Well the good news is #1 the realtor thinks that the people who looked at our house yesterday are going to make an offer by Tuesday. #2 is that Paul is home and he doesn't return to PSU until Tuesday morning so we get THREE days together one of which (Monday) is our 7th anniversary. #3 is that I got at least 7 hours of sleep last night so I feel much, much better today. Part of the reason I got as much sleep as I did was that Paul put her to bed after I was already asleep and she only woke up once to be fed during the night (3:45am).The bad news is that it took about 4 hours to get her down last night.
We started to put her down around 7pm as she was yawning plus she had been up for 2 hours at that point and had been fed and had a clean diaper. Well we would get her to sleep but within a few minutes of being in the crib she'd start crying. We let her cry a few times but that didn't work either. We rocked her to sleep, I nursed her to sleep, etc. It wasn't until a little after 11pm that she finally went to sleep. When she woke up at 3:45am I nursed her for an hour and usually she goes right down after that but after trying to rock her to sleep for an additional 30 minutes I gave up and brought her to bed with us at 5:15am and she then slept for over 3 hours in bed with us. I read some of another book this morning (The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems) and was determined to work really hard the next three days to work on getting her on a schedule (rather than on demand feeding or as she calls it "accidental parenting." She had this strategy she suggested including swaddling, patting the baby's back, and saying "shh, shh" near the baby's ear while the baby is in the crib. She said it might take 15-20 minutes. Well I tried it for about an hour. I had nursed her for 45 minutes (watched her jaw for signs of when she was turning me into a pacifier and then took her off) played with her for a while until she started yawning and then had started the process of putting her to sleep. After trying to get her to sleep for 90 minutes (tried many different things like rocking her, the pacifier, etc.), I then switched to trying to let her cry herself to sleep. That didn't work either. So I got her out of her crib 2 hours after we had started trying to put her to bed and I fed her again. After she nursed for about 40 minutes she fell asleep so I decided to skip the "wake" time since she had now been awake for almost 4 hours straight. Unfortunately a few minutes after she was in the crib she started crying again; I am letting her cry now. I am confident I could get her to sleep on me or with me in our bed, but I am trying to get her to sleep in her crib. Neither letting her cry it out or the techniques of the Baby Whisperer are working for us yesterday/today. I am open to suggestions. I am very frustrated and am feeling very clueless what to do to help her go to sleep in her crib. I know she's tired!!!
4 comments:
well, first off - ((hugs)) I know how hard this can be - and how it easy it can be to give in - she is still kinda young - but the best thing I have done with my 2 is to get them on a really good daily schedule, eating about every 4 hours and having play time and 2 naps and trying really hard not to let them sleep much between the 3rd and 4th feeding of the day-- and slowly weaning out the night feedings , I kinda went by a book called 12 hours by 12 weeks and it worked with Kassidy and I am doing pretty much the same with Jaxon and we are down to one night feeding around 3 or 4 a.m - but I never b/f my babies so that might be different - but it is covered in the book - good luck!
My only thought is that maybe she is overstimulated/over tired when you put her down? Melanie is 3 1/2 months old and her wake time (the end of one nap until she begins to show signs of being tired such as staring, slow blinks, general fussiness, eye rubbing, etc) is only 1-2 hours. She averages about 1 1/2 hours of being awake before she needs to go to sleep again. Could it be that you are putting her down to late? Also, I know that it seems counterintuitive but when babies sleep better during the day they sleep better at night! I really don't know Ruth. I'm just trying to offer anything I can think of!
I don't think I'll be at church tomorrow but maybe sometime we can chat and I can answer some of your questions about how we've implemented the Babywise/Baby Whisperer methods into our parenting. I'm no expert, but I can at least tell you what worked for my two! Matt will be home tomorrow (and can therefore handle the kiddos) if you want to give me a call!
I was fortunate and my children were sleeping all night at 6 weeks. Nothing I did...they were just that way. When it came time to breaking habits though (like the pacifier) I had read that it takes 3 days. 3 very hard consistent days. I have also seen on Super Nanny that once you give in on the crying they know they are victorious and will cont....
Not sure if I agree with that especially for Nadia's age but wanted to throw out what I heard.
My suggestion: throw away all your lousy books (except Dr Sears Baby Book--get this one!)! Stop trying & expecting so hard, so much. Do whatever it takes to maximize sleep for both baby and you--even if it means co-sleeping and nursing to sleep. Co-sleeping will NOT ruin her future chances of successfully sleeping in her own bed (trust me; we co-slept with all 3 our boys). Do NOT expect perfect sleeping thru the night until she is about 10 months old. Then take a look at some sleep books and re-evaluate your situation if need be (like the No Cry Sleep Solution, although a couple of points in there I don't agree with). Remember, technically, 5 hours straight is considered "sleeping thru the night". Until baby is 12 months old, consider every thing she demands a *need* and not a *want*. Meet baby's needs and the rest of her childhood will benefit. Ok, you asked. :)
Peace Ruth. You’re a parent now and nobody promised you a good night of sleep hereafter, right? :)
Love!
Cinds (triplet mama extraordinaire)
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