Help me out, if you will, and see if you can spot the pattern in these pictures..
Catch it? If you blink, you might miss it, but I promise there's a pattern there.. All pictures of cute, sleeping babies with one underlying theme: none show her sleeping in her crib..
"Why is she showing these random sleeping pictures?" you might ask.. Well, when you are trying to depict what your life has been like for the past few weeks, this little game gets the job done.. Selma has never really had a problem with her crib, per se, she just really seems to get to sleep faster and sleep longer when she's not in it..
The last couple weeks I have to ask myself, "What am I doing wrong?" Selma used to be a pretty good little sleeper until about 3.5 months when she went from sleeping 6 hours straight a night to waking up every 2 to 3 hours, ummm, that's just not gonna fly with me.. You see, I'm a girl who needs just about 8 hours of sleep to function properly (you can verify that with Sky if you really don't believe me, he'll definitely fill you in :) It makes it especially hard when you're used to your baby sleeping well through the night to all of a sudden waking up all the time, it's like your hopes and dreams have been shattered and dashed upon the rocks!
A little too dramatic? I don't think so, sleep is a wonderful, precious thing!! Last night I had to get up 6 times, count them, 6! Don't get me wrong, I would do anything for my baby girl but I need help!! What am I doing wrong? I've tried to get into a little bedtime routine: feed her some rice cereal and a fruit/veggie around 8 or 9, give her a bath after that, lotion her up with some calming, lavender-scented lotion, PJ time, swaddle her, read her a story/sing a song or two and put her down in her crib.. We let her cry for just a couple minutes (I was worried she wouldn't put herself to sleep and would just cry and cry) and she fell asleep, worked like a charm!
A couple hours later, however, she woke up crying so we laid in bed feeling like horrible parents and let her cry for a few minutes.. 5 minutes went by and she soothed herself back to sleep.. Victory!!
Not so fast.. She then woke up a couple hours later and wouldn't self-soothe so I went in there, tried to help her get back to sleep.. Didn't work.. Changed her diaper.. Didn't work.. So, I fed her and she fell back asleep..
I guess I just don't get it because she's made it through the night before plenty of times and so I wouldn't think she'd be hungry multiple times at night still? I know there're growth spurts that they go through but for 3 or 4 weeks? I don't know.. I thought baby's could sleep through the night by now but I could be wrong, I'm no expert :)
This brings me to me pleading for help, advice, anything!! I would love a good solid block of sleep rather than waking up several times to either feed her or pick her up to bounce her back to sleep.. Any "mom secrets" that I don't know about? Any tips or things that have worked for you would be wondrous for me so we can get a little more of this at night:
And a little less of this:
13 comments:
As rude and heartless as this sounds, let her cry it out. Go and pat her on the back every 5 minutes, let her know you are still there, but when you pick her up and bounce her, or feed her back to sleep, she is becoming dependent on it! With Landon, he was 13 months before we finally made him "cry it out" and it was horrible!!!! He was yelling for me, and bouncing in his crib and even throwing up! (here I am sounding like a heartless mom again) But seriously, after 3 nights, he was sleeping through the night! I was amazed I didn't do it sooner. I vowed with my next baby I would. and I did. Dawson was 4 months old when we did it with him. He would put himself to sleep in his crib easy, but would also wake up several times in the night. I made sure he had his oatmeal and a full bottle/nursing session before bed (which was about 9pm) We would put him down and bam, he was up 2 hours later. grr.. He would seriously cry for like 5 minutes, fall back asleep, just to wake up 20 minutes later and do it all over again. But we stuck to our guns and didn't get him out to rock him, or feed him again. It took maybe 5 nights and he was sleeping through the night. Just don't give in even once, or it will be that much harder when you try to do it again, I would suggest doing it before she can pull herself up. I would ALSO (wow, lots of suggestions) suggest doing it on a weekend so you can catch up on some sleep. I promise, it's SO WORTH IT! Both my kids are well adjusted and don't hate me for making them cry as babies. Both my kids go to sleep at 7:30 pm and wake up at 7:30 the next morning. It's pure bliss :) Sure, you have setbacks when they get sick where you have no choice to get them out and give them loves, but getting them back on schedule isn't that hard. Good luck!
looooooong! Sorry!
My first thing is that remember that every child is different. You can't really say "a baby should sleep through the night...", I have a nephew that still doesn't sleep through the night and he'll be a year old in two weeks. Parker was about 6 months before he started sleeping at night. I like what your other friend said though. Just let her cry, and just check on her every few minutes to let her know you're there. If it's been a while, then pick her up and see if you can sooth her enough, without feeding her, to let her lay back down and put herself down to sleep. If you do something like that just know the first few nights of it are going to be hard, and then they should become better. Another thing my Dr. suggested as he got older (around Selma's age) was just to give the baby a little bit of water, and when they begin to realize if they get up to eat that they'll only get water, most of the time they'll stop getting up at all. A bedtime routine is SO important though, so keep up with that! Babies are so hard to figure out sometimes since they're all different. Stick with it. I'm sorry. Do you nap when she does during the day? Good luck with everything!
Sounds rough! I definately need my sleep too, or else Im really grouchy and cant pay attention to anything. Im sorry I dont have any advice :( Since Im not a mom and all. She sure looks cute in all the pictures though.
Tatum still doesn't sleep well at all. At her 4 month appt my doctor convinced me to let her cry it out. It really helps. I just put her in the crib tell her I love her(after her routine of course) Some nights she does great other nights she wakes up and cries for over an hour (like the last three) I check her diaper if I think thats whats bothering her. I always go rub her head and tell her I love her and then I leave. I would suggest cutting her down to one feeding a night at first. Thats what I do with Tatum, and at 6 months I am going to nix them completely. All i can say is she is sooooooo much happier. Thats how I know she isn't damaged by my heartless actions:) Seriously she seems so much more content and easy going. I think it's immportant for them to realize they have some control and aren't completely dependent on us. But I wont lie its hard it still makes me cry sometimes
Ok so I agree with chantel completely....every baby is different...but as hard as it is.....let her cry it out!! I had such a hard time with this...and Kaden did not sleep good at all.... I would get up every 2 hours!! Finally I decided something had to change....so we decided to try the cry it out method...it took kaden one really bad night of screaming for a total of five hours ( not straight...just throughout the night) ....and then the next night he slept through the night!! No joke! But do go in and pat her and let her know you are there... but as much as you want to dont pick her up....cause then she will expect it...the trick is to get her to be able to put herself back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the night... and that is what worked for us...we seriously tried everything else..but letting him cry worked the very best...
Awww.... Steph I am so sorry! I am with you though... Whenever Pressly wakes up in the middle of the night I struggle getting out of bed! I am still getting the hang of it, and we are still in working progress of a schedule. But all the advice you are getting I am soaking in too! You will HAVE to let me know what works, b/c I will surely need it here next month when I have to go back to work. Aren't they just so precious when they are sleeping though! :-)
I love all the advice for myself, but sorry I don't have any to leave! Best of luck and I'm with Chelsea, let us know what works!!:)
The last picture there wasn't of her not sleeping through the night, you wanted a picture of her under her mobile. Just teasing with you sweetie, it sounds like I'll need to buy some ear plugs if she's going to be great.
You could try the "miracle blanket" (or just wrap her with a normal blaket using that same technique). Aidan was doing that same thing, up all night long, then when he was 2 months old our friends showed us this weird way to wrap him...and I couldn't believe it, it actually worked. Aidan has always been a horrible sleeper until about a month ago. But that wrap worked on him like a charm for about 4 or 5 months (til we couldn't wrap him anymore). She might be too old for it to work with her, but if your desperate its worth a shot. Everyone told me just to let Aidan cry it out, which I think is a good idea, but it never worked for Aidan- and believe me I let him CRY and cry every night for weeks. He started sleeping really good about a month ago just on his own, maybe some babies just need to grow into sleeping through the night which is way hard, but I tried just about everything and just couldn't believe that my 8 month, 9 month, 10month, 11month, 1 year old couldn't make it through the night. It's very frustrating. Try the wrap, it might work :O)
Poor Steph! Don't worry, though. Give me a few more days and I'll be right there with you...again! My advice is probably pretty close to what you've already gotten, but it always helped me to hear success stories. So here's mine. Gavin was a good sleeper from the beginning and still is, but he did go through a phase of waking up every 2 or 3 hours AFTER he'd already been sleeping through the night for a while. I worried that he was growing so he must need to eat all night, or else he might be teething or whatever else, but I think he just had connected that when he cried at night, I would come get him and feed him. Babies are smarter than we sometimes give them credit for. Well, he liked to eat! So he did what he needed to do to get what he wanted. Finally, I took my cousin's advice and let him cry it out. For him, it only took one night. But it was definitely a night I'd never want to repeat. He woke up at 2:00am and screamed for FOUR HOURS (I'd decided before-hand that the earliest I'd get up was 6:00) while I laid in bed and felt like a terrible mom. I tried a couple times to go and comfort him, but he would get so mad that I wasn't picking him up and feeding him that he would scream so long and hard until he passed out! So, take what you need to from my experience - you'll know what to do for Selma. Every baby's different, but sometimes tough love is better in the long run.
You have gotten some great advice. My doctor said to wait 20 minutes to go in and check on her/him. She said to pat her/him and say you love them and then leave the room and wait another 20 minutes. Going in after 5 minutes is too soon. Turn off the monitor and set a timer if you have to. Rob still has trouble sleeping through the night and he is 19 months old. Bella on the other hand sleeps like 6-8 hours before waking to eat. Rob did that when he was her age (4 months) but as he got older, he would wake up a lot. I'm hoping she doesn't follow in her brother's footsteps. Let me know what works too. Good luck!
Don't stress steph, she'll get there!!! Ave has just started this month. She has also started to not want to sleep anywhere but her crib. yikes! We are heading to Utah this week, so hopefully she'll sleep okay there.
I agree COMPLETELY with the first comment. One big thing though, that I've learned from almost EVERY SINGLE ONE of my friends is to NOT PICK THEM UP when you go back in to check on them. Just rub their back or lay them back down, but don't pick them up and try to soothe them. They'll become dependent upon it and expect it all the time. Good luck!!
Post a Comment