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How to deal with night wakings?

hilsy85hilsy85 member
in Attachment Parenting

I haven't posted on this board before, but I've been lurking for a bit, and figured you ladies seem to have lots of advice for tired mamas who come here for help :)

 LO is 6.5 months old, and basically his sleep has been crappy since he was about 15 wks old (hello, 4 month sleep regression!). It'll get better (aka, 1 night waking) and then get worse. The last two nights, he was up multiple times (like 3 to 5), and he took about an hour to go back to sleep for the first one to two wakings. 

I don't have a problem nursing him in the MOTN if he's hungry. But when I nursed him the last few nights, he really didn't seem to be hungry. He would nurse half heartedly for a few minutes, and that's it. I still plan to at least offer to nurse at least once a night--my goal is not to get rid of all night nursing sessions. 

So my question is, how do I deal with night wakings where he's not hungry in way that doesn't involve CIO? He's usually waking because he dropped his paci (I think we need to get rid of it, no?) OR because he rolled over onto his tummy and can't/won't roll back. This issue I have NO idea how to deal with. I'll go in and roll him over and two minutes later he'll be back on his tummy flipping out. And then sometimes, he'll just wakeup and cry, even if he's on his back and has his paci in his mouth. We let him fuss for up to 10 minutes, but it usually quickly devolves into crying. Usually the only thing that will calm him down is nursing, even though he isn't hungry. But I feel like that's creating a bad habit at this point...?

 Any advice? Bed sharing isn't really an option, as DH is pretty against it and neither I nor LO actually seem to sleep well in bed together.  I was thinking about checking out the No Cry Sleep Solution...any opinions/other recommendations? Thanks in advance for reading! :) 


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Re: How to deal with night wakings?

  • jasieandryjasieandry member

    IMO if you aren't going to bed share this will be something you regret in the future. My lo still nurses to sleep but we bed share and I love it so I have no problem rolling over and letting her use me as her pacifier. However with your situation it sounds like your lo is also using you as his human pacifier but since you have to get up out of bed and can't go back to sleep til he's asleep you are going to be perpetually exhausted. In doing my own research on sleep solutions I've come to a personal conclusion that the only two that really work are bedsharing or some form of CIO. If you want him in his own bed I would just go in and make sure all his needs are met (clean diaper, feed him for a bit to see if he's hungry) lay him down on his back and let him be.

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  • hilsy85hilsy85 member
    imagejasieandry:

    IMO if you aren't going to bed share this will be something you regret in the future. My lo still nurses to sleep but we bed share and I love it so I have no problem rolling over and letting her use me as her pacifier. However with your situation it sounds like your lo is also using you as his human pacifier but since you have to get up out of bed and can't go back to sleep til he's asleep you are going to be perpetually exhausted. In doing my own research on sleep solutions I've come to a personal conclusion that the only two that really work are bedsharing or some form of CIO. If you want him in his own bed I would just go in and make sure all his needs are met (clean diaper, feed him for a bit to see if he's hungry) lay him down on his back and let him be.

    Ack that's a depressing thought :( Not looking forward to trying this. 


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  • MeganequineMeganequine member
    imagehilsy85:
    imagejasieandry:

    IMO if you aren't going to bed share this will be something you regret in the future. My lo still nurses to sleep but we bed share and I love it so I have no problem rolling over and letting her use me as her pacifier. However with your situation it sounds like your lo is also using you as his human pacifier but since you have to get up out of bed and can't go back to sleep til he's asleep you are going to be perpetually exhausted. In doing my own research on sleep solutions I've come to a personal conclusion that the only two that really work are bedsharing or some form of CIO. If you want him in his own bed I would just go in and make sure all his needs are met (clean diaper, feed him for a bit to see if he's hungry) lay him down on his back and let him be.

    Ack that's a depressing thought :( Not looking forward to trying this. 

    We don't bedshare, and I don't regret it. The couple of nights I have slept with him he got good sleep, but I did not. If it's not for you, it's not for you.  You could move his crib into your room to make it easier.  (We never did though nor did we CIO.)

    I like the No Cry Sleep Solution.  It has some really good suggestions. 

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  • nosoup4unosoup4u member
    imagejasieandry:

    IMO if you aren't going to bed share this will be something you regret in the future. My lo still nurses to sleep but we bed share and I love it so I have no problem rolling over and letting her use me as her pacifier. However with your situation it sounds like your lo is also using you as his human pacifier but since you have to get up out of bed and can't go back to sleep til he's asleep you are going to be perpetually exhausted. In doing my own research on sleep solutions I've come to a personal conclusion that the only two that really work are bedsharing or some form of CIO. If you want him in his own bed I would just go in and make sure all his needs are met (clean diaper, feed him for a bit to see if he's hungry) lay him down on his back and let him be.

    Oh, Lordy. Some people just don't want to co-sleep.  And that's okay. 

    OP, I'll be honest that your post was a little TL;DR, but look into Kim West's "Good Night, Sleep Tight" book. She has gentle sleep training methods that aren't straight-up CIO. Another solution might be to have your baby on a twin mattress on the floor so you can sneak away without waking him, but still have your own space to sleep. If his room is totally baby-proofed, it should be fine.

    Hang in there. Baby sleep is the worst, especially the second half of the first year.

    DS1 - Feb 2008

    DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)

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