Anyone else have a sleep fighter?

kmc217 · October 2013

Logan consistently fights sleep so bad he ends up a hysterical mess. It doesn't matter how early we catch his cues or what method we try, he just does not willingly go to sleep (unless it is on the boob). This morning I spent from 4:45-5:45am trying to get him to go back down after nursing. And he definitely had not had enough sleep as he barely naps and only slept from 10-1 and 1-3.

Mrs JillB · October 2013

Are you swaddling? If not, I'd definitely think about it.

TexasGirl81 · October 2013

Sometimes she does. It can take up to 15 min to put her back to sleep. Just walking around the house and a constant shhhhhhhhhh. Rocking on the arms as well. 15 min seems long but it so much better than 1 1/2 hours. I have tons a patience so for me this had worked really well. And yes she loves the swaddle, so we do incorporate that as well. In the beginning we also had to use white noise and that also helped.

KateJuly2013 · October 2013

TexasGirl81 said:

Sometimes she does. It can take up to 15 min to put her back to sleep. Just walking around the house and a constant shhhhhhhhhh. Rocking on the arms as well. 15 min seems long but it so much better than 1 1/2 hours. I have tons a patience so for me this had worked really well. And yes she loves the swaddle, so we do incorporate that as well. In the beginning we also had to use white noise and that also helped.

15 minutes would be awesome! I have spent up to an hour trying to get my LO to sleep. She is 10 weeks old tomorrow and I think that calls for 14-16 hours of sleep a day. That's funny. When she does sleep, for naps or down for the night, it has to be while nursing. My husband has successfully gotten her down twice in her life. I have no idea what we are gonna do when I go back to work in a couple weeks.

The best success we have is with double swaddle, COMPLETE darkness, white noise, and swing. Taking all the light out of the room seems to have been the most helpful thing. It makes for interesting MOTN feedings though.

butterflyim1 · October 2013

DD fights sleep like crazy. We have tried everything with her. I thought I lucked out last light when she went to sleep after nursing, but it took her 2 hours to go back down after her night feed. I ended up putting her in her mamaroo and sleeping next to her on the sofa.

Another thing that we found to work well is bouncing on an exercise ball!

valstulas · October 2013

Finn was quite the little nap time ninja for awhile. We now have a system: swaddle, comfort nurse, swing. It has worked well for us. The downside: when my boobs are at work, SO has a really hard time soothing him.

EagleWife · October 2013

Lots of good information and ideas on www.troublesometots.com.

She fusses for naps, and really fusses for bedtime, but we have the best success when we work on her next sleep between 40-60 minutes after she wakes up with a swaddle, pacifier, mamma's milk sling and lots of walking and rocking. I all goes well, she is asleep in 5 minutes. More often it's 15 and sometimes 30. Fortunately her MOTN wakes are just to eat and she falls asleep while eating most of the time.

Good luck!

amaburch · October 2013

Yes, but he started getting better about 9wks. I used everything from happiest baby on the block. Now he nurses till drowsy, and falls asleep in his swing then we put him in his bassinet. He totally does the crazy arms/legs, hits and scratches himself too if we don't "shut him down." He does not sleep well at Grammys and daycare...

mandyrator79 · October 2013

:-h <----- That's me raising my hand, only I am not smiling about it. Nadia is the queen of fighting sleep, and I also always watch her closely to catch her at the right time. somewhere between a month and a month and a half old Nadia started taking 15 minute naps, it's sooo sooo hard and she's almost always tired because of it. I spend 30-60 minutes to getting her asleep, then she sleeps for 15 minutes. then two hours later we do it again. fun stuff. she's normally awake about 3-5 hours before bedtime and is generally crying/fussing the whole time.

kmc217 · October 2013

mandyrator79 said:

:-h <----- That's me raising my hand, only I am not smiling about it. Nadia is the queen of fighting sleep, and I also always watch her closely to catch her at the right time. somewhere between a month and a month and a half old Nadia started taking 15 minute naps, it's sooo sooo hard and she's almost always tired because of it. I spend 30-60 minutes to getting her asleep, then she sleeps for 15 minutes. then two hours later we do it again. fun stuff. she's normally awake about 3-5 hours before bedtime and is generally crying/fussing the whole time.

mandyrator79 I think I have your DD's future husband here. Logan has literally never once napped longer than 30 minutes. And it takes so long to get him to sleep. If I recall, your DD has severe reflux too, right? Do you think that has anything to do with it? Logan's is pretty well under control but still. He never seems to get past that first sleep cycle with naps. How is she at night? He does one decent stretch of about 5 hours but then will be up fussing off an on from 3/4am to 6am. If I added up all his catnaps he wouldn't come close to enough sleep.

mandyrator79 · October 2013

Yes, Nadia has really bad reflux and colic. I am pretty lucky with her sleeping decent most nights. an average night she goes to bed around 9:30/10pm and sleeps till 5/6am, eats and then sleeps till about 7-7:30am. then we start the be awake for 2 hours, sleep for 15 minutes cycle. yep, Nadia wakes up during her first sleep cycle for naps. I have even tried holding her vs not holding her. she's sleeps 15 minutes almost always no matter what. like once a week she'll manage a 2 hour nap.

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