How do you handle night wake-ups when LO is sick?

umdbride · January 2012

Ordinarily LO is a pretty good sleeper and will go down around 7 and stay asleep until 6:30 or 7. Last night though, he woke up twice crying in the middle of the night and we couldn't figure out why - until this morning when his nose was so stuffy that he could barely nurse Sad

If LO wakes up in the middle of the night we usually give him a minute or two to put himself back to sleep (which he usually does within less than a minute), but when he's sick I'm not sure what we should be doing. Last night DH went in and rocked DS until he was calm and then put him back down drowsy but awake and he fussed (not crying) for a minute and went to sleep.

Now that we know he was sick I feel bad that we let him fuss, like we should have just brought him to our bed or held him until he fell asleep. But then again I don't want to set him up for a night or two of re-Ferbering after he's not sick anymore but used to our cuddles....

So, how do you handle it when LO wakes up at night when he/she is sick? Do you go in right away and soothe until they're sleeping? co-sleep? try to keep things as normal as possible and give the opportunity to self-soothe?

TIA!

WinesNotWhines · January 2012

We don't let him cry for long at night when he's sick, because I know he feels crappy and he often can't just go back to sleep. Usually we go in and offer him some water and a paci. He'll often go right back to sleep after that. Sometimes we have to stay in his room for a little while until he goes back to sleep.

umdbride · January 2012

WinesNotWhines:
We don't let him cry for long at night when he's sick, because I know he feels crappy and he often can't just go back to sleep. Usually we go in and offer him some water and a paci. He'll often go right back to sleep after that. Sometimes we have to stay in his room for a little while until he goes back to sleep.

That's what we're thinking too, but then how does he do going back to his regular sleep routine when he's well?

WinesNotWhines · January 2012

umdbride:

WinesNotWhines:
We don't let him cry for long at night when he's sick, because I know he feels crappy and he often can't just go back to sleep. Usually we go in and offer him some water and a paci. He'll often go right back to sleep after that. Sometimes we have to stay in his room for a little while until he goes back to sleep.

That's what we're thinking too, but then how does he do going back to his regular sleep routine when he's well?

He goes back to sleeping fine when he's not sick anymore, but I realize every kid is different in this respect.

mssaint · January 2012

LO was awfully sick last week, and was waking up all the time. I would go in and nurse and rock him. He's been non-stuffy for a day or two and sttn last night, so it wasn't too hard for him to get back to reasonable sleeping habits (he also doesn't consistently sttn anyway).

The downside to all the nursing when he was sick was that my supply got boosted just before I'm starting to wean.

Jitterbug2668 · January 2012

Once we realize he's sick (there was one time we didn't even know he slept in a bed of throw up since he never cried) we do our best to remedy the sickness immediately. If he's stuffy, we suction out the nose, spray saline, offer a bottle to clear the nose, Vicks on his chest and feet and put Vicks vapor steam in his humidifier then I rock him til he's calmed down. He generally won't fall back asleep on me and he may fuss just a tad when I put him back down but after that we're generally good. If he wakes up in the middle of the night coughing as long as he's not screaming then I just let him handle putting himself back to sleep.

tracy042206 · January 2012

I wouldn't feel bad about letting him fuss - he needs sleep even when sick and if you just let him fuss for a few minutes (we usually let them go with fussing for 15) and he falls back to sleep that is great for everyone involved that he got back to sleep faster. For us we would go in and rock them and try to get them to sleep but basically we would do just about anything to get them back to sleep while they were sick and deal with the consequences later. Sometimes they went right back to their normal sleep routine and other times we had to CIO, but it was never as bad as the first CIO and they caught on quickly and after one night.

Sofka · January 2012

I am a softie, and will cuddle, rock, or co-sleep - whatever it takes to my LO feel better and fall back asleep.

I am not gonna end up with 12 y.o. who wants to sleep on my chest so I am not worried.

Artslvr · January 2012

Like Sofka, we just do whatever it takes for kiddo to get back to sleep - rock them in their room, have them sleep on our chest in our bed for a little while, let them fuss a little once they're back in their crib so they can get some rest, all of the above. Our kids are pretty good at getting back to regular sleep schedules after some restless nights.

umdbride · January 2012

Thanks ladies - glad to know we're pretty on par with everyone else. I was just a little torn between letting him fuss or cry while he's sick or giving him extra cuddles and then having to CIO for a day or so when he's well. I wondered if there was some other trick I was missing. Maybe he'll just go back to normal sleep when he's well without any CIO...a girl can dream, right?!

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