How do you do it?!?

kelseyhh · September 2013

Like many people now, we've been having major sleep troubles. Once E is down for the night, he sleeps pretty good. However, getting him down is a major chore. Every sleep book I've read and person I've talked to says to put him down drowsy but awake. However, when I try that he just screams his head off. We have the same calming bedtime routine every nigt. We try white noise and the sleep sheep. We even tried to let him CIO the other night which I thought I'd never do but we couldn't go through with it. His cries just kept escalating until we finally have in. How do you ladies do it? Is there any hope for training him how to fall asleep on his own?

kelseyhh · September 2013

He used to fall completely asleep and then I'd move him but that doesn't work anymore. He always wakes up flailing his arms and starts screaming.

Shoegal36 · September 2013

kelseyhh said:
Like many people now, we've been having major sleep troubles. Once E is down for the night, he sleeps pretty good. However, getting him down is a major chore. Every sleep book I've read and person I've talked to says to put him down drowsy but awake. However, when I try that he just screams his head off. We have the same calming bedtime routine every nigt. We try white noise and the sleep sheep. We even tried to let him CIO the other night which I thought I'd never do but we couldn't go through with it. His cries just kept escalating until we finally have in. How do you ladies do it? Is there any hope for training him how to fall asleep on his own?

I could have written this word for word! We are trying so hard to teach her to fall asleep on her own because I know the older she gets the harder it will be. We've had a couple successful nights so I know it's possible, but other nights are impossible. I don't want to do CIO and feel she is too young any way, but I've started to let her "fuss it out" for 10 minutes before going in. Some nights it works, others it doesn't. For us I think it's all about the timing of getting her in there. There's a small window before she gets overtired, and if we miss it...she's a mess! It's so hard!

Just try to stick with what you're doing, from what I read t can take a long time for results...good luck!

1and1is3 · September 2013

How do I do it? I mostly just walk around in a sleep deprived daze...
I nurse her to sleep. I honestly haven't even tried putting her down drowsy. She used to be able to self soothe if she woke up at night but isn't doing that anymore. I'm hoping she will re-learn it on her own soon. I will start working with her on it in a few weeks if she doesn't.

schawla27 · September 2013

I nurse him to sleep right now and I'm not looking forward to having him learn on his own although I know I should start soon. I guess I'm just trying to survive for now!

LN1024 · September 2013

annarussell05 said:

We still swaddle. No idea what will happen when we have to transition. Not looking forward to that AT ALL.

Same. He can't sleep without it.

kelseyhh · September 2013

We've stopped swaddling because when he starts getting worked up he can get his arm out in about 5 seconds an then he gets even more mad. But without the swaddle he just flares around and wakes himself up!!! I'm so exhausted.

LN1024 · September 2013

^^which swaddle do you use?

gradmommy13 · September 2013

annarussell05 said:

We still swaddle. No idea what will happen when we have to transition. Not looking forward to that AT ALL.

Same here. We tried transitioning her to a half swaddle (with 1 arms or both arms out) last week, but it failed miserably. She just refuses to sleep in her crib unless she's swaddled.

blush64 · September 2013

A usually has a bath and then we sing and read even though I know she would prefer to eat the book at this point. We just play until she's tired and then she'll nurse to sleep. If I have things to get done, like laundry, she will "help", I hold her while I do what I need to do. I actually don't mind nursing to sleep so I am not trying to change it. She'll stop when she's ready.

botanicalbliss · September 2013

I always nurse/rock G to sleep. He won't go down unless he's already out. He's still very little, so I'm not worried about creating bad habits.

sundaesprinkles · September 2013

schawla27 said:

I nurse him to sleep right now and I'm not looking forward to having him learn on his own although I know I should start soon. I guess I'm just trying to survive for now!

This. I nurse him to sleep, wait 20 to 30 minutes to make sure he's out, and then move him to his crib. I think his sleep regression might be behind us now because he's STTN for the past 3 nights in a row and I'm not about to mess with success anytime soon!

Kashy · September 2013

I nurse LO to sleep.
Ever since Sunday I have started a new thing where I will nurse him and then once he pulls off I will rock him a few more mins. He is not completely asleep at this point, but pretty close and then I will put him down in his crib. I am slowly trying to have him go to bed drowsy to see if he will learn to self sooth. I have had no trouble getting him down so far *fingers crossed* so I'm hoping one day I wont have to nurse him to sleep every night.

helenkayj · September 2013

blush64 said:

A usually has a bath and then we sing and read even though I know she would prefer to eat the book at this point. We just play until she's tired and then she'll nurse to sleep. If I have things to get done, like laundry, she will "help", I hold her while I do what I need to do. I actually don't mind nursing to sleep so I am not trying to change it. She'll stop when she's ready.

This is us. He just played for 40min in his crib before he got tired... then I went in and nursed him to sleep. He might not even need the nurse to sleep right now but he JUST started STTN so I'm scared to change things up!!!

Revelle99 · September 2013

I still nurse DS to sleep at night. I did it with DD and she grew out of it at around 9 months and she's a great sleeper. Fingers crossed it works out again for DS.

flyliceandcoffee · September 2013

I'm not sure how much help I can be but here's what we do. We don't have a set bedtime, but somewhere around 8 or so, S usually starts to get sleepy so we take her upstairs, change her into her pjs and feed her. She usually falls asleep or at the very least gets drowsy then we stick her in her swaddle/sleep sack with her arms out. We've always wrapped her up after feeding her, so maybe she's just used to being slightly woken up before really going to bed. If she does wake up, we pat her belly till she falls back asleep. If she is super tired then she gets mad and often times won't go to bed, but luckily she's started taking her paci so we'll give her that and snuggle with her until she falls asleep.

I'd say slowly work up to getting him to go to sleep drowsy. I don't know if you swaddle at all, but maybe feed then swaddle but then snuggle till he falls asleep for a few nights. Then after a few nights, feed then swaddle but snuggle til he's mostly asleep and then pat his belly while he's in his bed until he falls asleep, etc etc. I bet eventually he'll start being able to go to sleep drowsy or at least get better at self soothing?

motang · September 2013

Right after his bath I nurse him to sleep. If, for some reason, he wakes up after I feed him, I rock him until he's sleeping. Then I swaddle him and put him to bed.

Lolalipsy · September 2013

botanicalbliss said:

I always nurse/rock G to sleep. He won't go down unless he's already out. He's still very little, so I'm not worried about creating bad habits.

This.

TheyCalledHerKate · September 2013

kelseyhh said:
We've stopped swaddling because when he starts getting worked up he can get his arm out in about 5 seconds an then he gets even more mad. But without the swaddle he just flares around and wakes himself up!!! I'm so exhausted.

Try a woombie. They cannot get their hands out at all, IMO it's the best swaddle on the market and I've tried many.

jedimindtrick · September 2013

Try an earlier bedtime. If I put LO to bed by 7 he's okay. If I wait til 8, cue the screaming. I still nurse him to sleep too, but if I wait to late that won't work and he becomes a screaming mess.

bowman958 · September 2013

I agree with the earlier bedtime suggestions. You might also try a Magic Sleep Suit if swaddling isn't working for you.

LN1024 · September 2013

bowman958 said:

I agree with the earlier bedtime suggestions. You might also try a Magic Sleep Suit if swaddling isn't working for you.

I second the Magic Sleep Suit! I have tons of different swaddles, and that one worked best

LaxMOM44 · September 2013

So I second trying an earlier bedtime. What I did was for a week straight I held her perfectly still in our bed (we use to bed share) and let her fall asleep like that.

Then next week I'd lay her down on the bed beside me with a hand on her chest and let her fall asleep like that. If she fussed I'd pick her up to soothe her but when he was calm it was right back down.

Finally the third week I put her in her crib awake but drowsy (after bath and stories and cuddles and some more cuddles) with a hand on her chest and she fussed a bit but she falls asleep like that. Now we don't even do the hand.

Terrified of sleep regression though. GL but I definitely find that an earlier bedtime an a solid routine have helped her.

LizzyG11 · September 2013

Like a lot of PPs, I nurse C to sleep. "Drowsy but awake" just isn't going to happen in this house just yet! She will escalate and wake herself all the way back up. I have been able to work down how long I pat her back after nursing her though...now I only have to wait 5 mins when it used to be 20!

kelseyhh · September 2013

For you all who nurse to sleep, do you nurse at nap time too?

PumpkinAndThePeanut · September 2013

kelseyhh said:
For you all who nurse to sleep, do you nurse at nap time too?

I do. My DD can't fall asleep without a boob in her mouth. I'm trying to use the Pantley Pull Off method from the book, "No Cry Nap Solution" to slowly try to break this sleep association. I wouldn't mind it so much if I just had one baby, but it's just not sustainable with two.

ETA: my DD will not take a pacifier.

Revelle99 · September 2013

kelseyhh said:

For you all who nurse to sleep, do you nurse at nap time too?

I do not. For naps, I usually feed when DS wakes up (he eats every two hours), we play for a bit, etc., then he's ready for a nap again after an hour. I put him down fully awake with his paci. Sometimes we play the paci game for a few minutes, he'll fuss, but he eventually falls asleep.

pnutg · September 2013

LN1024 said:

annarussell05 said:

We still swaddle. No idea what will happen when we have to transition. Not looking forward to that AT ALL.

Same. He can't sleep without it.

Same here.

telicious2 · September 2013

When M was sleeping in his RnP I would nurse him to sleep and put him down still asleep. But since he learned to roll over we had no choice but to move him to his crib. From then, we put him down awake and he instantly rolls over, moves around, finds his fingers and falls asleep on his own. Although I am not crazy about him sucking his fingers to soothe himself to sleep, I'll take it now and worry about breaking a bad habit in the future if he hasn't grown out of it.

Sometimes he fusses for a minute or two and other times he doesn't make a peep. I am not sure what the Sleep Sheep sounds like, but M's great uncle got him a Soothing Sounds Bear by Vtech that we put on every night and at every nap time. The bear has a star on his stomach that softly flashes and M sometimes watches it. I am hoping M stays this easy to put down to sleep! Good luck!!

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