Friday, January 23, 2009
Sleep Training
As I am writing this, I am listening to Feist on my ipod at the highest level possible so that I don't hear my sweet baby boy screaming in the background. This is the most miserable experience. I decided a couple of days ago after waking up every two hours for 10 minute snacking on his part that I really need to get him on a schedule and need to start sleep training. What a terrible decision. I am trying to get him to take a nap at 9 am and 1 pm...and then maybe a 3rd nap if he needs it. I have just been letting him eat and sleep as he pleased, which ain't working. So, I have read two sleep books: Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and BabyWise. I find them a bit frustrating as neither really lays out a plan. They just say that your child should nap and you should let them cry it out if they don't want to sleep according to your schedule. Has anyone had any luck implementing a sleep schedule? My dogs hate that he is screaming. They are both staring at me...asking me with their eyes why I am not dealing with the crying baby. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I don't understand how people have young ones on a schedule? I haven't been successful with moana. I have, however, been able to spread out her feedings some if I don't think she's truly hungry. Now that she's a little older I can distract her by taking her for a walk, or bouncing on my exercise ball while she's in baby bjorn... I can usually force the afternoon nap on her too but only by resorting to the swing. Good luck and let me know if you find anything else that works!
ReplyDeleteOh, the vacuum cleaner. That works for us.
Good luck - I've heard different things about scheduling so I hope you'll update about what works (or doesn't). After a month of a fairly predictable schedule (she found her own, and it worked for me too), my baby started getting fussier this week after I returned to work. The other night, I did let her cry to sleep. Only fifteen minutes but a looong fifteen minutes. I think right now she just needs more comforting and mama time. I hope all goes well.
ReplyDeleteFrom all I've heard and read, babies will eventually consolidate their naps on their own. Might be that Nathan isn't ready. Baker still dozes throughout the day and seems fine with this. He sleeps great every night and I don't think the lack of long naps is affecting him at all. Just saying, you could probably relax about it a little bit! I guarantee your little one will find a rhythm soon.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds super hard, but maybe it will work? Hopefully he will get more into a routine for you or if not then find his own schedule soon!
ReplyDeleteI went through this a few weeks ago. I followed Babywise which just made me feel like a terrible mother. I gave up on forcing a sleep schedule on him during the day but what I did was develop a routine (but it didn't have to follow a time schedule) of eat, play in bouncy, change diaper, under mobile, tummy time, exersaucer and then Baby Bjorn. If he fell asleep I went with it and if he didn't I didn't push it. On his own he started taking a nap in the morning and a nap in the afternoon. Now at night I am trying to force that on him but I found that during the day if I just went with his natural pattern it was much less painful for both us. I say throw away Babywise. Now Dr. Wuss...., well he is here in Chicago and I had thought about making an appointment with him but we seem to be seeing some small improvement with the night sleeping. But I haven't read his book so I can't comment.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. Good luck!
You are way tougher than I am. I couldn't let my Nate cry it out. I'd rather get up with him and lose a little sleep. I have a book called "The No Cry Sleep Solution." It's supposed to be a more gentle approach than the CIO approaches. I don't really seem to need it yet though because he goes down just fine lately. He wakes up because his nose is stuffy more often than because he's hungry it seems. Naps are pretty predictable too. I have a hard time with the idea that we need to force the baby to meet our rigid schedule and am letting him make his own for now and more often than not he pretty much does what I expect him to do so it's fairly easy to plan around. But then again, I'm probably just a wuss :)
ReplyDeleteOh, the one thing that supposedly works to get more sleep is to give the baby a bottle before bed--like a big one of 5oz. You can get even more sleep if it's formula. We give my Nate a bottle before bed on the nights I run after mrp gets home from work, but usually it's just 3 oz and then he tops off his tank at the breast as soon as I'm done and right before bed. The most I've gotten is 4 hours though.
Good luck!