him cry that long. (FYI, he had just eaten right before he fell asleep, and had a dry diaper). What would you do? Let him cry for a bit and see if he falls asleep, or pick him up? How long is too long to let them cry if you know they aren't hungry, wet/poopy, or sick?

mrsj0423 · October 2012

I will let DD fuss a little, but I cannot let her really cry. I just don't have it in me, nor do I want to. Even if she is fed and has a dry diaper, she may just need comfort and to be held. Do what works for you, but if it were me, I wouldn't let LO cry for that long.

katieh1017 · October 2012

From what I have read usually letting a baby cry it out (CIO) shouldn't begin until after 3 months. Are you putting LO down for naps too late? I had trouble reading L's tired cues and she would end up overtired and miserable. Then I just started to rock her, get her ready to sleep about an hour - 1.5 hours after awake time. It really helped us get her to sleep and I also learned her sleepy cues.

mben1119 · October 2012

Sleep training, especially involving CIO, shouldn't start until at least 4 months. It's ok to let lo fuss for a few minutes, but at that age they aren't really capable of self soothing.

buffyverrban1 · October 2012

It depends if it was a cry or if it was fussing. If he was fussing, then it's fine, but I wouldn't let him cry. (Don't feel bad for doing it that time though, he was able to go back to sleep and that's great)

It might only take 1-2 naps of getting the right amount of sleep to get him back on track . Sleep begets more sleep.

I would probably shorted the amount of time between naps if he isn't going down well. He's probably overtired and having a hard time settling down. At 9 weeks I'd say 45m-1hr is about as long as he should be up.

Cues to look for
-turning away from toy / your face (Means "I'm done mom")
-yawns
-red eyes (on some babies)