WTF sleep training...Im going CRAZY!!

lsmithk2 · May 2012

My son will be 6 months tomorrow and he's been STTN since about 12 weeks. He also was fairly easy to put to bed. I just nursed him to sleep after bedtime routine and he was out like a light for the night. It was so easy. Well, I guess Karma is a *** or something, because no it's a nightmare getting him to sleep. This all started almost 3 weeks ago and I chalked it up to being more aware of his surroundings and maybe a bit of seperation anxiety. Also, he may be teething...Im a FTM and the level of uncertainity is freaking killing me. So I EBF and I had no problem putting him to bed until recently. Now we do bedtime routine, then nurse and put him in his crib and then the bloody murder screaming starts. I do the CIO method, but the crying isn't getting consistantly shorter each night. Some nights it's an hour and a half and some nights its 30, 45 min or nothing at all. What the hell do I do? I know he is feed, changed and in no danger. Is this just a phase? I feel so bad for him, it just kills me to hear him scream. I hate this!! What happened to falling asleep on the boob??? I miss my boob power!

Oh yeah, forgot the books...they all say your baby will stop crying less and less as each night passes. Ummm, I'm calling BS on that!!!

NineTwentyOhEight · May 2012

Teething? I chalk any sleep issues up to teething. Ada seems to feel it worse at night and not that she ever has really consistently slept through the night, but lately night sleep has been worse and I think it is due to teething.

Is he crying like he's hurting? Is he easily soothed if you do go to him? Have you tried some Motrin?

I don't know...I guess I don't have any really great advice, but I have heard that when they are getting ready to sleep they often notice the pain from teething more.

beachbum3293 · May 2012

we are living the same life! this is exactly what I posted yesterday! I'm going nuts too! She has been SSTN since 1 mths old... and now she is a disaster. She goes down fine, but within an hour, she is awake.. then sometimes it may take us up to 3 hrs to get her to sleep. I have tried everything too.. NOTHING is working!

smilelari · May 2012

What time are you putting him to bed? How well does he nap? Have you tried earlier or later bed times? Are you putting him down awake? If so have you tried waiting until he's asleep to put him down?

lsmithk2 · May 2012

I put him to bed between 7:15-7:45. He usually takes 3 naps a day, morning, mid afternoon and early evening. His morning nap is the best one of the day. He goes down really easy, little to no fussing at all. He'll sleep for 1 to 1.5 hours usually. The mid afternoon nap is easy to get him down, but he'll only sleep for 30min and wakes up super unhappy, the early evening nap is the same way. He used to sleep for and 1.5hr at his mid afternoon nap, but when this bedtime nightmare starting happening he wont sleep longer than 30min and now I'm lucky if I get a 30min catnap in the late afternoon. He's sometimes so fussy by 6:30, thats when we start bedtime routine, it's hard for me to handle.

I have waited til he is asleep until I put him down, but as soon as I put him down it's wide awake and screaming and he's never been like that. He knows how to put himself to sleep, he does it for all his naps and if he wakes in the middle of the night he'll just fuss a little, maybe a minute or 2 and put himself right back to sleep.

So I feel like I've tried everything. I hope this is just a weird phase. He has learned how to roll from back to front and front to back and he is really close to sitting up and also we started solids about 2 weeks ago. Could it just be developmental???

smilelari · May 2012

lsmithk2:
I put him to bed between 7:15-7:45. He usually takes 3 naps a day, morning, mid afternoon and early evening. His morning nap is the best one of the day. He goes down really easy, little to no fussing at all. He'll sleep for 1 to 1.5 hours usually. The mid afternoon nap is easy to get him down, but he'll only sleep for 30min and wakes up super unhappy, the early evening nap is the same way. He used to sleep for and 1.5hr at his mid afternoon nap, but when this bedtime nightmare starting happening he wont sleep longer than 30min and now I'm lucky if I get a 30min catnap in the late afternoon. He's sometimes so fussy by 6:30, thats when we start bedtime routine, it's hard for me to handle.

I have waited til he is asleep until I put him down, but as soon as I put him down it's wide awake and screaming and he's never been like that. He knows how to put himself to sleep, he does it for all his naps and if he wakes in the middle of the night he'll just fuss a little, maybe a minute or 2 and put himself right back to sleep.

So I feel like I've tried everything. I hope this is just a weird phase. He has learned how to roll from back to front and front to back and he is really close to sitting up and also we started solids about 2 weeks ago. Could it just be developmental???

If he's already fussy at 6:30, he probably needs to be in bed at 6:30. I'd try backing up the routine so that you can be laying him down before he gets fussy

The afternoon naps are probably contributing to a problem with being overtired. The earlier bedtime might help sort out the afternoon naps

mben1119 · May 2012

smilelari:
The afternoon naps are probably contributing to a problem with being overtired. The earlier bedtime might help sort out the afternoon naps

This. DS goes to bed before 7 every night, so we skip the overtired/cranky/screaming part of our day. When he's tired, we put him to bed-for us, that is more important than adhering to a schedule. Babies will make their own schedule. Also, is he teething? I know when DS was teething, if I would put him down on his back he would wake up and scream bloody murder. We ended up putting him down on his side.

Natty13umppo · May 2012

lsmithk2:
What happened to falling asleep on the boob??? I miss my boob power!

LOL! This is us exactly! I've always nursed DD to sleep. It worked great. She'd STTN and nighttime was good.

But in the last three weeks, the boob has lost it's power! The boob still calms her but she won't fall asleep (or if she does, she quickly reawakens). So as soon as she goes into her crib, the screaming begins. And so now bedtime is NOT easy.

After three weeks of trying all sorts of stuff (trying to calm her in the crib, trying to calm her while swaying with her, etc.....nothing worked (though sometimes nursing her again after 30-60 min of trying everything else would put her to sleep)), last night we tried modified Ferber. It took the same amount of time as our trying to be comforting actions took and her fuss level was the same so a wash? I don't know. I wish I knew how to make going to sleep better for her. We've been trying to keep evening time calm. We've pushed her bedtime routine start earlier. But it's a vicious cycle because her naps are horrible too. Ugh.

But she screams and screams and screams and then we take one step out of her room and it stops. One step back in and the screaming begins again. (she's fine in her room during the day....it's just when she's fighting sleep).

ETA: "we" equal me and DD or DH and DD - when SHE leaves the room, she calms down....when she returns, she freaks out....it's not about me or DH leaving her.

And i KNOW she wakes up at night and puts herself back to sleep - i've seen it on the monitor! Gah!

But I miss my boob power, too.

Want a personalized experience?

WTF sleep training...Im going CRAZY!!

Re: WTF sleep training...Im going CRAZY!!

Choose Another Board

Search Boards