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Northern California Babies
Help! I need some sleep...
Alright girls. I need secrets, tricks, bribes that work. My child will not sleep anymore.
Some background:
- G started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks 10-12 hours. Down at 8, up between 6am and 8am (I know, I know. We were damn lucky)
- At 3 months, he started waking up between 5am and 6am (for the day)
- At 4 months, he started waking up around 3am.
- Two weeks ago he started waking up at 11pm, 1am and 3am
- Last week he started waking up at 4:30 for the day...
We've tried:
- putting him to sleep earlier
- leaving one arm out of the swaddle
- no swaddle
- overnight diapers
We're about to try:
- blackout shades. But I don't think that's the issue as there is zero light at 1am and 3am...
Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?
Oh, and G is NOT a napper. We get 45 minutes in the morning and the later afternoon and sometimes 30 minutes or so around lunch. He's the freaking energizer bunny!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Help! I need some sleep...
I remember Natalie going through this at about G's age...it was torture after have full nights of sleep.
We had to go with CIO at that time, it was obvious that she was still tired, not hungry and often not even wet....so as hard as it was I just had to let her cry.
The first few nights she'd cry for a little bit, but after a couple nights she'd stir at about 3 am and then back to sleep until 7 am.
I also at that time made sure to give her a nice big bottle right before bed and make sure she got lots of cuddle time....I found that if she had time to get calmed down before bedtime she would sleep better and longer. Prior to that she would just crash as soon as she was in her bassinett, she didn't need calm down time.
Actually, I'd say it's the non-napping affecting his nighttime sleep. Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child helped us a lot with naps...we went from a non napper to a two nap (1.5-2 hours) a day girl.
I've used the book for some insight anytime we run into a sleep issue and it always seems to work. For instance, right now she is fighting nighttime sleep and she has never done that. We'll move her bedtime up tonight to see if that helps. It has in the past. GL!
We've gone through almost the exact same thing here - night sleep and napping. She went through a 5:30 am up for the day phase. It started for us around 4.5 months and then she got her first teeth at 5 months. Only within the last two weeks has her sleeping gotten better and dare I say she might be STTN again. I don't know if it's teeth, skills or just a phase. Our pedi said at her weight, she should be able to go through the night without eating - not sure if that's the case for you.
I know this isn't going to make you feel any better and it probably won't help you, but I'm telling you anyway. Eve didn't sleep through the night after the four-month sleep regression started until she was almost nine months old. She started teething and crawling early so I think she just went from one big developmental leap to another.
I hope this isn't the case with G, but when that happened to us we started switching night duty. I would take it one night; DH would take it the next. We shared Friday nights. It helped us each get at least a few full nights of sleep during the week. Also, when she was waking up at 4:30 and staying awake, we could get her to go back to sleep if we brought her to bed with us. It was the only way she'd go back down. Our family motto: "Do whatever gets the most people the most sleep."
For us anything before 6 am (what we consider "sleep" time),I let Maddy CIO or what I call "work it out" for x number of minutes. Whatever # of minutes I am comfortable with. 99% of the time she falls back asleep before I go in there.
We realized awhile back that if Maddy sees us at night, it makes the crying worse (and last longer). Picking her up led to her completely waking up and (even worse) fussy. So we stopped.
I know CIO is hard, and not for everyone but its worked for us. (so far)
Ditto going into the room. Our pedi gave us the same advice about setting a wake up time too and not going in before then.
(I obviously failed, as my DD still wakes up 1-2 times a night...)
Sorry, but welcome to my world in regard to napping.
Have you tried warm bath, warm bottle and putting him in your bed, then move him over to his crib?
Hang in there Meg. we went through this too and it is FINALLY getting better. I think it takes time and a little sleep training. I also think better naps help, and Mrs.K&C's recomindation is a good one.
What helped us was getting someone to take Riley once every other week overnight. Not sure if that is an option for you but you might ask family, a friend or even higher a night doula. We used my two bestfriends, one of which is for higher, if you are intreasted I can give you her info. I will also say she is MUCH cheaper than the night doulas I talked to.