HELP! I need sleep!

futuremrs.inman · October 2011

I am going on 5 1/2 months of no sleep! I swear I've lost WEEKS of sleep with my crazy DD. She goes to sleep fine but wakes up several times a night. Usually twice to eat and the rest we have to put her paci back in. I am desperate and will try anything at this point.

Background info: she is BF but gets 1-2 bottles of formula at the sitter depending on how much I can pump the day before. She's been on solids for about a month now and has done fine on them. She's never had reflux issues and has only spit up a handful of times. The longest she has EVER slept at night was 5 hours and that was months ago...hasn't happened since then. We just stopped swaddling this week thinking maybe that was it. So we switched to the sleep sack and the first night she was up every 2 hours, last night she slep from 9-1 then was up every hour after that. I've tried all temps for her room thinking she might be too hot or too cold and that hasn't helped. I've tried white noise, sleeping in swing, sleeping in carseat, sleeping wedge, pillows under the matress to its inclined....same bedtime routine every night...ugh. I feel like we've tried everything except sleep training which I was trying to hold off until after 6 months.

Any advice or things I should be trying? I am a walking zombie and really don't know how I keep functioning everyday on such little sleep. HELP!!!!

Nancy729 · October 2011

How are you putting her to sleep - rocking until she is asleep or putting her down awake to fall asleep on her own?

futuremrs.inman · October 2011

I do nurse her before bed but not with the intentions of nursing to sleep. I would say she is half asleep when I put her down. She is a very light sleeper anyway so even if she was asleep when I nursed her she would partially wake up when I stood up and put her down in the crib.

Nancy729 · October 2011

I don' t know how you feel about Ferber, but his book really helped us a lot. We did do a little bit of CIO, but my son only cried for 3 minutes tops. We were lucky in that regard. What do you do when she wakes up during the night? Do you go get her right away or let her try to put herself back to sleep?

AZ123 · October 2011

How are her naps during the day? When's her last nap of the day? What's her bedtime? Does she put herself to sleep on her own for naps, etc?

I say, she needs Baby Bootcamp. DS1 was exactly like how you describe her (only he didn't do the paci). At 5.5 months we went cold turkey. Put him to bed at 7 pm and told him "see you no earlier than 5a.m" It sucks when they cry (DS1 cried on and off for 1.5 hours the first night and then varied after that and we were done within 5 days) but ultimately is worth it.

Honestly, it sounds like you've tried everything else and if you keep it going of these night wakings past 6, 8 or 10 months you could actually hinder her development, etc. It sucks to have them cry, but once they start learning how to sleep well at night they're just happier babies all around.

PinkNoise123 · October 2011

Maybe I read your post wrong, but did you try going back to the swaddle? Maybe she still needs it for a little while longer. We don't swaddle DD (she sleeps in her swing) but I know a lot of ladies on TB wean their babies from their swaddles... One arm out, then the other, rather than going cold turkey.

Mrs.Saxy · October 2011

belly to sleep?

good luck, you've really tried a lot

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