Andrew has been mostly a textbook sleeper since he was two months. He has grown teeth without a whimper and endured loud parents/dogs rumbling past his room with not even a sniff. Jon and I have enjoyed seemingly endless nights of 8+ hours of sleep. In my head, I was pretty smug about this. Now, however, I believe in karma more than ever. For the past couple of weeks, we can count on our almost-11-month-old to awaken at least once during the night and have a really difficult time getting it together again.
Honestly, I have to save this now and write again in a minute.... he's crying again....Well, now I'm back. Anyway, we have read and applied the advice about bedtime routines, putting him to bed drowsy but not asleep, crying it out (NOT into that - tried it once and will never again), patting the back, cuddling,
yadda yadda.
The more advice I read, the more I realize all parents are a little befuddled and indeed
no one truly holds the baby sleep secret. Some babies are easy, and some are
a step or two away from a leading role in the latest Stephen King flick just a little challenging. I try, especially during the frustrating nights, to remember that he is only going to be little for a little while longer, and someday I'll miss these 2 AM cuddle sessions.
Still, I ask you, wise, seasoned moms.....
Any tried-and-true comforting or proactive sleeping techniques you'd like to divulge?
5 comments:
Any chance he's waking up because he's hungry and then he can't get back to sleep? An extra bottle right before bedtime, maybe? Just something to try. Clearly, I have no advice because our Ben sleeps with us every single night. I will say this: keep your bedtime routine the same and make sure you put him in his bed like you always have, then if he wakes up, try to deal with it without bringing him into your bed. If that becomes too much to deal with and you're absolutely exhausted, then you'll have to figure something else out. I just try to tell myself that same thing...that he's only going to be little for a short time and I'm doing the best I can. The last thing I want to do is be mad at him in the middle of the night, so that's why I started letting him sleep with us. Before that I was angry and frustrated and exhausted. Now, I'm none of those and I know that eventually he'll work it out for himself and sleep fine. Just get through it...I'm sure he'll get back to normal before too long.
Oh, one more thing that my pediatrician told me...whatever you do, try not to start feeding him in the middle of the night or else he will expect that every time he wakes up. Just make sure he's good and full before bedtime. And, by the way, I can't do cry-it-out either. Breaks my heart...I cry worse than he does. Also, I just don't understand the philosophy behind it...as his mommy I'm supposed to help him when he's in distress, not ignore his cries. Call me.
I have never missed the early morning wakeup calls. My girls have slept well through the night. The only exceptions are when they're sick and when they were teething. I did use a pacificer but weaned them from it at about 15 months (when they started biting through it!).
Patience. An early test for the teens years. :) The let-em-cry it out never worked for me either. Maybe not what you want to hear, but the in/out comforting did work for us. Never picked them up or took them to our bed. But acknowledged them and talked and rubbed their back. Seems it always lasted for two weeks and then it went away for a few months before it would return. Finally, it will pass altogether. Patience. :)
Take this advice for what it's worth. I am the novice here, but my cousin Candy worked with a pretty well-known Dr. in CA that wrote the book, "The Best Baby on the Block". Tisha swears by it! She's had a lot of luck with Sarah using those techniques. They have videos and books. I know, when will there be time????
There are different versions...baby on the block, toddler on the block, etc...........
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