How often are y'all's LO napping for? And how often? I feel like I am fighting LO to nap. He shows all the signs of being tired but when I try to rock him he flails around and screams for a minute until I turn on "strong hair dryer" and then he might fight one more minute and relax.
20-45 minutes on average, 3-4 times per day. Depends on how early she got up in the morning and how well she slept the night before. She's napped as long as 2 or 3 hours after really bad nights. Never up for more than 90 minutes at a time. Maybe 2 hours or a little more after the big naps, but those are rare.
... but that's only at home. She'll take a reluctant 20 minute nap in the car, if it keeps moving (hybrid, engine noise stops if it stops) and we don't go over any bumps. We're at the ILs right now and she's been up for 2.5 hours after a mere two 15 minute naps all day today. She's terrible, MIL can't even hold her without setting her off. I've been trying to get her to nap for the last half hour and we just strait up won't go to sleep.
Which brings me to my question for the thread: for the nap fighters, at what point should I give up? I feel like some days I have to spend close to an hour fighting for a 10-15 minute nap, then she's only good for a short while, less than a half hour, and we start all over again. I can't do anything at all when I'm trying to get her down, she flails too much to use my phone, and I need a hand holding her binky in at all times. Sitting in a dark quiet room listening to white noise, tired as all hell but can't sleep, gets pretty dam old.....
When our LO gets overly tired sometimes if i breast feed/comfort her w boob while swaying standing up (not rocking mind you as she seems to know the difference) sometimes that will subdue her. I am not a fan of crying it out but if she is having a total overly tired melt down leaving her alone in her swing seems to be best. Sometimes I swear the more we try to comfort her/interfere the more she escalates.
****qbf**** I know, right? Nursing usually works to knock her out most of the time, in fact our ritual at home she usually nurses into her bigger naps. Swings work too, I won't let her CIO but as long as I stay within sight she's pretty happy in her swing and eventually nods off. Sadly there is no swing here, and she's been so worked up today she was screaming too hard to nurse at some points! I should carry a wrap with me, that's pretty fail proof for sleeps, it just defeats the purpose (MIL was going to watch her so I could nap/take a break)
Do any of you ladies with nap fighters wear your babies in wraps or carriers? I've found that when Bridget gets fussy I wrap her up and we can both get on with our day. She naps and I am still able to do most of what I was trying to accomplish while she was napping. A mai tai carrier is super easy to use, only about $20 and can be purchased almost anywhere. Wraps and buckle carriers are great choices too.
If there's something strange underneath the hood. Who you gonna call? Your Doctor. If there's something weird and it don't look good. Who you gonna call? Your Doctor. Immediately. If it's new, painful, and possibly pregnancy related get your ass off the internet and call your doctor. It's for your health and your child's.
Do any of you ladies with nap fighters wear your babies in wraps or carriers? I've found that when Bridget gets fussy I wrap her up and we can both get on with our day. She naps and I am still able to do most of what I was trying to accomplish while she was napping. A mai tai carrier is super easy to use, only about $20 and can be purchased almost anywhere. Wraps and buckle carriers are great choices too.
Sadly, I've been wearing my baby in a woven wrap for every single disaster nap today.
Do any of you ladies with nap fighters wear your babies in wraps or carriers? I've found that when Bridget gets fussy I wrap her up and we can both get on with our day. She naps and I am still able to do most of what I was trying to accomplish while she was napping. A mai tai carrier is super easy to use, only about $20 and can be purchased almost anywhere. Wraps and buckle carriers are great choices too.
The Moby is a sure fire way to get her to sleep, every time. It's hot, though, and I haven't mastered the transfer once she's asleep, so no naps for me. But, yeah, worst case I strap her into that. Maybe i should buy a spare for the diaper bag for travels. Going to a baby wearing class to learn tips for my ring sling, which should help with the hot part, at least.
Do any of you ladies with nap fighters wear your babies in wraps or carriers? I've found that when Bridget gets fussy I wrap her up and we can both get on with our day. She naps and I am still able to do most of what I was trying to accomplish while she was napping. A mai tai carrier is super easy to use, only about $20 and can be purchased almost anywhere. Wraps and buckle carriers are great choices too.
We used to do the Moby wrap. But now he gets too excited when he's in the wrap because it means we're going on an adventure (even if it is just walking laps around the house). He loves exploring from the comfort of mommy. Same thing with our new ssc . He'll fall asleep if his head is pinned down (like under the fabric of the Moby wrap) but he refuses to let me put his head under the fabric because he can't see and knows he'll go to sleep.
@AmoLovesAud I will usually give up after 15 minutes and just walk some "calm down" laps with LO. I'll sing quietly to him while I walk and once he's yawned twice I go back to his room and bounce on my yoga ball in the dark with white noise for another 15 minutes. Only once did he still not fall asleep and at that point I just gave up
Babies shouldn't be awake more than 2 hours in a day.
If this is true, I'm in big trouble.
Ummm yes me too @natalknitter15 My son naps but is awake for more than two hours in a day.....as they get older they stay awake for longer periods.
I'm hoping that @kdoak2015 meant two hours at a time. At our babies' age, they should definitely be awake for more than two total hours each day. At four months (yesterday), LO is mostly taking three naps a day of 30 mins to 2 hrs. We usually get two two-hour naps and one 30-45 min nap. He's awake for about an hour and a half to four hours at a time. The longest stretch is usually in the afternoon/evening. He often wakes up from his 3:30 nap by 4:30, and unless I can get an evening catnap, some afternoons/evenings he is awake from about 4:30-8:30, when he goes down for the night. He's also STTN from 8:30-7. We have been blessed with a good sleeper (although I'm dreading a possible four month sleep regression), but it also didn't happen overnight. He was both sleep trained and nap trained, and he almost exclusively sleeps in his crib. He has been following his growth curves to perfection and has the best demeanor (most of the time, haha), so while sleep training may not be for everyone, we are very pleased with how he has done. He's both happy and healthy, which makes for happy parents!
Do any of you ladies with nap fighters wear your babies in wraps or carriers? I've found that when Bridget gets fussy I wrap her up and we can both get on with our day. She naps and I am still able to do most of what I was trying to accomplish while she was napping. A mai tai carrier is super easy to use, only about $20 and can be purchased almost anywhere. Wraps and buckle carriers are great choices too.
The Moby is a sure fire way to get her to sleep, every time. It's hot, though, and I haven't mastered the transfer once she's asleep, so no naps for me. But, yeah, worst case I strap her into that. Maybe i should buy a spare for the diaper bag for travels. Going to a baby wearing class to learn tips for my ring sling, which should help with the hot part, at least.
If you like the Moby, I suggest trying a woven wrap or a mai tai. A woven wrap requires less passes since the material itself is more supportive. Less passes mean less fabric around you and baby. There are various blends that are more breathable such as cotton/linen,
cotton/repreve, cotton/tencel, and cotton/bamboo. The Mai Tai has even less fabric wrapped around you and it seems like it would be incredibly easy for transfers.
If there's something strange underneath the hood. Who you gonna call? Your Doctor. If there's something weird and it don't look good. Who you gonna call? Your Doctor. Immediately. If it's new, painful, and possibly pregnancy related get your ass off the internet and call your doctor. It's for your health and your child's.
Well I'm pretty sure this is what's happening at our house right now. LO has been in his crib since he was about a month old and other than waking up to eat, going through dropping the swaddle he's been a great sleeper. We were at waking up 1/night to eat, then when we dropped the swaddle we were up 2-3/night to re-position him in the crib and one of those times was to eat.
Well now now all hell has broken loose and his sleep patterns are so unpredictable. Sometimes he seems to be up every hour, other times he will sleep until about 2am and then we set our from there.
We never did co-sleeping and honestly it was one of those things I said I'd never do but the lack of sleep is driving both me and DH crazy. So once one of us gets up for work I use my old maternity pillow and place LO in there to keep him from rolling, then I lie on the side of it and place my hand on him and he falls right asleep until 7am.
Problem is while he is now sleeping we still aren't for fear of him suffocating. Even though he's extremely strong it's still a fear.
So is random co-sleeping a good idea? I feel like I might be making him dependent on us to sleep. Is anyone done this and gone back to the crib with no issues?
Also, anything out there that I can buy for co-sleeping that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I've been trying to find a used arms reach co-sleeper but no luck.
@angelinthepit23 you could try removing one of the sides of the crib and putting it side car next to your bed. We've bedshared since almost day one and the 4 month wakeful period has hit this week HARD. She's been waking up almost every single hour. There has been one occasion where she slept 5 hours and a couple 2 or 3 hour periods here and there, but that's it. I thought bed sharing would help us avoid this
@doodleoodle sadly his crib is massive and will not fit next to our bed. He's pretty easy to get back to sleep until we hit about 5am then he thinks it's time to par-tay. The nights when he's up every hour are the worst! I feel like I'm on auto-pilot that day. I think today I might change his schedule up a little bit and see if that helps.
@doodleoodle thanks for posting! I currently follow a Moms On Call schedule that has been working great, but maybe LO just needs an earlier bedtime as he has been throwing off sleep queues earlier these last few nights. I already had upped the bedtime to about 7:30 from their original suggestion of 8. Tonight I'll try and earlier bedtime and hope for success!
Babies shouldn't be awake more than 2 hours in a day.
If this is true, I'm in big trouble.
Ummm yes me too @natalknitter15 My son naps but is awake for more than two hours in a day.....as they get older they stay awake for longer periods.
I'm hoping that @kdoak2015 meant two hours at a time. At our babies' age, they should definitely be awake for more than two total hours each day. At four months (yesterday), LO is mostly taking three naps a day of 30 mins to 2 hrs. We usually get two two-hour naps and one 30-45 min nap. He's awake for about an hour and a half to four hours at a time. The longest stretch is usually in the afternoon/evening. He often wakes up from his 3:30 nap by 4:30, and unless I can get an evening catnap, some afternoons/evenings he is awake from about 4:30-8:30, when he goes down for the night. He's also STTN from 8:30-7. We have been blessed with a good sleeper (although I'm dreading a possible four month sleep regression), but it also didn't happen overnight. He was both sleep trained and nap trained, and he almost exclusively sleeps in his crib. He has been following his growth curves to perfection and has the best demeanor (most of the time, haha), so while sleep training may not be for everyone, we are very pleased with how he has done. He's both happy and healthy, which makes for happy parents!
Yep sorry that's what I meant! But every baby is different.
Thanks a bunch for that link @doodleoodle! I think LO's 8:30-9 bed time is probably the cause of all the fussiness, nap fighting and night time awakenings.Definitely going to change that starting tonight.
Yesterday after doing my best to follow the schedule in that link LO only woke up once during the night and today naps have been much less of a fight! Of course it could just be a total fluke and tonight could be hell lol
Update (hopefully I'm not jinxing myself): So the last few nights we made some changes. First we eliminated our 5:30-6:15'ish cat nap. Then we uped bedtime from 7:30 to 6:30. Also, I made what I like to call super black outs for the nursery windows and I covered everything that had an on light in his room. So far SUCESS! LO has been falling right asleep. He's woken up a few times but has soothed himself back to sleep. Once he wakes up to eat at like 4-4:30 he goes right back to sleep after and wakes back up at 6:45'ish. My good lil sleeper is back!
super black outs: I went and bought room darkening vinyl roll blinds. I then bought industrial strength velcro and put a piece on each side of the window frame. I cut the vinyl to fit the window and put the other side of the Velcro on the vinyl pieces. Then I hung them up. Best part is his mini blinds cover them up and I can keep his curtains tied back so his room looks super cute all the time. I live on a street with street lights. While this didn't make his room pitch black, it did darken it significantly. Now that it's lighter out longer when he would wake up it would be light in his room and he would then proceed to freak the F out.
We had a good week (maybe 2? I can't remember) so I thought we were past the hurdle. Then Saturday night was terrible. Every hour, up and screaming. At 10 or 11 we thought it must have been teething pain (which had caused her pain all afternoon), so we gave her infant tylenol. Didn't do anything (though between the initial spit out and the puke a few minutes later, I'm not sure much if any got in her system). The screaming eventually ended at 1 or 2, but she still got us up a bunch. Now all of tonight has been like the second part of last night: she makes a wail while still asleep, thrashes back and forth and kicks (and a lot of the time, poops), and eventually wakes herself up this way. If I can get a binky in her mouth at the first wail, hold it in while she thrashes, sometimes she goes back to sleep for... an hour, I'm guessing bc it's long enough for me to fall asleep, but not much longer than that. Ugh. I have a road trip on tuesday, I don't trust myself behind the wheel like this. I may have to cancel.
Is she having a hard time pooping? Doesn't seem to bother her at all in the daytime. Should I try gripe water? I miss my up once a night baby.....
We had a good week (maybe 2? I can't remember) so I thought we were past the hurdle. Then Saturday night was terrible. Every hour, up and screaming. At 10 or 11 we thought it must have been teething pain (which had caused her pain all afternoon), so we gave her infant tylenol. Didn't do anything (though between the initial spit out and the puke a few minutes later, I'm not sure much if any got in her system). The screaming eventually ended at 1 or 2, but she still got us up a bunch. Now all of tonight has been like the second part of last night: she makes a wail while still asleep, thrashes back and forth and kicks (and a lot of the time, poops), and eventually wakes herself up this way. If I can get a binky in her mouth at the first wail, hold it in while she thrashes, sometimes she goes back to sleep for... an hour, I'm guessing bc it's long enough for me to fall asleep, but not much longer than that. Ugh. I have a road trip on tuesday, I don't trust myself behind the wheel like this. I may have to cancel.
Is she having a hard time pooping? Doesn't seem to bother her at all in the daytime. Should I try gripe water? I miss my up once a night baby.....
Going through the same thing, I thought maybe gas from her dream feed so I cut it out and still happened. It seems lol gas pain but pooing well/normal and nothing has changed in my diet or hers. Might just be the regression or growing pains I dunno.
@kdoak2015 I'm at a loss, too. Here's to a fresh night for both of us, maybe it'll be better....
Today she started something new in her terrible sleep world: will only nap while comfort nursing. Slipping a binky in once she's asleep doesn't seem to work, she wakes right up. After 3 tries today, one at each nap, she's gotten progessively more miserable throughout the day, and she actually has bags under her eyes. So now I give up and am stuck in the nursing chair. Blah. Come to think of it, she did this last night too, she's almost always fallen asleep while nursing (I know, I know), but usually she pops herself off and settles into slumber, but at her bedtime feed and 2 night time feeds, she stayed glued to me and woke up when I popped her off myself. Growth spurt, maybe? Ugh, whatever it is I want it to end.
Might have figured it out. I've been working a lot with her sitting up on her own and sitting in her bumbo and it seems like her tummy/ab muscles hurt as she's arching her back and seems to not want to sit a certain way so maybe her abs hurt? I told DH I'm going to cut down on this the next few days and see if that helps.
Advice please ladies! we have co slept since day 1 and a week ago I had DH move LO crib into our room bc we are both sleeping horribly and it's probably for the best. LO will only sleep in it for an hour at a time. I'm loosely falling the schedule and routine doodleoodle posted above. This is a new routine for LO (we had a similar one up until 14 weeks but nothing since then) should I continue putting LO in bed with me until he gets used to the routine and new bedtime ? About how long should I give it until I start putting him in the crib? I was thinking maybe a week or two to get used to the routine but any mamas have any advice/already did this?
Advice please ladies! we have co slept since day 1 and a week ago I had DH move LO crib into our room bc we are both sleeping horribly and it's probably for the best. LO will only sleep in it for an hour at a time. I'm loosely falling the schedule and routine doodleoodle posted above. This is a new routine for LO (we had a similar one up until 14 weeks but nothing since then) should I continue putting LO in bed with me until he gets used to the routine and new bedtime ? About how long should I give it until I start putting him in the crib? I was thinking maybe a week or two to get used to the routine but any mamas have any advice/already did this?
I've not done this yet, but have been cosleeping as well and have a plan to try to get LO open and comfortable to the idea of sleeping alone. I was going to wait to do it after a couple weeks of following the schedule though. My reasoning is two fold: 1) I won't be working with a crabby, overtired baby (hopefully) 2) Even though there will be changes made the schedule, at least will be a thread of consistency for LO. Keep in mind though that I'm a FTM and have no clue what I'm talking about lol
@brianna91chavez@doodleoodle ok so I just went through this! I felt like both baby and I were not sleeping well so I stated making the transition. Not going to lie, it sucked. I recommend sleep training at the same time if you are up for it ( I know it's a personal choice) our little man (4months) took to sleep training SO well, he's never slept better. Bedtime is 7 so we read and have a bottle starting at 630 and then I put him in the crib drowsy but awake. Then when he cries go up after 3 minutes, rub his belly calm him down and then if he cries again I go back up in 5 minutes, then 8, then 10. We never made it past 8 minutes he always put himself to sleep. I had dad do this bc I couldn't emotionally handle it! It took 4 days and now he sleeps through the night like a champ!
At first I was nervous to do all at once so I rocked him to sleep until he was out cold and put him in his crib until he woke up (an hour like you said) and then took him to bed with me (I figured a week of this got him used to the room) but I totally wish I just did it all at once looking back.
I feel like I have a bit of my life back now that I have my bed and some sleep and I swear he sleeps 100%better in his crib than he ever did with me.
Again I know sleep training is a touchy subject on these boards but I thought I would share my experience, that's what these boards are all about right! ?
@brianna91chavez@doodleoodle ok so I just went through this! I felt like both baby and I were not sleeping well so I stated making the transition. Not going to lie, it sucked. I recommend sleep training at the same time if you are up for it ( I know it's a personal choice) our little man (4months) took to sleep training SO well, he's never slept better. Bedtime is 7 so we read and have a bottle starting at 630 and then I put him in the crib drowsy but awake. Then when he cries go up after 3 minutes, rub his belly calm him down and then if he cries again I go back up in 5 minutes, then 8, then 10. We never made it past 8 minutes he always put himself to sleep. I had dad do this bc I couldn't emotionally handle it! It took 4 days and now he sleeps through the night like a champ!
At first I was nervous to do all at once so I rocked him to sleep until he was out cold and put him in his crib until he woke up (an hour like you said) and then took him to bed with me (I figured a week of this got him used to the room) but I totally wish I just did it all at once looking back.
I feel like I have a bit of my life back now that I have my bed and some sleep and I swear he sleeps 100%better in his crib than he ever did with me.
Again I know sleep training is a touchy subject on these boards but I thought I would share my experience, that's what these boards are all about right! ?
Thanks for the advice! don't think I could handle the tears either
I was planning on moving a spare mattress we have into the nursery and sleeping on that with the baby for a few days and then putting her in her crib while I sleep in her room for a few days. And, then moving back to my own room. If that doesn't work I'm not sure what I will do. She won't nap or sleep at night on her own at all. I feel like her awake time would be so much better if she would sleep on her own. Now as soon as she wakes up I'm putting her down to eat, go to the restroom etc. I would much prefer to do this while she is sleeping and focus only on her while she is awake.
Welp...my LO is late to the party! He's 20 weeks old and has generally been a good sleeper...up until 2 nights ago that is! Now he's fighting it hard, usually we could just lay him in his cosleeper, give him his paci and he would be asleep in 10minutes or so...now we have to try everything from nursing to shushing to rocking to get him to fall asleep! He was also going like 8 hrs between feeds and now he is back to his evry 3/4 hr wake up, which doesn't always lead to him falling back asleep like it used to. I'm tired but I think I could be ok if...I wasn't starting a new job in a week! I'm pretty sure he planned it this way! I'm hoping against all hope that he can get back to better sleep before I start the new job otherwise I'm going to be one tired newbie social worker
@Sarah052085 did you start with naps first? Everything had been going well for us after adjusting her schedule until it just wasn't anymore. I'm seriously at a loss of what to do. It takes over an hour to get her to sleep and if I don't hold her the entire time she wakes up. I just tried sleep training like you suggested for her first nap, but it was so hard... I didn't even make it to the 5 minute mark, but she's still not asleep. I was fine holding her for every nap, really, but now that it is such a fight to get her to sleep I can't do it anymore.
@doodleoodle no, sadly, I still have a horrible napper. He does 20 min naps here and there at daycare but he's pretty much horrible at napping. I'm currently sitting in my driveway bc he fell asleep in the car and I don't want to move him!
@Sarah052085 ugh.. I'm sorry to hear that. I let her cry for 5 minutes and then when I went in her room to soothe her I couldn't. She was losing her mind. I've never heard her cry that hard. The only way to calm her down was to pick her up, and even then it took about 10 minutes. I guess sleep training isn't for us
@Sarah052085 ugh.. I'm sorry to hear that. I let her cry for 5 minutes and then when I went in her room to soothe her I couldn't. She was losing her mind. I've never heard her cry that hard. The only way to calm her down was to pick her up, and even then it took about 10 minutes. I guess sleep training isn't for us
They will learn on their own I promise, it may just take longer. My DD is getting easier to nap i just have to catch her window. I do have to rock her for every nap and hold her for most but I'm ok with that.
Thanks for the encouragement @kdoak2015 I wouldn't mind holding her for her naps if it wasn't so trying to get her to nap. It is so stressful and once she's asleep I feel like I need alone time to regenerate. I just need to remember that this is a phase and it won't last forever. It's actually really sweet that she doesn't want to be without me. I should appreciate it. It's just been a rough few days.
Thanks for the encouragement @kdoak2015 I wouldn't mind holding her for her naps if it wasn't so trying to get her to nap. It is so stressful and once she's asleep I feel like I need alone time to regenerate. I just need to remember that this is a phase and it won't last forever. It's actually really sweet that she doesn't want to be without me. I should appreciate it. It's just been a rough few days.
So here's what I've done to help me destress when it's nap time because I can tell she gets worse when I'm stressed. I BF her first and if she doesnt go down I will rock her. If she struggles right away I know she isn't ready and put her down or we play in my lap. I let 10mins go by and by then she's ready but if not I put her back down. There were days I was literally restraining her and getting so stressed out. I felt like a pos mom and told myself their had to be an easier way. So the last few days she's been going down within 10mins of rocking. Good luck!
Anyone else's lo wake themselves up with their hands? My DD will pull out her paci, rub her face, etc and wake herself. This is the 4th wake up in 1.5hrs. I am already barely sleeping 2hr chunks and maybe 5hrs a night. I can't deal with this extra waking and not sure what to do. She's not rolling yet but is so close so I'm not comfortable swaddling anymore.
Anyone else's lo wake themselves up with their hands? My DD will pull out her paci, rub her face, etc and wake herself. This is the 4th wake up in 1.5hrs. I am already barely sleeping 2hr chunks and maybe 5hrs a night. I can't deal with this extra waking and not sure what to do. She's not rolling yet but is so close so I'm not comfortable swaddling anymore.
All.The.Time. So no real tricks for naps since I still hold her, but at night We use the swaddle up 50/50. She has one arm out and one arm starfished ( the one she uses to pull out the paci or rub eyes) so rolling is not an issue as she can help herself even star fished. It's lightweight which is great for summer too. They're pricey at stores so I bought both of mine new off eBay for 18 bucks. So far it's worked great for us, we've used it for about 2 months or so.
Anyone else's lo wake themselves up with their hands? My DD will pull out her paci, rub her face, etc and wake herself. This is the 4th wake up in 1.5hrs. I am already barely sleeping 2hr chunks and maybe 5hrs a night. I can't deal with this extra waking and not sure what to do. She's not rolling yet but is so close so I'm not comfortable swaddling anymore.
Bridget does this. I've found giving her a lovey (stuffed animal attached to a blanket the size of my hand) really really helps. It gives her hands something to rub without resorting to rubbing her eyes/face/paci.
If there's something strange underneath the hood. Who you gonna call? Your Doctor. If there's something weird and it don't look good. Who you gonna call? Your Doctor. Immediately. If it's new, painful, and possibly pregnancy related get your ass off the internet and call your doctor. It's for your health and your child's.
Anyone else's lo wake themselves up with their hands? My DD will pull out her paci, rub her face, etc and wake herself. This is the 4th wake up in 1.5hrs. I am already barely sleeping 2hr chunks and maybe 5hrs a night. I can't deal with this extra waking and not sure what to do. She's not rolling yet but is so close so I'm not comfortable swaddling anymore.
***qbf*** We have that, too. Wish I could use a lovey like @VexedMommy suggested, but she pulls it right over her face, makes me nervous to leave her with it. Her pnp is pulled up to the edge of the bed, and if I hold her hands with one hand, I can lay in bed and sorta kinda sleep, though the bar makes my arm fall asleep and I'm sure I'm slowly breaking the integrity of the pnp frame. We're going to sidecar a crib soon, since she's less than a pound away from the pnp bassinet weight limit, anyway.
Thanks for all the suggestions, ladies. Lo is either dealing with this cold terribly or hitting the 4mo sleep regression hard. i just hope there's an end in sight because this lack of sleep is killing me.
I'm at my wits end, here. I'm pretty sure LO doesn't need to eat at night anymore, or if she does, it's only once in the very early morning. But she's up every hour. I keep thinking we're past it bc we get a good night or 2, then we go right back to it, but worse. The bigger problem is, DH completely disagrees with me that it's sleep regression. He thinks if we pick her up and rock her and sing the same lullaby each time, she'll eventually go deep enough into sleep that she won't wake. He tried 3 times in as many hours tonight, and is convinced little things like the door or him getting in to bed woke her up each time. He doesn't like or support my method of soothing her without picking her up. He doesn't believe me that we need to teach her to self soothe. I'm worried that I'll need to rock and sing to her all night long forever at this rate, it's only gotten worse and worse as the months have gone by (p sure we started at 3.5 months, she's 5 months now). I just seriously can't take this non sleep any longer, I'm loosing my sanity. Guess I'm not looking for advice here, just needed to dump.
Anyone else's lo wake themselves up with their hands? My DD will pull out her paci, rub her face, etc and wake herself. This is the 4th wake up in 1.5hrs. I am already barely sleeping 2hr chunks and maybe 5hrs a night. I can't deal with this extra waking and not sure what to do. She's not rolling yet but is so close so I'm not comfortable swaddling anymore.
My LO does this all the time unless he's in the Magic Sleepsuit! It works so well, I highly recommend it.
***qbf*** We have that, too. Wish I could use a lovey like @VexedMommy suggested, but she pulls it right over her face, makes me nervous to leave her with it. Her pnp is pulled up to the edge of the bed, and if I hold her hands with one hand, I can lay in bed and sorta kinda sleep, though the bar makes my arm fall asleep and I'm sure I'm slowly breaking the integrity of the pnp frame. We're going to sidecar a crib soon, since she's less than a pound away from the pnp bassinet weight limit, anyway.
I
found this listing for footed pajamas with attached loveys. That might
take care of some of the worries about letting your LO use a lovey at
night.
If there's something strange underneath the hood. Who you gonna call? Your Doctor. If there's something weird and it don't look good. Who you gonna call? Your Doctor. Immediately. If it's new, painful, and possibly pregnancy related get your ass off the internet and call your doctor. It's for your health and your child's.
Re: 4 month sleep regression- let the games begin!
@AmoLovesAud I will usually give up after 15 minutes and just walk some "calm down" laps with LO. I'll sing quietly to him while I walk and once he's yawned twice I go back to his room and bounce on my yoga ball in the dark with white noise for another 15 minutes. Only once did he still not fall asleep and at that point I just gave up
My son naps but is awake for more than two hours in a day.....as they get older they stay awake for longer periods.
Well now now all hell has broken loose and his sleep patterns are so unpredictable. Sometimes he seems to be up every hour, other times he will sleep until about 2am and then we set our from there.
We never did co-sleeping and honestly it was one of those things I said I'd never do but the lack of sleep is driving both me and DH crazy. So once one of us gets up for work I use my old maternity pillow and place LO in there to keep him from rolling, then I lie on the side of it and place my hand on him and he falls right asleep until 7am.
Problem is while he is now sleeping we still aren't for fear of him suffocating. Even though he's extremely strong it's still a fear.
So is random co-sleeping a good idea? I feel like I might be making him dependent on us to sleep. Is anyone done this and gone back to the crib with no issues?
Also, anything out there that I can buy for co-sleeping that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I've been trying to find a used arms reach co-sleeper but no luck.
super black outs: I went and bought room darkening vinyl roll blinds. I then bought industrial strength velcro and put a piece on each side of the window frame. I cut the vinyl to fit the window and put the other side of the Velcro on the vinyl pieces. Then I hung them up. Best part is his mini blinds cover them up and I can keep his curtains tied back so his room looks super cute all the time. I live on a street with street lights. While this didn't make his room pitch black, it did darken it significantly. Now that it's lighter out longer when he would wake up it would be light in his room and he would then proceed to freak the F out.
Problem appears to be solved!
We had a good week (maybe 2? I can't remember) so I thought we were past the hurdle. Then Saturday night was terrible. Every hour, up and screaming. At 10 or 11 we thought it must have been teething pain (which had caused her pain all afternoon), so we gave her infant tylenol. Didn't do anything (though between the initial spit out and the puke a few minutes later, I'm not sure much if any got in her system). The screaming eventually ended at 1 or 2, but she still got us up a bunch. Now all of tonight has been like the second part of last night: she makes a wail while still asleep, thrashes back and forth and kicks (and a lot of the time, poops), and eventually wakes herself up this way. If I can get a binky in her mouth at the first wail, hold it in while she thrashes, sometimes she goes back to sleep for... an hour, I'm guessing bc it's long enough for me to fall asleep, but not much longer than that. Ugh. I have a road trip on tuesday, I don't trust myself behind the wheel like this. I may have to cancel.
Is she having a hard time pooping? Doesn't seem to bother her at all in the daytime. Should I try gripe water? I miss my up once a night baby.....
seems lol gas pain but pooing well/normal and nothing has changed in my diet or hers. Might just be the regression or growing pains I dunno.
Today she started something new in her terrible sleep world: will only nap while comfort nursing. Slipping a binky in once she's asleep doesn't seem to work, she wakes right up. After 3 tries today, one at each nap, she's gotten progessively more miserable throughout the day, and she actually has bags under her eyes. So now I give up and am stuck in the nursing chair. Blah. Come to think of it, she did this last night too, she's almost always fallen asleep while nursing (I know, I know), but usually she pops herself off and settles into slumber, but at her bedtime feed and 2 night time feeds, she stayed glued to me and woke up when I popped her off myself. Growth spurt, maybe? Ugh, whatever it is I want it to end.
if that helps.
should I continue putting LO in bed with me until he gets used to the routine and new bedtime ? About how long should I give it until I start putting him in the crib? I was thinking maybe a week or two to get used to the routine but any mamas have any advice/already did this?
At first I was nervous to do all at once so I rocked him to sleep until he was out cold and put him in his crib until he woke up (an hour like you said) and then took him to bed with me (I figured a week of this got him used to the room) but I totally wish I just did it all at once looking back.
I feel like I have a bit of my life back now that I have my bed and some sleep and I swear he sleeps 100%better in his crib than he ever did with me.
Again I know sleep training is a touchy subject on these boards but I thought I would share my experience, that's what these boards are all about right! ?
me destress when it's nap time because I can tell she gets worse when I'm stressed. I BF her first and if she doesnt go down I will rock her. If she struggles right away I know she isn't ready and put her down or we play in my lap. I let 10mins go by and by then she's ready but if not I put her back down. There were days I was literally restraining her and getting so stressed out. I felt like a pos mom and told myself their had to be an easier way. So the last few days she's been going down within 10mins of rocking. Good luck!
https://www.amazon.com/Bitta-Kidda-Sleeper-Wearable-Blanket/dp/B017JDK64A/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1460031389&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=wearable+blanket&psc=1
I found this listing for footed pajamas with attached loveys. That might take care of some of the worries about letting your LO use a lovey at night.