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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
SunTan313
member
Need help with sleep!!
SunTan313
member
Ok so here's what's going on and I'd LOVE some advice :
LO is almost 4 months old. Slept pretty well in the Rock n Play in our room for first 2 months, then outgrew it she would be scrunched up in the bottom of it and was uncomfortable so we started using the Arm's Reach Co Sleeper in our room. She went from 4 to 5 hour stretches in the RNP to no more than 2 hours consecutively in the flat bassinet.
Fast forward to about three and a half months where we were so worn out from her not sleeping flat that we got desperate and tried the swing. She slept pretty well in it for about two weeks or so.. usually 3 to 4 hour stretches with a random 5 to 6 hour stretch here and there! Now she is back to only sleeping about 1 to 2 hours at a time in the swing at night before waking up and needing us to help her get back to sleep, which she does pretty easily at night, thank God. We keep it dark, don't talk to her and have a sound machine going.
She wakes up for the day about 8:30 and takes about 3 to 4 naps a day.. Usually each nap is 45 min ito 1 hour with one nap a day lasting around 2 hours. I would love to cut this down and avoid a late evening nap but she gets so upset nothing works but putting her down for a nap. She takes naps in the swing in our living room because I want her to get used to hearing sounds for naps and for her to be in a well lit room so she knows the difference between naps and bedtime.
I breastfeed and she only eats about 7 to 10 minutes total every 3 or more hours. Doc is okay with this and says she must be an efficient eater because she's gaining weight. I don't feed her at night when she wakes unless it's been more than 3 hours. We do have a bedtime routine with a bath every other night, swaddle and rock to sleep in her room. We leave her legs out to swaddle her when she's going to sleep in her swing.
I've tried many times to get her to nap in her crib but she wakes up right away. I'm seriously at my wits end and don't know what to do. Sorry this is so long but I wanted to put it all out there so I could get some suggestions on what I might be doing wrong! We do not want to do CIO but are getting so desperate that it has crossed my mind a time or two. I just don't think I could handle it and I think she's still too young. I do try to let her cry 5 to 10 mins before picking her up but she only cries harder when I do that.
Any advice? Thanks :
LO is almost 4 months old. Slept pretty well in the Rock n Play in our room for first 2 months, then outgrew it she would be scrunched up in the bottom of it and was uncomfortable so we started using the Arm's Reach Co Sleeper in our room. She went from 4 to 5 hour stretches in the RNP to no more than 2 hours consecutively in the flat bassinet.
Fast forward to about three and a half months where we were so worn out from her not sleeping flat that we got desperate and tried the swing. She slept pretty well in it for about two weeks or so.. usually 3 to 4 hour stretches with a random 5 to 6 hour stretch here and there! Now she is back to only sleeping about 1 to 2 hours at a time in the swing at night before waking up and needing us to help her get back to sleep, which she does pretty easily at night, thank God. We keep it dark, don't talk to her and have a sound machine going.
She wakes up for the day about 8:30 and takes about 3 to 4 naps a day.. Usually each nap is 45 min ito 1 hour with one nap a day lasting around 2 hours. I would love to cut this down and avoid a late evening nap but she gets so upset nothing works but putting her down for a nap. She takes naps in the swing in our living room because I want her to get used to hearing sounds for naps and for her to be in a well lit room so she knows the difference between naps and bedtime.
I breastfeed and she only eats about 7 to 10 minutes total every 3 or more hours. Doc is okay with this and says she must be an efficient eater because she's gaining weight. I don't feed her at night when she wakes unless it's been more than 3 hours. We do have a bedtime routine with a bath every other night, swaddle and rock to sleep in her room. We leave her legs out to swaddle her when she's going to sleep in her swing.
I've tried many times to get her to nap in her crib but she wakes up right away. I'm seriously at my wits end and don't know what to do. Sorry this is so long but I wanted to put it all out there so I could get some suggestions on what I might be doing wrong! We do not want to do CIO but are getting so desperate that it has crossed my mind a time or two. I just don't think I could handle it and I think she's still too young. I do try to let her cry 5 to 10 mins before picking her up but she only cries harder when I do that.
Any advice? Thanks :
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Need help with sleep!!
One question: Do you rock your baby completely to sleep? If so, you may benefit from teaching your baby how to fall asleep on her own. That way, when she goes through her sleep cycles and has a brief awakening, she can put herself back to sleep.
This and other ideas if your baby does fall asleep on her own are explained in Elizabeth Pantley's books: "The nocry sleep solution" and "The nocry nap solution". I've found these books VERY helpful.
I had trouble with baby's sleep habits at the beginning and got lots of advice from TONS of people and here's what worked for me.
Swaddle blankets don't work for our family. We love to use sleeper sacks and found that baby enjoys them much more too.
White noise. We have a heater in baby's room that we set to certain temperature and it regulates the heat and creates a nice white noise that is soothing for baby.
Notice when your baby gets tired at night naturally and work around that. For a long time, we would put baby to sleep around 9 because it was easier for us but we noticed that he was naturally trying to go to sleep at 8 be cranky for that extra hour so we moved bedtime to 8 and he sleeps longer now.
We reserve the crib only for nighttime sleeping and have the rock'n'play, swing and my arms as napping spots. When baby wakes up in the morning turn all the lights on in their room, lotion him/her, tickle them-just get them awake for a while in the morning. Activity periods of dancing, tummy time, or just listening to music has really worked for us.
Hope some of those suggestions help!
You should do what you're comfortable with, not what the docs say or what everyone else is doing. Just because they have "M.D." behind their name doesn't mean they are right.
And besides, when I need consoling I would like someone to help me instead of leaving me to cry...
You are right but that is setting your child up for some long term habits that may be hard to break for years to come. And there are ways to do CIO that are not completely CIO. And even some attachment parenting people will tell you that self soothing needs to be learned at some point.