Should we just CIO when he wakes up at 5? I can't take it... He is still tired, but will not go back to sleep.. Honestly, I'm much to lazy to try to rock him or anything. I put him in bed with us where he proceedes to kick, scratch, sing, crawl, pull my hair, throw his pasi, etc.. after about an hour he will fall back asleep for about 45 min to an hour. I swear this child will NEVER leave this time zone again!!!
Re: 5 freaking AM...
So Tasty, So Yummy
I'm glad to hear this. Charlotte is a great sleeper 95% of the time, and usually wakes up b/t 6:15-7:15 am for the day. Like all babies, she has her off days, and unfortunately, she's had two in a row the past two mornings. Yesterday she was up at 5:45 (not too bad, but earlier than I'd like), and this morning, it was 4 am. I let her cry for a bit but then went and got her and pulled her into the guest bed with me and nursed her, then we fell back asleep until 7.
However, I don't want to get into a habit of this (she hasn't, but I want her in her crib from bedtime until wake up time). We do CIO too and that's why she's such a great sleeper. Lately, though, I think her teeth have been bothering her (she's cutting both top teeth), and she went through a growth spurt recently, so her sleep has been messed up. I sometimes don't know how long to let her cry if she wakes up randomly at 4 am or so. What if she's really hungry (she has STTN for 6 months or so now and doesn't eat in the middle of the night unless she's going through a spurt or is sick/teething and needs the comfort, which is rare)? What if her teeth hurt? How do you know? If I go in there, that makes it worse.
TexasSmith - how long do you let Natalie cry if she wakes up before her wake up time? Just until she lays back down, or do you eventually go back in and make sure she's okay? Char will usually put herself back down if she wakes up before her normal time, but if she continues to scream/cry/stand in her crib, I often think that's abnormal, so I go get her. 99% of the time nothing's wrong, so I was wondering this morning if I should just let her CIO.
I know CIO is a really hard decision. But it is the right solution for Natalie. The intermittend comforting/checking just has never worked for us/her. It just makes her angrier to see one of us (especially me). So we do CIO and she wakes up happy as a clam in the morning!
Oh, we did CIO at 5.5 months and it worked great for us, so I'm definitely not against it! ?I guess my true concern is what if she got sick overnight (which, usually when that happens, she wakes up in the true middle of the night and I just sorta knew something was off, so I went up there and she did have a fever) and she's crying because of that? ?I know with teething and hunger (although I agree with you in that babies their age don't need it at night) it won't hurt them to cry, but my only concern is if she's sick. ?She has a different cry if she's sick, but still....
And I'm with you. ?Charlotte is a HIGH tempered baby and if I go in there, it usually does make things worse. ?I sometimes struggle with how long to let her cry on the off chance she wakes up in the middle of the night because of the whole sick/pain/teething thing. ?She's good at putting herself back down, but if she doesn't after 30-45 minutes, I don't know if I should assume something is wrong. ?If Natalie wakes up in the middle of the night - like 2 am or something - at what point do you go check on her to make sure she's not sick? ?Like I said, it's not normal for Char to wake up like that in the middle of the night, but every so often it's not b/c she's sick or anything - it's just because she wants momma. ??
I forgot to answer your question - I don't think it's abnormal in that she shouldn't be doing it, what I meant was it's abnormal for her to wake up like that so I assume there's a reason (sick, teething, hungry). ?But, the truth is, she gets pissed when she doesn't get her way, so it's more often than not probably that! ?