multiple questions

rsheehan10

Sorry for the extended post with multiple questions. I thought I would ask all at once rather than multiple posts.

1. at night do you wait for your lo to have full blown crying to feed them or once you hear fussing do you get them and feed them and put them back to bed. We have a camera monitor and can see when his eyes are open.

2. nap time and night time it is extremely difficult to get him down. We rock him in our arms for possibly 30 minutes then once he is out we place him in the rnp and rock him 20 to 30  more until he is out. is this normal or should I try something different? Occasionally we can put him in there drowsy and rock him in the rnp until he is out. Usually that sleep cycle is short lived.

 3. I took a shower today and he woke up once I entered. I needed to take a shower badly as I had been thrown up on a few times. I let him cry it out for 5 minutes and he put himself back to sleep. I know its early for CIO however it worked. Is this ok?

4. when do you start moving bed time earlier. Currently bedtime is 9pm and we can get a good 4-5 hr stretch out of him depending on his temperament that day. do we wait until he STTN?

5. when should we move him to the crib. Currently he only sleeps in the rnp and has reflux. we also swaddle him as he startles himself awake.

Thank you ladies for your help. I am a FTM and am the first one out of my friends to have children so I don't have experienced moms to ask these questions to.

mben1119

1. I always wait for DS to be actually awake.

2. Sounds pretty normal.

3. A 5 minute fluke situation is ok. Don't make it a habit to let him CIO-he's far too young.

4. 9 is really late for bedtime. DS went to bed by 5-5:30 at that age, and still is asleep by 6:30 every night now.

5. If he has reflux and is still in the weight limitations for the RNP, leave him for now. DS was in his own room at a few days old, in his crib around 6 weeksish.

jbatch

1. I wait until she is crying. She often puts herself back to sleep when she wakes up.

2. It is not that hard to get my LO to sleep but she is a fairly easy baby.

3. I would not CIO on purpose but I feel like there are times you have to get something done and if LO cries for a few minutes they will be ok. It does not hurt them to cry.

4. I have no answer to this one still kinda wondering myself.

5. I put my LO in the crib from day one so not sure for you.

lauralovesbob

1. Somewhere in between.  A little quiet fussing, I let her go, but if it keeps up or gets louder, I'll nurse her before it gets to crying. She's usually still partially asleep if I get her during fussing instead of crying. Then she's awake. 

2. We had the same issue with my son. We gradually started trying to put him down sooner and pat him / shush him instead of holding him. It's a long transition, and DS (who is 2) still needs some rocking / singing before bedtime.

3. Agree with response above. Sometimes you need to take care of yourself, crying won't hurt the baby, but agree it's too soon for CIO.

4. Around 6-8 weeks DS settled into a bedtime around 630/7. It's never too early to start a bedtime routine and try to get LO to stay asleep after late nap (quiet, low lights)

5. Personal decision. DS slept in his cosleeper until he could pull himself up out of it.  

jkuhmann

We answered a lot of these questions at our hospital mommies class on Tuesday!

1.  Our nurse said to wait until the baby cries to rush in and get them.  Many times, they will put themselves back to sleep, and it teaches them to do so and learn to be independent.  Also, our nurse told us those times where they are just talking and expressing themselves are so important for their neurological development.  Fussing it out is not crying it out.  That said...I will sometimes get my LO before he starts to cry in the MOTN just because I know he'll be up and "talking" for an hour, when I know I can get him up, changed, fed, and back to bed in half an hour, so I get more sleep!  :-)

2.  Normal is a large range with babies.  It takes some of them that long to really get into that deep sleep cycle. Do what works best for you.  You might try to scale back the RnP rocking by one or two minutes every few days, just to get him used to not being rocked as long - that might help you get a little more time back.

3.  This happens to me at least once every couple of weeks.  It's fine.  My pedi told me to not let LO cry for extended periods 90-95% of the time, but that 5-10% of the time, I'm not going to be able to get to him right away and that is okay.  Yes, don't make a habit of it at this age, but the "accidental CIO" happens all the time.  It's not a big deal.

4. My LO goes to bed between 9-10 and has since day 1.  I am waiting for him to STTN to move his bedtime up, but it probably won't be by much because 1) my husband usually isn't home until 7 or 8 and it's important to me that they have a little time together every day, and 2) he sleeps until 9ish every morning, which gives me time to get stuff done (like pumping, breakfast, and a shower!).  He usually has a one-hour nap around 6 or 7 every evening.  Amount of sleep is more important that time of sleep if they are doing their longest stretches at night.

5. Some people put their kids in the crib on day 1, some wait a whole year.  It really depends on what you want.  The AAP recommends baby staying in the parents' room for six months to decrease SIDS risk, so that is what we are doing.  However, if you want to do it earlier, lots of people do and their babies are just fine.  For swaddling, it is fine until LO can roll over back to belly.  Then it does become dangerous.  Ours just started rolling belly to back so we are starting our weaning.

One more thing our nurse said that really resonated with me: "There is no one perfect way of parenting; there are a million great ways of parenting.  Pick one that works for you and don't worry about anything else."

Good luck mama!  You are doing a great job!

rjeller32

mabenner1:

1. I always wait for DS to be actually awake.

2. Sounds pretty normal.

3. A 5 minute fluke situation is ok. Don't make it a habit to let him CIO-he's far too young.

4. 9 is really late for bedtime. DS went to bed by 5-5:30 at that age, and still is asleep by 6:30 every night now.

5. If he has reflux and is still in the weight limitations for the RNP, leave him for now. DS was in his own room at a few days old, in his crib around 6 weeksish.

To me 5:30 is crazy early. Both of my LO's are in bed by 8 at the latest.

VPGIRL06

1) This depends. I rarely hear DD before 230 AM fussing, and even the 230 AM wake ups are far and in between.  Usually it's 4-430 from a 745-8 PM bedtime.  Last night she let out a big yell/cry around 10ish but then fell back asleep so i think she was dreaming and i didn't go in.   I assume at this point if she's fussing to the point I can hear it, she's hungry or needs my assistance (she broke out of her swaddle, she's rolled herself all the way to the bars of the crib, etc)

2)at 30 minutes i think he's probably in a deep sleep and doesn't need the additional RnP rocking. Whats probably happening is that your rocking him from active/deep/active and he's able to move to that next sleep cycle.   

 

3) i mean there's nothing you an do if you're in the shower and he starts to cry. Unless it's a shrill, panicky "i'm in pain", cry, at some point...the baby is going to have to cry. I wouldn't practice CIO on the norm but if you're doing something you can't drop (like showering, dressing, etc) and he falls asleep...then that's that.

 

4)personally my LO needs to sleep before 8, but has trouble falling asleep when the suns nice and bright out, so we're in a weird spot. before she was able to be put down and would fall asleep, but if we put her down drowsy it's too bright (i really don't want to invest in blackout curtains but I'm afraid that's where we're headed) and she just stays up. So now we're having to rock her either completely asleep or at least until it's less bright out