Will only sleep when held

Arvadamom · January 2013

My DD is 5.5 months and will only sleep for long periods of time when held. This would not be such a proplem but I do have a 2 year old son who would also like me to play with him. At night DD will only sleep for 1.5-2 hours till she wakes up and has to be rocked back to sleep. Everyone tells me to just let her Cry it out but my DH and I cant do it. Any advice?

TIA

peachykeen2900 · January 2013

I look forward to reading the responses on this! I have a 4 month old and we are just now on a schedule where he'll take long naps during the day when held and is also up every 12 hours at night. Crying it out is also not an option for us lol but I am glad I'm not the only one w a high maintenance sleeper :

BelhurstBride · January 2013

DD was the same. Do you have a swing? It's the only thing that remotely worked for us.

jday1229 · January 2013

One thing that helped us at that age was knowing his sleep cycles and either holding him for his first cycle and then putting him down once he moved into his second cycle or else be next to him with a hand on his back or some other way of close comfort for that first > second cycle transition.

I forget which book gives a good explanation of sleep cycles and I don't have them at hand. No Cry Sleep Solution maybe? Someone here will probably remember.

jshf · January 2013

I had the same situation and basically got good at holding DS2 and playing with DS1 or doing other stuff. I wore him in a sling so it was easier. I also got them to nap around the same time. They both nap around 12:302.

DS1 still takes a short nap in the morning and usually I nurse him to sleep then will take him to his room and lay him down on a toddler mattress. Then he usually will nap for 2030 min. DS1 will sometimes follow me upstairs and play in my room while I put him down.

DS1 has also just gotten used to me having to nurse DS2 or hold him for naps. So we do quiet things or sometimes put the tv on. It gets easier as both kids are getting older, having a routine and DS2 now generally only naps 2x a day.

GL!

Blackrose1918 · January 2013

Babywearing! DS does the same thing but wrapping him seems to work great.

pepomntpat · January 2013

My DD was the same way. I just wore her all the time. She'd sleep for 2 hours int he Moby or 20 minutes in the crib. I used the Moby.

pixieprincss · January 2013

Babywearing for naps (back carries are especially great for you being able to play or do chores) and bed-sharing/side-laying nursing at night.

Oleg&Liz · January 2013

I went through 12 months of this before I let her CIO. Before that the only thing that did work for some time was putting her swing in her room with a sound machine and she had to be swaddled and asleep before i put in her in the swing, then I turned the swing on. Of course she finally got too big to be swaddled without being strapped in but it worked pretty well for a good period of time before that happened.

skibunny59 · January 2013

My 9 month old DD started doing this about 2 months ago. Before that she would sleep well at night but I had to hold her for all naps. At around 6 months I was finally able to put her down for naps but I notice she still doesn't sleep as long for naps unless I nap with her in bed. If I nap with her she will sleep much longer.

For naps, I would wear your DD. That will leave you free to play with your 2 year old. For nighttime I am not much help. My DD wakes every 1.5-2 hours looking for my boob so she can go back to sleep. She will not take a pacifier and it is frustrating. She sleeps in bed with us because we realize it is how we are able to get the most amount of sleep. We also don't CIO. My DD doesn't cry or fuss, she screams bloody murder. I just can't imagine listening to that for even just 5 minutes.

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