Intro and another sleep thread-sorry its long

abbyjoelle

Hello all- I have been following this board since I got pregnant but have never posted. My baby girl was born 1/15. Most of the time I get enough support just by following the other threads but lately (the last 7 or 8 weeks) we are really struggling with sleep and I'm beginning to feel I'm failing. Any and all advice would be so appreciated!

 Up until about 10 week LO was sleeping 5-7 hours at a stretch. That all changed when I went back to work full time. Now we are lucky to get 3 hours at a time and she won't sleep past 5:00 am. We are both becoming sleep deprived and I don't know what to do. She is a pretty good napper during the day and she usually will fall asleep initially without too much trouble but its the night wakings and the early wake up time that is killing me. My husband works night so it's up to me to get her back down when she gets up. 

I am breast feeding and have been feeding her every time she gets up. That usually means we fall asleep together in the chair in her room and when I wake up I put her back in her crib in her room and return to my bed for maybe an hour until she is up again. I don't know how to tell if she is really hungry when she gets up or if I should just try to rock her back to sleep without feeding.

 I feel like I have read every bit of advice out there on how to help baby sleep. I really like Elizabeth Pantley's no cry sleep. I'm not a big fan of cry it out. I have been thinking about using some of the techniques in her book but its so hard to be consistent with anything in middle of the night when al I want to do is go back to sleep knowing I have to up and functioning at work in a few hours. 

 Sorry this was so long. Again any support/advice would be so appreciated. Thanks! 

OhBaby+2013

First off, welcome!  Secondly, sorry you are having a hard time.  Now, do you use a soother at all?  If so, maybe try giving her the soother first without picking her up.  I do this now if DS starts to fuss, then if he is truly hungry he will wake up and cry.  Most of the time he will take a couple sucks then head straight back to dream land.  Do you swaddle?  If not can you?  Maybe she wants the extra comfort?  We just stopped the swaddle but after two days of no blankets at all I put him in a sleep sac and that made all the difference.  Good luck.  I hope someone here is able to give you an idea that works!

zonagirlie

All of what pp said but also could you try putting baby down later? What about cosleeping? If baby is in room you can soothe without really waking up. I do it a lot!

mistd78

I am also not  a fan of cry it out, so for me, while DD would wake up more, she sleeps in bed with me when she is inconsolable in the middle of the night.  We both fall back asleep and are happy.  She is making the transition back to her crib again, and she will be 20 weeks tomorrow.  She is sleeping much better at night than she was recently, but some struggles during the day, but nothing to worry about.  Good luck

abbyjoelle

Thank you!  We will keep working on it.