June 2013 Moms

RABBIT! This ones for you kid!

JANCANDANCEJANCANDANCE member
edited January 2014 in June 2013 Moms
Okay! So I've really been trying to think of ways to get you some shut eye! I feel so bad that you are sleeping in these small intervals and having to work all day as well. Anybody with ideas to help we want to hear them. If nothing works the girls and I will just fly out to LA and let you nap!

Re: RABBIT! This ones for you kid!

  • I'm sooooooooo tired of reading these sleep threads. J/k

    At any rate, what time does your LO go to bed? Sometimes babies won't sleep long if they are I overtired. I've read that you should put them down between 6 and 7:30 pm.
    Pregnancy Ticker
  • Loading the player...
  • @subliminalrabbit have you had any success with him napping in the crib? Or taking longer naps during the day? I let Harper play in her crib just a little so she feels like it is her own little space. I'm not saying the crib will make him sleep I just know you were trying for that transition.
  • I'm gonna say it...Ferberize the kid. Maybe just try it for a few days. I've heard that LO's adjust within the first few days.
  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • We did a modified CIO. The main thing that helped us was we stopped bringing him to bed with us. If he woke up, we would feed and rock him, but he went back in the crib. He realized in a couple of days that was his only option. He still wakes one time most nights, but he goes back to sleep without a fight. We also have started putting him down to sleep on his stomach. He sleeps much better that way.
  • NikkiP15 said:
    This app! It's free! Start the music when u begin LOs bedtime routine. There's music for naptime too. This seriously saved me from week 1 and when we were traveling so much last month. (The music relaxes me too and I am a big believer that my LO feeds off my stress level)image ETA: Oops maybe not a free app:( but I think it was only like $1.99

    I just bought this app and it looks AWESOME! The music is so nice! You can switch it between an hour and a half or continuous play. I'll so be using this tomorrow night, N loves this sort of thing :)
  • @subliminalrabbit could you try without the sleep sack? Since he is associating it with sleep and gets upset by it?
  • We are doing The Fade for sleep training right now. It's in the book 'The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program'. We are still on step one but it seems to be working. The first couple of night she lost her shit and I cried while she cried. You don't let them CIO but you don't pick them up either. I did though. I couldn't stand her crying that much! I'd hold her only long enough to calm her down and then I'd put her back down. It's working for us but I know all babies are different. I hope you find what works for you soon!
  • I love this thread too. I need to start trying some of these things. Poor MJ is an awful self soother :(
  • I think I read somewhere not to let babies play in their crib because it can confuse them if it is a place to play or a place to sleep. Maybe he can still spend time in it to get used to it but no toys? Just a lovey or something? Also... Have you tried lavendar essential oils on his feet? Some people really believe it can help. I do that for k at night but more as a sleep cue... So when she smells it she knows its time for bed. And it is a calming scent too. :)

    image image

     

    image

  • https://www.amazon.com/The-90-Minute-Baby-Sleep-Program/dp/0761143114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389502055&sr=8-1&keywords=the+90+minute+baby+sleep+program 

    The book talks about how an over tired baby won't sleep at night but it sounds like you already have that covered. 

    The fade is suppose to put less stress on the baby and you. It says that when the baby is tired, start your usual soothing method and night time routine but stop before the baby is asleep. Put the baby in the crib, patting their back, singing, patting their bum, etc. to sooth them. The book says that when the baby starts to cry, try to sooth them without picking them up. Shush them, rub their belly, whatever works for your baby. The first two nights, N lost her shit a couple times. I did pick her up but I soothed her and then put her back down. I couldn't not, it was killing me. I still seemed to help though! Do this until your baby falls asleep. The first night it took us an hour of soothing and giving her bottles before she FINALLY fell asleep. DH and I had to switch out a couple times.

    The books says to continue doing this until he falls asleep easily. Once he is used to sleeping this way, sit in a nearby chair. There is no touching or singing though. After this gets easy, stand in the doorway and then after that you just put the baby in the crib and leave the room. 

    This process can take a long time though, maybe even weeks. Personally, I wanted to try this before CIO. I also don't think CIO is right for our family. 

    Like I said before, we are still in the first step. I don't know how the other steps will go. I'm kinda scared to not be touching her and might modify the next steps.

    The book also says to focus on getting them to sleep first and then figure out the middle of the night feedings and naps. For naps, it's basically the same thing. For the middle of the night feedings, it pretty much states what ladies have been talking about here with slowly cutting them out.

    This book also endorses CIO so that's why I'm modifying it to suit me and my family. 

    Good luck with your little man :) I'm always thinking about you guys and how stressful it is on you and the other working momas.
  • Not much advice here as Levi is still pretty unpredictable with sleep vs not sleeping. But, the two things we have tried that seem to be helping so far are cutting out his evening cat nap and making sure he is super full before bed. He has been doing a long stretch (last night excluded) from 9pm to 3am. He was going 7pm to 1am but he started waking around 9 but usually doesn't eat just wants a cuddle

    Hope E gives you some sleep soon! No sleep is the absolute worst. I finally snapped and had a meltdown the other nights after an extremely rough night and DH has been trying to help a lot more lately
    Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickersLilypie Second Birthday tickers Lilypie Pregnancy tickers
  • Before we decided to try CIO, my husband would go in the first cry and soothe him. He would stand by the crib and rub his back and shush him. This would usually get him back to sleep with maybe a few minutes of crying and he would sleep for another few hours. This worked for a few days but my husband isn't always home to do this so we decided on CIO since he always associated me with food. I know you said that CIO isn't right for you right now, but it has been working for us. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will now cry for MAYBE 10 min and put himself back to sleep.

    We also added a few more things to his night time routine. We put a humidifier in his room and have been rubbing Badger Balm on him. The badger balm is a homeopathic, lavender balm that is supposed to be relaxing. I also spray his bedding and jammies with lavender mist. You can get the balm on Sprouts or Whole Foods.

  • Honestly, CIO and Ferber get too much crap. If your baby isnt ready, they wont react well to any sleep training. When we did sleep training, I put Ella in her crib, on her belly, rubbed her back, calmed her, etc and then left the room. She cried for 3 minutes, I went back in, rubbed her back and calmed her down for 1-2 minutes, then left. She cried for 1 minute and fell asleep. That's the most she's ever cried. That is way better to me than crying for an hour or more even if you're standing beside the crib. But I believe you should tackle night weaning before you try sleep training. They still expect to get up in the middle of the night to eat... So they are, right? Get him to where he knows he can make it longer and longer through the night without feeding and he will sleep. Use a paci, lovey, thumb, whatever needs to be done, but night wean him, or accept that he's not ready to sttn. :)

    I don't think anyone is saying that CIO is the devil. Just not right for us! We all know our babies best, just like how you know E best. I think that for any of us, consistency is key and it sounds like you are very consistent with E :)

    If it comes down to it, CIO will happen but N has always been a fairly good sleeper so I don't feel it's necessary. 

    I did try dropping her first feeding last night and we had some success. I got her back to sleep very quickly, so YAY!

    I'm so glad you had some crib success last night, @subliminalrabbit. It's the first step! N is formula fed, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. DH helps with MOTN feedings on the weekends and N actually thinks it is party time and will fully wake up. I'm thinking of not getting him to help anymore but letting me sleep in instead. She can't smell the food on me but I do 90% of her feedings. 
  • I can't do any sort of crying either. I tried Nykki's idea for one night and he got louder and louder.

    My goal is always to make him very full before bed. I nurse as soon as we get home from day care/work. That's usually about 5:45 once we are settled. Then we play a little, make him burn some energy. Around 6:15 he gets a thing of solids. Then he sits there for a minute in the high chair with an ice cube in a mesh feeder to take the edge off his teeth. 7:15 we are nursing again. This usually results in a nap, sometimes not. I get him up around 8, and up to the tub we go. By 8:30 we are nursing to sleep. So in a very short period of time he nursing thrice (like that?) and eats solids once. So be is full for the night. Last week we had two days with wake ups, but his teeth emerged after the second.

    I do like thrice. ;)

    image image

     

    image

  • Just in case it can help anyone else with a baby like mine who doesn't fall asleep after five minutes or less of crying…or ten…or fifteen…or twenty (gotta respect her determination, but I don't want to find out if she'd do 90 minutes), bedsharing has been a lifesaver for our family.  I feel completely rested and awesome 9 nights out of 10.  She rouses a little to nurse a few times a night, but she almost never fully wakes up, and I don't really anymore either.  I seriously couldn't even tell you how many times she nursed last night because I barely remember waking up.  I'm so much happier.  I know it's not for everyone, but if other things aren't working, you might be surprised.  I've recently started working, and I don't feel sleep deprived or even desperate for an afternoon coffee.  If it was as easy as letting her cry in her crib for three minutes, I would've been all over that, but that just wasn't the case for us.  Snuggling is working, though, and I have to admit that snuggling is pretty awesome for its own sake, anyway.
  • @subliminal rabbit, I was just throwing it out there. I know it's not what you think is right for E. Thanks for not blasting me.
  • @bonniek10 no cry sleep solution, but I think this summarizes it: https://www.babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=52857.0 Rabbit: there is another (IMO crazy but if your desperate might be worth it) method: https://www.babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=223809.0

    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • *Lurking*
    But my son was an all around crappy sleeper and was turning into a fussy grouch all day. He was waking 5 to 6 times a night and eating 3 of those times and that was on a GOOD night.

    Anyway, we started to night wean using the Troublesome tots approach. Tackle one feeding at a time (we started with the first one). If breast feeding, reduce the amount of time at breast by 1 minute for 2 days then reduce by another minute for another 2 days and so on. If bottle feeding reduce by 1oz for 2 days, etc.
    We FF and once he got down to 2oz for his first feeding, he also dropped down to 2oz on his own for his other feedings. Once he got down to 1oz, he dropped his first and second feeding all together. That took about a week.

    After mostly night weaning (he still eats 2oz for his last feeding) we dropped his last nap of the day which was around 3 and started putting him to bed really early, like 4:30. Basically as soon as we get home from work we start his bedtime routine. It's only been about 5 days but he sleeps for a good 10 to 12 hours now. His naps have also gotten better and he's a lot less fussy during the day.

    Hopefully you'll find something that works!
  • Regarding night weaning, what I have heard suggested is to take a few nights and figure out about when the average wake up time is and the average length of nursing. As pp suggested, wake LO up 10 minutes ahead of time. Then each night decrease each feeding from the average time by 2 minutes, until you et down to 0, at which point you dont wake them up. This way they slowly transfer their milk intake to the daytime.

    As for us, CIO worked miraculously and quickly. She cried off and on for one hour one night - we kept going in there but didn't pick her up - and then she knew how to self soothe and was able to sleep all night. I know it's not for everyone, but I thought I'd share my experience. Do what works for you.
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • @kh59 we bed shared for 6 months. When she weaned off her night feedings it was in the best interest of my sanity to crib transition.
    I honestly think it's fantastic that your crib transition worked out well, and it's what I planned to do, minus the fact that I didn't think I'd bedshare at all but move her from a cosleeper to a crib at six months.  As it turns out, I needed to bedshare for my sanity.  I have no problem with cribs or CIO or any other choice anyone makes to work things out for their families.  I just wanted to add my experience to this thread in case it was helpful or reassuring to someone else who found that sleep training wasn't working for them either--I know it was helpful for me to talk to another bedsharing mom to feel reassured that if I was crazy, at least I wasn't alone in my craziness :-).
  • B used to wake and eat about 3-4 times/night. Then he would not go back in his crib and DH and I were spending hours in the MOTN rocking him in the glider and trying not to sleep at our jobs. We did night weaning until he was down to one feeding around midnight. Then after Christmas we did CIO, checking in every 5 minutes or so to soothe. We moved his crib from our room to the nursery. CIO was tough over here too and took longer than we hoped. I just tried to make sure I knew he was full, burped, sleepy, had his blanket and his room wasn't too cold or hot.

    B is just over 7 months. Last night was the first night he went all night without eating. The only thing we did differently yesterday was that time got away from us and we didn't give him oatmeal cereal until 6pm and we usually give it in the morning. I measured the amount and gave him 2 tbsp. We had just been eyeballing it thinking it was about 2 tbsp and it was probably closer to one. He nursed for 25 minutes instead of 35 at 7pm. Maybe the oatmeal gave him some bulk in his tummy. B is long but 25% for weight and is very active. He slept from 7:30pm until 4am, fussed for five minutes and then slept until 6am, ate, then slept with us until 8am. I don't sleep well bed sharing so we only do it in the mornings.

    I have no idea if it was the oatmeal but we may try it again tonight. I feel like a different person with sleep.

    Good luck @subliminalrabbit !

    image

  • We shoot for the crib every night but if its not happening we bed share. We had to bed share for much of her 6th-7th month because she was waking 3-4x a night to eat but the past few weeks since turning 7months she has gone back to sleeping at least 6 hours without nursing and I have been able to get her back in her crib for at least 3 full nights. I just go with it. I have tried letting her cry (in the midst of trouble getting her down in the crib) and all that did was wake her up more and make her more upset. If I get to her before she escalates, it is so much easier to get her back to sleep and in her crib. So every kid is different. You just do what works for you.

    image image

     

    image

  • @kh59 we ended up bed sharing for my sanity too :) I just don't think CIO would work for my LO since she is a tension increaser when she cries. I've been trying to get her in her crib for a bit so my husband and I get some alone time :) but I actually sleep better when she's next to me.
    AlternaTickers - Cool, free Web tickers
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic
  • Another vote here for the Sleep Lady Shuffle! Although I didn't actually buy the book.

    It has changed our lives.  I will say though that we did it around 5 months and put his wubanub in with him on a whim and he LOVED it.  So my baby who didn't take a paci started taking it at 5 months. So I do highly recommend a comfort object.

    Best of luck to you!!! 
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic Anniversary 


    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"