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Baby sleep issues - advice? (long - sorry)
I feel like I keep bringing it up but I need some input from experienced moms on Travis' sleep schedule because I am doubting myself all over the place at this point! Travis (6 mos) is a decent night sleeper but his naps are really hit/miss and he wakes up pretty early. I am trying to figure out how to tweak his schedule OR maybe there is no change that needs to be made and I need to let it go. Here's an average day:
- 5am - Wakes up. I feed him, and he is usually "up". Very occasionally he will nurse back to sleep.
- 7am - nurse again and back down for nap. 50% of the time he doesn't nap at this point.
- Nurse sometime in the morning.
- Noon-ish (this could vary up to an hour) - nurse again and back down for nap #2 (or #1 depending on if he slept... this one really varies). If he does nap, it could be for 45 minutes or it could be for 2 hours.
- 4pm - Nurse
- 5pm - Try to feed solids (struggling with this too)
- 6 - 7pm - Nurse and bedtime. Again, I vary his bedtime based upon his naps that day, or lack thereof. It seems like even if I put him down at 6 or 7:15 he still wakes up at 5am.
Deep breath.... I am a big proponent of really solid sleeping schedules. I don't want him to be overtired and a schedule works best since we have our 2 year old to deal with too. Also, I'm pretty sure Travis is teething, although one hasn't popped through yet.
So what do I do? To me, he should be on a 2 naps/day and a solid night's sleep. He does get minimum 10 hours/sleep per night and I am very grateful for that... but the 5am is killing me. And the random nap routine is killing me too. So do I deal with it or are there changes I should make? I am trying to think past what I did with our first son (which clearly isn't working) and be open minded. Or, do I just keep trying the routine I'm working on and hope it sets in at some point?
Help!?
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Re: Baby sleep issues - advice? (long - sorry)
I am probably not a lot of help, as my DS was a bad sleeper. He didn't STTN until around 1 and is easily thrown out of it. He never ever took 3 naps, I found the idea such a novel one, as I was lucky to get him to nap on me twice a day. I think sleeping 10+ straight hours at night is good at that age. Personally, I would probably choose night sleep over naps since eventually naps will go away anyways, but that is just me.
Maybe he is over-tired by the time you are trying for nap? Maybe try the naps 30 minutes sooner? GL!
That is pretty much how things are going in this house too.
5am is a killer. about half of the time i can get him to go back down until 7am-ish. Most of the time he won't nap until noon (from 7am)- However- the 5am wake up is usually because DH is being loud when he is getting ready in the AM. grrr
there have been PLENTY of days that i just can't get him down for a nap AT ALL. And for a 4 month old that makes for a VERY long day. lol
when you say you are having trouble with solids? how so?-
I just started cereal with Chase- and we are doing it 2x a day- and i have noticed that he does seem more content and will happily stretch out his nursing sessions a little bit (we are talking he wanted to nurse every 90 min from 7am until 7pm)
I'll tell you everything we did for ds1 and maybe you'll get something out of it. IDK. DS1 was a terrible sleeper till 6 months. At 6 months, we did CIO (with checking on him every 5 min) and this was for naps and nighttime. We were extremely consistent with a bedtime of 7pm and 2 naps at 9am and I think 2pm. DS1 also woke at 5am to eat. I remember also having trouble getting him back to sleep. I remember I added an extra layer of curtain to make it very dark in his room and I also think I got to him as soon as he made a peep so that he never got fully awake. Like I was saying, I nursed him laying down on a twin bed in his room and for weeks I would sleep next to him till 7 so that he got used to the routine of going back to sleep.
If there was any doubt in my mind that he might wake when I returned him to his crib, I wouldn't do it. I'd stay there. He finally made it a habit of going back to sleep. For naps, my ds would only do 45 min too and I've read its a developmental thing. So right when I'd hear him peep, I'd go in and rock him back to sleep. So for the first part of the nap, he was putting himself to sleep and then after 40 min I would start listening and then get him right away and rock him back to sleep. He FINALLY started doing "double" naps on his own instead of snaps=short naps. I do think it will change soon for you guys and you can encourage it by rocking him back to sleep. Oh, I also nursed him before every nap so that I knew he wasn't awake or crying due to hunger. (although he never fell asleep while nursing).
I am not saying ANY of this is practical with a toddler and I don't know what I'm going to do this time around. Good luck to you. I think a good routine is just around the corner.
I don't have really have any advice, but just wanted to say that I am right there with you
Corbin's naps are all over the place...every time I think I'm starting to figure it out something changes. His first two teeth are coming in and it's been miserable. I can't imagine what it's like with a 2 year old in the mix!
Hope things get better for you soon!
Thanks for all the encouragement ladies... even though I don't want us all to experience misery, its nice to know there are others who are in the same place.
It sounds like most of you are advising me to stay the course and just see how it works out... probably good advice. I'm not sure what other options I have anyway? I would love to do a more structured schedule like you mentioned poppyseed. I did that with our first son and it really worked well (after a while) and now he's a really good napper and night sleeper. But it is so much harder when there's another little person distracting you and making noise.
I'll keep at it...