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October 2012 Moms
vicachka7
member
Sleep Help Please
vicachka7
member
My DD is currently waking up once during the night and she will basically scream for an hour and a half and then go back to sleep. I do not know what to do to make this stop happening. We have tried sleep training - we followed Ferber to the letter. We have tried patting her on the back until she falls asleep which will calm her down for a few minutes but then she'll go back to screaming the minute you stop and she won't fall asleep if you keep going but will just stay up longer. Picking her up/rocking her only makes her cry harder and doesn't settle her at all. Feeding her doesn't help. Her bedtime routine is that we undress her at 7, play with her for half an hour, bath at 7:30, lotion/massage after bath, feed her, then put her in crib. She usually falls asleep on her own within 5-10min. Then she will wake up usually between 12:30 and 2 and not be able to go back to sleep for about an hour and a half. She is up for the day usually around 6:30 (although varies from 6-7:30). We only let her sleep about 3 hours during the day - 2 hour nap in the morning, 1 hour nap in the afternoon. We almost always wake her from her naps, she would otherwise sleep longer. Any suggestions/advice/etc would be much appreciated. We are at the end of our rope and just don't know what to do.
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Re: Sleep Help Please
Is this recent or has this been ongoing? If she is getting close to a developmental milestone this could cause a middle of the night disturbance, (trying to crawl/stand up in the crib, etc.)
I don't have any experience with this, but I am wondering why you are always waking her up from her naps? Maybe your DD needs more sleep during the day so she doesn't get overtired? My DS sleeps from around 8pm to 7-8am and between 3-5 hours during the day. Usually 1.5 nap in the am, 2 hours in the afternoon and sometimes a cat nap in the evening. We will only wake him from his naps if he is still sleeping within an hour of bedtime or we have to in order to leave the house.
Ferber's book also has some advice for babies being awake in the middle of the night, I believe it says that they may be in bed for too long overnight, and either pushing back the bedtime or waking them up earlier may help. The amount of time you say your daughter is sleeping overnight seems normal but every baby is different.
Feb 2016 Siggy Challenge, Favorite Thing About Fall
2. Why the hell do you limit her daily sleep??!!
sorry lady! you will have to just comfort and wait it out...developmental milestones are happening big time right about now...it sucks but do what you can during the downtime to rest!
I get anxious around his needing to eat schedule if he naps too long but as others have said perhaps that day he requires more naps! Also you will find that some days even with a TON of naps and good eating he will wake at night...just comfort and hang in there!
Since day one her naps have been limited to 2 hours at a time when she was a newborn, wake her up by changing her, she was able to fall back asleep right away if she wanted but it has something to do with distinguishing 'shorter' sleeps during the day and 'longer' sleeps at night. I truley do believe it was one of the reasons K started sttn at a young age of 8 weeks.
Op, I don't have much advice if you've already tried Ferber. How long has this been going on? Gas pains? Teething? Maybe try tylenol right before bed?
Thanks everyone. We are waking her up during the day as hboo said because it helps her sleep longer at night. When we let her sleep as much as she wants during the day her schedule is one 4-5 hour block and then up for 2 hours, sleep for 1-2 hours the rest of the day. This is not sustainable for us as we both work full time (10+ hours per day) and need to be functional at work.
This has been going on for about a month and a half so we are getting desperate. She still has no teeth so it's possible it's teething pains, but hard to really know.
To the PP who asked about feeding, I've tried feeding her to see if that helps, but it doesn't. Our ped said she should be able to get 10-12 hours without eating at this age and I think she absolutely can. However, if feeding her got her back to sleep I would do it in a heartbeat. It just doesn't.
I would really appreciate any productive ideas other than letting her nap longer, which we know doesn't work. It only aggravates the problem.
I don't really have any suggestions as we are dealing with our own nightmare at night - but I can tell you this - 2 out of the last 3 nights our baby has been up for an hour or two in the middle of the night - its not pleasent. She's just up though (but still) - I have gone the route of putting a few toys in her bed and I put her in her bed (last night happened to be after a feeding so I knew she was fed, changed, etc) and closed the door - and turned my alarm on for 40 minutes and turned the monitor off. I have to sleep.. I know that sounds mean but this is after 4 months of existing on an hour here and there.
I would also say this is likely related to a milestone or two - I presume you've tried the normal stuff - say dosing with tylenol or advil and or gas drops? Have you changed or added any foods?
Another thought - when do you give her solids last?