@caitlincunn 12 is the goal. LO was born on the 17th. With DS, we swung for the fences and it worked well. But he was consistently sleeping 7-8 hours before the sleep regression so I knew he could go all night without eating. LO has only slept that long a handful of times and her typical night is to eat 2-3 times. I don't think she needs it; she's bigger than DS at the same age. But we're going to try 1 week with only 1 feeding and then cut that one out next week. Unless she does it on her own. [-O<
@Sammy K yeah I don't know if I should try not to feed her when she wakes up in motn since she can sleep until 7. She wakes up and "talks" so loud. (She's in our room) i can't sleep with her up talking so my fiancé usually picks her up and says she hungry. Maybe I'll try to leave her if it Happpens tonight..
@Sammy K How did she do at bedtime tonight? LO went down in 17 minutes! She also put herself down for her own nap while playing in her pack n play. She hasn't fallen asleep on her own like that since she was a newborn.
Omg how are you ladies getting them to fall asleep on their own?? I saw you were discussing CIO but she nurses to sleep at night and is passed out when I put her down.
@Sjeff0816 Awesome! Our bedtime was good, put her down awake and she fussed for 5-10 min. I'm hoping we make some progress MOTN.
@caitlincunn I stopped nursing her to sleep a month ago so she wouldn't need that to fall asleep. She gets fed, then diaper and pj's and just this week she's letting us read. I turn out the light and rock for maybe a minute and then put her down before she's asleep. Now she actually fusses if I rock too long because she's ready to sleep and wants to be put down.
I know CIO is hot button but it really worked well for us. I recommend reading Dr. Ferber's book because it's not just letting LO cry until they fall asleep from exhaustion. His book also covers sleep issues through adolescence. It was a huge help for night terrors and a 2 year old sleep regression that coincided with the new baby. We saw a huge improvement with naps, too.
^^^ Yes, @caitlincunn get the book! It's already helping my LO sleep. It's called "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems." It just teaches your baby how to fall asleep on their own. That way when they wake up MOTN they can just roll back over. Or if you accidentally wake them up they can fall back asleep. And you don't have to tip toe around their room and set them down in their crib like your laying down a bomb.
It is really really really hard listening to your baby cry. I almost lost it last night. Seeing the immediate improvements is pretty incredible though.
@Sjeff0816@Sammy K thanks! She doesn't nurse to sleep for naps unless somehow she won't go to sleep and is exhausted them I will do that last resort. So she's just used to it at night, And I will also let her eat as long as she wants Up to an hour. Although she isn't actively eating the whole time ha. I try to keep her up for most of the time but don't think she's actually eating after a while. So I pull her off and she stays asleep. Does it seem To help with naps? I would love to put her in the crib and have her fall asleep on her own instead of rocking her for 10-20 minutes
LO will go to sleep on her own no problem. And she even sits through a story without crying. But she still wakes several times in the MOTN. I was going to wait to cut out the last feeding, but I might have to. She still has a cold, so I have to go check on her when she makes noise.
I'm so glad you're making good progress! It really is a game changer.
@Sjeff0816 Best night yet! Went down easy, woke up once at midnight. I patted her back a little but that actually seemed to make it worse so I left her room. She fussed for 10 - 15 min and hasn't made a peep since! No MOTN feeding! Hopefully she keeps this up! How was your night?
@Sammy K@Sjeff0816 are you both following the book? I haven't reD it yet but curious too see what exactly you did the first night.
Mostly yes. LO would go down at 7 on her own without a problem, so no issues there. In the MOTN I would let her fuss for a few minutes before going in and starting to pat her back. I never talked to her to soothe her in the MOTN for fear it would wake her up more. If me in the room made them more upset, I stopped going in.
We also close the kids' doors completely and the book suggests leaving the door open. Our house is small and we were afraid we'd wake them up with open doors. I don't want to tip toe around the house at 7pm.
As with anything, you'll notice some things work better than others for your LO. I modify as needed. But I always recommend reading the book first so you understand the ideas of why it works. I hate that people think CIO means letting your kid cry to exhaustion. That is not the point.
Feel free to ask any questions! So far, I'm 2 for 2 using Ferber's method and less than a week for both.
He takes 2 naps 1.5-2.5 hours each, and sleeps through the night from 8pm-6 or 7am, once in a while he will wake (cry) around 1am for a feed and go right back down (doesn't really ever wake or open his eyes)
@Sammy K great night. Woke up once to nurse (I'm keeping the one feed until 5 months). She's been waking up earlier though, which is kind of a pain. But I'll take it! I'm mostly about happy about how fast she's going down for bed and how much easier it is than bouncing, rocking, and nursing her all at the same time for an hour.
@caitlincunn Yes, we just followed the book the first night and have since. It was really hard, but I'm glad I stuck with it. We're both getting better sleep now.
@Sammy K@Sjeff0816 what do you do if the diaper is dirty? Dd usually sleeps from 8:30-5 and then again til 7. This week she switched it up to waking at 2, eat at 3, wake at 5 and then up for good at 6ish. I'm able to quiet her down at the first wake with a pacifier, but I feel bad leaving her in a wet diaper if that's why she's crying for the rest. I would also love to get her back to eat at 5 instead of 3. She starts eating a good amount, and then falls asleep at the boob.
@Sammy K@Sjeff0816 what do you do if the diaper is dirty? Dd usually sleeps from 8:30-5 and then again til 7. This week she switched it up to waking at 2, eat at 3, wake at 5 and then up for good at 6ish. I'm able to quiet her down at the first wake with a pacifier, but I feel bad leaving her in a wet diaper if that's why she's crying for the rest. I would also love to get her back to eat at 5 instead of 3. She starts eating a good amount, and then falls asleep at the boob.
Change it and put her back in the crib. I make sure all LO's needs are met before I put her in. Fed, burped, clean diaper.
@Sammy K@Sjeff0816 what do you do if the diaper is dirty? Dd usually sleeps from 8:30-5 and then again til 7. This week she switched it up to waking at 2, eat at 3, wake at 5 and then up for good at 6ish. I'm able to quiet her down at the first wake with a pacifier, but I feel bad leaving her in a wet diaper if that's why she's crying for the rest. I would also love to get her back to eat at 5 instead of 3. She starts eating a good amount, and then falls asleep at the boob.
Change it and put her back in the crib. I make sure all LO's needs are met before I put her in. Fed, burped, clean diaper.
Ok, so when LO starts to cry MOTN you just calm them back to sleep? I guess my question is, how do you determine when to calm them, let them CIO, or change/feed them?
Eta: whenever I feed her, I also change and burp. I just don't know when to assume it's nothing, or something.
Well, my LO really only wakes once anyway and it's about 6+ hours after I put her down so I assume she's hungry. I feed her and put her back down. I don't do MOTN diaper changes. She only pees and the diaper holds it. You could have a set time to feed her, like she gets fed when she's wakes up past 1 or 2 or something. I read they can go about 6 hours without eating in the MOTN (obviously a lot of babies can go longer, but you really can't tell when they wake up.) For other MOTN wakings, go in and pat her and reassure her at the time intervals for that night. Does that make sense?
Well, my LO really only wakes once anyway and it's about 6+ hours after I put her down so I assume she's hungry. I feed her and put her back down. I don't do MOTN diaper changes. She only pees and the diaper holds it. You could have a set time to feed her, like she gets fed when she's wakes up past 1 or 2 or something. I read they can go about 6 hours without eating in the MOTN (obviously a lot of babies can go longer, but you really can't tell when they wake up.) For other MOTN wakings, go in and pat her and reassure her at the time intervals for that night. Does that make sense?
@caitlincunn Just my 2 cents: I don't do MOTN diaper changes unless she pooped (or she's up for a feeding). We use size 2 diaper at night, size 1 during the day. I will feed her MOTN, but only after 2 am. By 5 months, we will stop MOTN feeding completely, which is when our pedi said most babies shouldn't need to eat MOTN. Before 2 am if she's awake, she gets soothed back to sleep. If I feed her, she gets soothed back to sleep if she wakes up again within 4 hours.
She seems to have stopped wanting to nurse to sleep, which was step one. Last night she didn't wake up to eat and wasn't starving when she woke up at 7, so hopefully this continues.
LO cried every half hour for the first 3 hours last night. WTF? Has been pretty standard since then - up once at 3:30, still asleep now. I was so tired and ready for bed and I couldn't even close my eyes @-)
My guy won't sleep, either. He used to do so well and now we're back every two hours, won't go back to sleep without being nursed, gets sleepy at about nine but won't let me put him down until eleven and is up at five. I feel like I'm being tortured. During the day he's never let me port him down for naps so I wear him...except he doesn't want to nap being worn anymore.
@Sammy K @Sjeff0816 thanks so much for all of your suggestions! LO slept terribly last night, but I woke her up at seven, and I'm going to try to get her into a sleep and nap routine. Just now she woke up from a nap after an hour, crying, I waited three minutes, went in and put her pacifier back in, and now she's back out again.
I think we might have to start sleep training soon too. This swaddle transition just keeps getting worse and worse. She doesn't even stay asleep after nursing anymore. She's up like 10-20 minutes later so we give her the pacifier, which puts her back to sleep but sometimes only for another 10 minutes and never for more than a couple hours. DH just wants to go back to swaddling but I know that's just postponing the inevitable.
Ugggh I have no problem getting up a couple times a night to nurse my four month old, but 10+ times a night and she doesn't even really want to eat? I can't.
@ChardeeMacDennis When LO didn't want to eat and just wanted to be rocked back to sleep, that's when I decided to start sleep training. She woke up at 3 am this morning, cried for 3 min, fell back asleep and slept until 4:30 when I fed her. So far, it's going well.
Lo went down last night around 8, and woke up at 5:30. Apparently she was up around 2 but went back to sleep. My fiancé Asked me this morning at 5:30 "I guess she went back to sleep?" I didn't even know she was up.. Her crib is in our room and I'm the light sleeper who can't sleep if she's moving around/talking so I have no clue how I slept through that.
@ChardeeMacDennis When LO didn't want to eat and just wanted to be rocked back to sleep, that's when I decided to start sleep training. She woke up at 3 am this morning, cried for 3 min, fell back asleep and slept until 4:30 when I fed her. So far, it's going well.
That's awesome! It really feels like she's just annoyed to be awake, not actually wanting me, so hopefully it goes well for us, too.
So sorry you are all going through this. I feel better knowing my LO's sleep is more typical of your LOs, and am wondering. if his being born the 6th means now the later babies are experiencing the same thing.
@Sammy K thanks for being so clear about what sleep training is and isn't. I'm looking into it and actually considering it more. I've found that I'm instinctually doing a lot of it already, so now that I know what it actually is (and isn't), the formal framework would probably be helpful. I let LO cry a full 5 minutes last night because I could tell it was a tired cry, not distress... and he slept hard for a few hours.
What I've notice in the past week is not let my Lo get too much past tired, I notice right away he will flip a switch when he's tired and start whining, I have to catch him at that moment literally and put him in his crib and he will fall asleep, if I wait too long it will pass and he will be a monster
I'm turning off the monitor tonight. If she actually wakes full-on and cries I'll hear her (we're across the hall) but the monitor makes it so I hear her wake up and then put herself back to sleep.
DH also decided it would be a great idea to fully dive into the totally unswaddled land tonight so...his ass is on night shift since I have to get up at 430 for work.
TTC: 1/2014
BFP: 9/24
EDD: 6/8/2015
Sorry for the poor man's siggy...ticker won't load regardless of how many tips I read.
@dancegurl1118 good luck! I alternate between leaving the volume on or off depending on my mood. I recently started turning just the video off because the light would wake me up.
It's finally happened. DD is rolling to her side to sleep/stomach to sleep. I know it's ok once they can roll, and that people used to put their babies on their bellies to sleep all the time, but I will be glued to the monitor tonight. She's new to this whole back to belly thing, and sometimes struggles to get her arm free.
Re: Baby's Sleep at 4 Months
@caitlincunn I stopped nursing her to sleep a month ago so she wouldn't need that to fall asleep. She gets fed, then diaper and pj's and just this week she's letting us read. I turn out the light and rock for maybe a minute and then put her down before she's asleep. Now she actually fusses if I rock too long because she's ready to sleep and wants to be put down.
I know CIO is hot button but it really worked well for us. I recommend reading Dr. Ferber's book because it's not just letting LO cry until they fall asleep from exhaustion. His book also covers sleep issues through adolescence. It was a huge help for night terrors and a 2 year old sleep regression that coincided with the new baby. We saw a huge improvement with naps, too.
Yes, @caitlincunn get the book! It's already helping my LO sleep. It's called "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems." It just teaches your baby how to fall asleep on their own. That way when they wake up MOTN they can just roll back over. Or if you accidentally wake them up they can fall back asleep. And you don't have to tip toe around their room and set them down in their crib like your laying down a bomb.
It is really really really hard listening to your baby cry. I almost lost it last night. Seeing the immediate improvements is pretty incredible though.
And that's great @Sammy K! Good luck tonight.
And I will also let her eat as long as she wants Up to an hour. Although she isn't actively eating the whole time ha. I try to keep her up for most of the time but don't think she's actually eating after a while. So I pull her off and she stays asleep. Does it seem
To help with naps? I would love to put her in the crib and have her fall asleep on her own instead of rocking her for 10-20 minutes
I'm so glad you're making good progress! It really is a game changer.
We also close the kids' doors completely and the book suggests leaving the door open. Our house is small and we were afraid we'd wake them up with open doors. I don't want to tip toe around the house at 7pm.
As with anything, you'll notice some things work better than others for your LO. I modify as needed. But I always recommend reading the book first so you understand the ideas of why it works. I hate that people think CIO means letting your kid cry to exhaustion. That is not the point.
Feel free to ask any questions! So far, I'm 2 for 2 using Ferber's method and less than a week for both.
@caitlincunn Yes, we just followed the book the first night and have since. It was really hard, but I'm glad I stuck with it. We're both getting better sleep now.
Eta: whenever I feed her, I also change and burp. I just don't know when to assume it's nothing, or something.
https://noobmommy.com/2008/11/to-ferberize-or-not-to-ferberize.html
She seems to have stopped wanting to nurse to sleep, which was step one. Last night she didn't wake up to eat and wasn't starving when she woke up at 7, so hopefully this continues.
During the day he's never let me port him down for naps so I wear him...except he doesn't want to nap being worn anymore.
Gah.
Ugggh I have no problem getting up a couple times a night to nurse my four month old, but 10+ times a night and she doesn't even really want to eat? I can't.
@Sammy K thanks for being so clear about what sleep training is and isn't. I'm looking into it and actually considering it more. I've found that I'm instinctually doing a lot of it already, so now that I know what it actually is (and isn't), the formal framework would probably be helpful. I let LO cry a full 5 minutes last night because I could tell it was a tired cry, not distress... and he slept hard for a few hours.
DH also decided it would be a great idea to fully dive into the totally unswaddled land tonight so...his ass is on night shift since I have to get up at 430 for work.