Our Angel
Our little angel is being anything but an angel....when it comes to sleeping at night. We are at our wits end and am using this post to solicit advice on what to do.
Here's a rundown of where we were at:
Julia had been sleeping from 8-7ish with one feeding during the night. She went down really well after breastfeeding at 7:30. I try to rouse her a little when I lay her down so she's not asleep when I put her in bed. We did drop her third cat-nap that she used to take around 5:30 because she wasn't tired at that time anymore.
This is where we are now:
I nurse her at 7 or 7:20 now since she's tired earlier and half the time she ends up more awake after eating than when I started nursing. We bring her downstairs rather than trying to force her to go to bed. When she starts getting sleepy again I take her back upstairs, nurse her again, and then lay her down. For a week now she's been waking 30 minutes - 2hrs later and refusing to go back to sleep. Last night it took four hours of letting her cry, picking her up, trying to nurse (but by this point I don't have a drop of milk left in me), Brian would pace with her, I would sing to her. NOTHING worked. At midnight she finally gave up and went to sleep - nursing, in my bed.
HELP!!!!!!
6 comments:
URGH! Isn't it the worst when we can't get our sleep? Liv doesn't go to sleep till we do, around 10. We just have the same routine each night, and it usually goes well. She also does not sleep much during the day. Probably a total of 2 hours a day, that's it. So, by night time she's exhausted! Sorry it's not the advice you were looking for, but hugs anyways...
thanks for your support! It's hard to keep the right perspective on things when you haven't slept in a week. I really need to find a way to make time for myself so I can come back to my kids refreshed. If only there were more hours in the day!
So sorry about the sleeping issues. This might sound intense, but by the time my kids were 7 months old, and had proven they COULD sleep through the night with one or no feedings, then I just nursed them, put them to bed at 7sih, and left them for the night; if they woke wanting to play or be soothed or whatever and it was still "nighttime" and not time for their feeding (I made them at least wait until 1am) then I would just let them be. LOTS of crying for two nights, and then they were both done and got the point. Cullen eats once a night (usually 4:30 or 5:30 if he does) now or usualy not at all. I found going in and trying to soothe Cullen and then leaving revs him up MORE. Total extinction is what worked for us. No milk, no contact, nothing when it's nighttime. It's a HARD couple nights (much harder for Kieran than for Cullen...Cullen cried only an hour or a bit more at the most...Kieran, upwords of 3 hours!!!) but in my opinion at about 7 months, when I knew they weren't starving, they just needed to learn that nighttime is for sleeping only. In fact, I see Cullen on the monitor sometimes at night, laying awake, kicking, clapping for 5 minutes or so, then goes back to sleep, because he knows by now no one is coming, so he happily goes back to sleep. But it's teaching them that that was hard....hope this helps, don't know if it's what Julia needs...just what I did with my boys. Sending lots of love your way!
One a side note, LOVE this photo of Sleepless Beauty!
Hi there, shame I can so feel what you are going through. With my first one Jarid it was so easy, gave him his bottle at 7:30pm and poof he was in dreamland and would wake up at 8 sometime 9am for his next feed. My baby Caydon it was so different. At time I thought I was going to loose my mind, but eventually said enough is enought and so this is what I do:
Does she have solids? I found with Caydon at 6 months milk was not enough and even when he had solids, it was still not enough, so I gave up on feeding him the way I was told and I let him eat until he pulls away. I found when his tummy is not full enough he wakes up 2/3 times a night. I also try and let him go without his milk bottle as long as possible and then it is feed and straight to bed.
1. Put her in her cot and walk out. Don't talk, sing or hush her to sleep.
2. If she cries go to her and still don't say anything and pat her till she quiets down and walk out as soon as she is quiet. I also find keeping a very dim light on helps.
3. It take a few days but eventually she will get the hang of it and you'll find she will fall asleep quicker in time. This was the only way I could get my little one to sleep.
I hope she gives you some sleep soon. Good luck.
Yikes! That doesn't sound like much fun. Especially if she was doing better. A book that really helped me was The Self-Calmed Baby by William A. H. Sammons. Check the Library.
This book made sense to me because I didn't feel like I couldn't do anything.
I will summarize his sequence here:
"1. Talk to the baby from across the room.
2. Go over to the baby and rub the child's back.
3. Roll the baby over and talk from a closer range.
4. See if the baby will suck on his own hand or your finger.
5. Check to see if the baby needs to be changed.
6. Pick the baby up and walk over to a chair.
7. Talk to the baby again.
8. Again try letting the baby suck on his hand or your finger.
9. Feed the baby."
Another thing I have found is that my children often wake up because they are cold. So I either put 2 pairs of pj's on (one summer pair under a winter pair) or add another blanket.
Keep me posted. IT WILL GET BETTER and BE CONSISTENT with Julia every time you go in to her so she understands the message you are trying to send to her. This will also teach her what to expect and help her find a way to calm herself down.
love the comments of this post :) doesn't that seem like such a long time ago? It does for me... I remember feeling that way with abby... going days without good sleep and now, it seems so long ago!
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