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Monday, October 3, 2011
Sleeping Woes....(Complaining involved: Be Forwarned)
I am going to take minute of your time to complain for a minute. The first question I want to ask is "What happened to my baby that was happy all of the time because he slept so well?" He no longer sleeps very well at night. His naps are sporadic at best. He almost always has to cry himself to sleep, nap or otherwise, for about a half an hour! It started right before we moved to Missouri. I can't think what has triggered it. The current thing that is driving me nuts is that he has decided to wake up at 5 in the morning. As a general rule I have not gotten him out of bed until 6. I think 6 is pretty early to get up considering, until as of late, he woke up like clockwork at 7:30. I can handle 6 though. We have read so many different expert advice columns and most of them say that 5 is a completely reasonable time for a a baby to get up in the morning. Reasonable for who? I have tried leaving him in his crib for an hour or more, but then he just screams and then none of us are happy. He refuses to fall back to sleep. I have tried making his last nap end earlier, but that didn't work either. I have tried putting him to bed earlier, I have tried putting him to bed later...but he just keeps waking up at 5 or slightly earlier. I guess, if he was really happy at 5, I could train myself to get up earlier and to go to bed earlier, but the fact of the matter is, is that he is NOT even remotely happy when he gets up and he is is soooo tired and then he just screams no matter what you do. Plus he then is at an awkward schedule where he wants to take his naps at regular times but it would only work if he took four. Did you get that? FOUR naps. Not happening!!!!! Well to all of you experts out there, self proclaimed or otherwise, let me know what worked for you, or if you even had this problem. I would love some advice. Sorry for the complaints!
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Ugh sleeping woes. I will sleep on it and see if I can come up with any advice for ya tomorrow! For now hang in there.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I do not consider 5:00 am to be morning at all. You know me, not 6 am (or even 7?) was an acceptable time for my babies to be awake for the day. So I would not give up on this fight if I were you. That said, I think my girls did continue to wake up at like 4 or 5 for a feeding practically until they were weaned at age one. So I am wondering if Shiloh could be hungry? Could he be fed a bottle and put back down to finish the night's sleep? I know that sounds like major back sliding since he used to sleep until 7:30, but his food needs can change as he grows, maybe he needs more calories now. Well someone else will say let him cry it out and he'll get over it, but I was never good at tough love. I think I had one who just needed me to plug in the pacifier that time every night too. Uggh. I also got my girls all hooked on falling asleep to music. I should not be giving you advice. The loss of your good sleeper could be caused by teething too!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your thoughts!!! There are a lot of things that I hadn't considered. I am sure we will figure it out eventually, but for now I guess it is a grit your teeth and bear it kind of situation. I will try some of the advice anyone has. I am desperate
ReplyDeleteHa isn't it true that all of us mothers to some degree proclaim to be experts. I am by no means a sleep expert. Besides potty training, sleeping issues are the toughest thing for me so far in parenting. My last 3 have been sleep angels but Camille was a sleep demon. But the great part about that is now she is an amazing sleeper so there is hope :).
ReplyDeleteWhat is most frustrating for you probably is that the issues all seem so sudden and out of character. Has he gotten those teeth in yet? Some kids take teething really badly. Is his nap schedule are screwed up too? I know that the transitions to fewer naps is always a hard time. But I would definitely try and reduce the number of naps he takes. He will be cranky so you don't want to do anything too drastic and too sudden, but if he is a bit more tired from the day he might sleep longer for you at night, maybe not.
I am with you that 5 is no an acceptable time to wake up at. I fed my kids around 4 until I weaned them, but they did fall back asleep. I usually try not to, but do you think if you fed him and then rocked him to sleep he would stay asleep? Or would he sleep in bed with you for an hour or 2? (I know you might be opposed to that, but with Camille we had to try everything and I remember doing that when she woke up super early). Eventually we got her in the habit of going back to sleep and we put her in her crib and eventually the problem seemed to go away.
So I guess the best advice it to keep trying to do different things and see what works for you. I am a tough love person, but Brad isn't. Crying it out is so hard on everyone. I don't think crying it out at 5 really is worth it cuz then it just starts your day out all wrong and cranky.
Also be forewarned that when he learns to pull himslef up in bed sleeping as you know it will be ruined for a week or so but then they eventually learn to get themselves down and they learn to readjust. n there is the readjustment when the binky is gone. It always seems like there is something to ruin even the best of sleepers. I hope that you guys can find something that works.
Sorry that this is more like rambling and sorry if there isn't any actual advice in this :) I know with Camille that I cried a lot and got angry a lot and felt like a terrible mother and really was angry that my prayers didn't fix it all. But it did eventually pass and maybe I am a stronger woman because of it? Good luck. We love you and will be praying for you. You are a wonderful mother!
more food!!! every time we had sleep issues with eva (who is a fantastic sleeper) it was because she wasn't getting enough food during the day. when i finally would try giving her more food she slept like a champ. give him larger portions or an extra snack and see what happens.
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