tokenhoser/KCKappa/melpatbat/missisue

jcsumm0 · August 2012

I hope this doesn't sound too stalkerish of me, but I know we all have babies around the same age and we've all posted in the past about BFing and sleep issues with our babies. I'm just wondering how your LOs are doing now? Anything that you've tried recently that is working well for you?

Evie seemed to be moving toward STTN on her own around 13 months. She'd sleep all night a few times a week and be up once or twice a few times. Then we went on vacay, she was sick, she got molars, we went OOT again, and now she has hand, foot, and mouth and we are back to waking 2 or 3 times. I alternate back and forth between "I'm a lousy mother b/c my 15 month old won't STTN" to a zen, "she slept before and she'll sleep again" mentality.

How are things at your house?

tokenhoser · August 2012

At 15 months, he has never slept all night. Not once, not ever.

We've had some ups and downs. He was only getting up once for a while, and then he got HFM and it got worse and stayed that way. I just finished reading "Sleepless in America" which says to expect sleep problems every 3 months up to 2 years (so 9, 12, 15, 18 months) and that has been true for us.

I just decided to restrict night feeds again. I'm only feeding once. He's dropped from 3 wakings to 2 the past few nights. I'm hoping soon he'll be down to just waking to eat at 3 or 4, and maybe (sigh) someday he'll sleep through that.

QuiltingBee · August 2012

I know I wasn't included in the call out and I'm more of a lurker but my little one is the same age...and he has yet to sleep through the night. Ever. Not. Even. Close.

Around 3 or 4 months he had a 4 hour stretch here or there. And that is the most sleep I've had since he was born. Since then I've been lucky if he goes for 2 hours between wakings.

I'm functioning only because DH moved to the guest room and LO moved into my bed. I'm trying to night wean a bit at this point but it hasn't been going well. I just hate to hear him cry and he gets so upset.

He's a happy little critter during the day, though. He really is a joy. But I'm tired!

KCKappa · August 2012

DD slept through the night a handful of times just before she hit 4 months and never has since. She had four ear infections in a row after that, then lots of travel around the holidays, then got all four molars at the same time, then got HFM, etc.

Around 11 months we started bringing her into bed with us after her first waking because I just couldn't deal anymore with having to get up every 1-2 hrs, walk to her room, get her back to sleep and hope she stayed asleep when I put her back in her crib... rinse and repeat. With her in our bed I at least didn't have to get up when she woke every 2-3 hrs!

Around 14 months she climbed out of her crib, so we moved her to a full-size mattress on the floor in her room, and when she wakes up I join her there for the rest of the night. We've had some improvement since then - she's sleeping a bit longer before her first waking (like 2-3 hrs vs. 1.5 hrs so nothing earth-shattering) and most nights she just wakes 1 or 2 times after that.

We've also started having DH put her to bed every other night and after just a couple of slightly rough tries, they're now pros at it, which gives me a bit more freedom and makes me feel like we're moving toward a point when she'll go to sleep without nursing. We might consider trying to nightwean after she's 18 month, but we'll see...

ETA: Just wanted to add, I also have days I feel like maybe I've done everything wrong since she doesn't STTN... but in the past few weeks I've had a lot more "zen" days where I'm able to remember that motherhood isn't a contest and she'll get there in her own time - for now this is what works for us. GL to you and your DD!

missisue · August 2012

We're actually doing really, really well on the sleeping front. We took what I call an "extended" approach to the Sleep Lady Shuffle (weeks rather than days between the steps, plus I would let her fall asleep holding my hand at first) and it seems to have worked. We have a very consistent bedtime routine and she goes to sleep at night so sweet and easy in her own crib. We had one week or so where she slept all the way around until 6:30 or 7 a.m., but lately she's been waking up around 4:30 or 5 a.m. We just bring her to bed at that point to nurse and sleep a little bit more. Honestly, I really prefer the latter because then we all get to snuggle and play in bed before really starting the day.

Naps are a bit of a struggle because she's trying to transition from two naps to one, but it hasn't seemed to affect her nighttime sleep at all. She recently got four molars at the same time, and it only gave us one or two nights with middle of the night wakings. In those instances, we let her fuss for 3-5 minutes to see if she could get back to sleep, and if not, brought her to bed. But overall, I'm ecstatic at the sleep situation. I didn't follow the program exactly, but some of the Sleep Lady Tips seemed to do the trick for us.

tokenhoser · August 2012

All the "programs" seem so focused on getting them to go to sleep on their own. My son has gone to sleep on his own since 6 months. We don't have a problem there. He does down for naps fine (still 2 a day).

He just wakes up. A lot. And he won't put himself back down when he does (although we're starting to work on that again).

missisue · August 2012

tokenhoser:
All the "programs" seem so focused on getting them to go to sleep on their own. My son has gone to sleep on his own since 6 months. We don't have a problem there. He does down for naps fine (still 2 a day).
He just wakes up. A lot. And he won't put himself back down when he does (although we're starting to work on that again).

I wish I had words of advice. She used to only sleep for an hour in her crib. Then it was two. And then it was three. One night, when she started fussing, we were both really tired and decided to give it 5 minutes. She magically went back to sleep. Now we pretty much follow that 5-minute rule for any wake-ups before 5 a.m. It works great at night. Not at all for naps.

These little stinkers all have their own stamp on the sleep process, don't they?

jcsumm0 · August 2012

Thanks everyone for your responses. While I wish you were all getting more sleep, it is nice to know I'm not the only one out there, and that different approaches have worked for different people.

I do nurse her to sleep most of the time, but if she's still awake when she's done nursing, she'll also fall asleep on her own, but she doesn't necessarily sleep better that way. I should go read the Sleep Lady shuffle again though. It would be nice if I weren't the only person in the world who could put her to bed.

My big issue is that we had some trouble with her gaining weight when she was first born, and again around 4 months. She is still on the small side (10th percentile) and I'm just reluctant to night wean her because she doesn't just latch on and fall back asleep, she drains both boobs and then falls back asleep. I try as best I can to get as many calories in her as possible, but I won't force feed her. Anyway, I think it is probably mostly my hang up with the weight thing, but I just don't know if I'm ready to night wean her. I go back and forth about it all the time.

And token, thanks for bringing up Sleepless in America. I've been meaning to read that.

tokenhoser · August 2012

I'm in the same place - DS is about 10th percentile and not a great eater. Couple that with me working full-time and I have some mom-guilt about wanting to night wean so I can sleep. He will also chow down on both sides - it's a serious feed if I just do it once.

Sleep Lady Shuffle just doesn't work with mine, I'm afraid. I'm also still shell-shocked from our last Ferber attempt at Christmas. He'll go for over an hour at 3 a.m. to get what he wants.

I'm trying to stay positive and reading a lot of stuff about temperament and how kids are just different - they have different needs and different responses. Trying to focus on how we're really doing, which is okay usually and then every once in a while really rather bad. Trying to have patience that he WILL sleep eventually, but it's hard to keep up the optimism after 15 months.

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