Literally.
And now am asking for help from the blog community (all 2 of you who actually read this).
Oliver does not sleep through the night.
And not only does he not sleep through the night, he does not sleep for more than 2 hours at a time right now.
Case in point:
LAST night, I woke up with him 9 (thats right, NINE) times. From when he went to sleep at 9:50pm until 7:00 this morning, when James woke all of us up, I was up with him 9 times. How many of you feel fully functioning when the MOST sleep you get at once is an hour and a half?
This is what I've done to encourage sleep:
Grains before bed
Veggies before bed
fruits before bed
juice before bed
water before bed
nurse to sleep
nurse before bed
put to bed awake
put to bed alseep
baby massage
working out toots
spending the last hour before bed on his tummy to encourage gas to escape
bathing
sleeping in a fully dark room
sleeping in a partially lit room (maybe he's scared of the dark?)
Dressing in footies
dressed in onesies
swaddled tightly
swaddled loosely
added a pillow
took it away
Mylicon before bed
and on night when I don't get more than 45 minutes of sleep all consecutively (and thats happed a few times)- tylenol!
I can't think of ANYTHING ELSE to do.
Do you have any suggestions? At all?
-desperately seeking sleep
5 comments:
Packer did that! He was so big, I just assumed he was hungry, but it sounds like you've covered that base. Call your pediatrician and ask for some good advice.
Have long have you let him cry before going in to him? If you're going in too quickly, he might just be crying so you'll come running. My nephew did that. If you haven't already tried this (I didn't see it on your list, but that doesn't mean you haven't tried it), try letting him cry for a little while. If he learns that you won't come in, he'll likely fall back asleep eventually. The longest I ever had to let Emma cry was 3 hours (and that's knowing that there wasn't anything else she needed - I mean, we don't want these little ones to suffer). And it was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I was in the next room crying too. But the next time she didn't cry as long, and it continued to decrease until she didn't do it anymore. Also, I would continue to swaddle him tightly when you put him down. Babies like that tight feeling because it reminds them of the cramped quarters in the womb. Emma was a little different in her schedule generally, but by 6 weeks she was sleeping through the night. It was later that we had to work out the kinks of her waking up during the night. Good luck!! I hope you can start sleeping soon.
Oh ashley, I feel for you big time. It gets so hard when you and your child are both tired.
I've read two books, Healthy sleep habits happy child, and babywise. I've taken points from both of them and kind of made my own. It has to do with organizing their sleep/eating/playing throughout the day so they sleep at night and mostly finding their right amount of time to be awake so they don't get overtired. I've done it with 3 kids and it works wonders. It does get harder when they're older (I've trained my two youngest when they were newborns) so I've noticed when they're older they tend to cry more. Yes part of this method is for them to cry it out until they fall asleep, but it's sooooooo worth it, and soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard. I know.
ANYWAYS!! I love talking about this and answering questions for people. If you want help (and the stuff I was saying sounds like it would fit you and your mommying) we can email back and forth.
smithnatalierATgmailDOTcom if you want.
Hang in there!
As you WELL know, every kid is SO different. London did really well with the babywise approach and was sleeping 10 hours at night by 8 weeks old. Ashton still doesn't sleep that much and he's 9 months. He still wakes up to eat during the night, but he basically eats in his sleep so I'm not nearly as sleep deprived as I was a month ago. Anyway, I've learned that for us, he's just a hungry guy. All. The. Time. London was never a big eater, thus the small girl. Ashton is a HUGE eater so he still gets up to eat. Also, London always slept like a rock. Ashton, on the other hand, wakes up to EVERY noise. It sounds like that might be the case with Oliver. Do you use a pacifier? That's a life-saver for me. He could care less about being swaddled. He wants to roll around and get comfy on his own after I lay him down for bed. I think that helps him go back to sleep on his own when he wakes up in the night. So I would suggest letting him cry it out for a bit, although that won't help you get more sleep...yet. Also, I would suggest putting a fan in his room or a white noise CD, or even music. Just something so that he doesn't hear every little noise. I hope something works for you SOON! Keep us posted!
My mom was just telling me about this thing that my sister has that her baby LOVES and I thought of you. It's one of those Fisher Price Ocean Wonders things that hooks on to the side of the crib and helps soothe the baby. She got it for her baby shower. I never would have thought to buy one, just because they're really expensive (like $45) and I didn't think they were necessary, but she says it's really cool. Anyway, it might be worth a shot. Maybe you could find a cheap one on Craigslist or ebay or something. Here's a link to the toy on the Fisher Price website if you were wondering what the heck I'm talking about! http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2341&e=detail&pcat=buocean&pid=52608
I hope things get better very soon or that things are better already.
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