Nh&g: baby sleep

[bunnymendelbaum]

Ok, advice needed regarding night feeding and sleeping:
Mina has a hard time sometimes going back to sleep after eating. With Franca it was all, diaper, feed, right back into crib and zzzzzz.
Mina will wake up every 4hrs or so at night, change diaper, eat and go back into crib, but 3 minutes later she is crying. It doesn't seem to help if I rock and get her really back to sleep before I put her back in crib, she still will often wake back up 3 minutes later.

She's a little gassy, but that doesn't seem to be it. I've tried staying in her room to calm her if she wakes in 3 minutes. Sometimes that works, sometimes she just cries again 3 minutes after I calm her.

I don't want to complain about her at all because she's a great baby, but it is exhausting to spend over an hour trying to get her back to sleep twice a night.

[thewop]

Do you swaddle?

[bunnymendelbaum]

Feb 7, 2013 15:14:02 GMT -5 thewop said:

Do you swaddle?

Good point. (That's why I knew it was a good idea to ask here!)

We swaddled her the first week, but then it just mad her mad so we stopped.

Maybe I will try it tonight and see if that helps.

Stupid question but when do you swaddle? After you put her in crib? Or do you never unswaddle to feed?

[emoflamingo]

I would try swaddling. And maybe some gas drops or some gripe water.

Of course, I can't get mine to stay in his crib (not that he gets out on his own, he's big but not advanced lol) so I'm not getting a lot of sleep either.

[thewop]

Feb 7, 2013 15:34:49 GMT -5 bunnymendelbaum said:

Feb 7, 2013 15:14:02 GMT -5 thewop said:

Do you swaddle?

Good point. (That's why I knew it was a good idea to ask here!)

We swaddled her the first week, but then it just mad her mad so we stopped.

Maybe I will try it tonight and see if that helps.

Stupid question but when do you swaddle? After you put her in crib? Or do you never unswaddle to feed?

  We tried both, but it was just easier to position her unswaddled for feeding, then after diaper change we reswaddled her in the crib.  She hated the pre-made swaddle thing with velcro, so we had to do it old school with blaknets.  We actually used 2 blankets- one was folded the long way and we would wrap her up tight in that, then we would lay her on the blanket laid in a diamond shape and wrap her in that.  Does that make any sense?  LOL.  It totally worked for us. 

And do you do the same bedtime routine every.single.night?  I swear that's the reason DD was sleeping throught the night at 7 weeks old.  From day one we were doing bathtime (even if was just a wipe down with a warm wet washcloth), feeding, swaddle, rock in the dark until she fell alseep.   

ETA: we started at the same time every night too.

[ktzmoh]

We swaddled my son, and it worked like a charm. We swaddled before putting him down and I reswaddled before night feedings do that if he fell asleep while nursing, I wouldn't have to wake him. My daughter never liked the swaddle, and we struggled to get her to sleep. A lot. We wound up cosleeping with her for a long time. We'd put her to bed in her crib, then she'd just stay in bed with us after waking for her first night feeding. We did that until she started sleeping through the night.

[Deleted]

I agree with WOP on the routine thing. I have a great sleeper because I was pretty decent about starting the routine within a few minutes of the same time and doing it all the same every night.

Rubes had major reflux/gas issues at night from newborn to about 3 months. She wouldn't all out wail/scream but more kinda squirm around and whine. We really liked gripe water here. Worked better than anything.

Also, Rubes used to wake up like that from 4months plus. If she wasn't all out screaming, I'd just leave her fuss it out a little bit from really little on. Not CIO or let her scream for hours with a newborn obviously, but if it was just a little wailing she was over it in less than 5. I also had a music projector/white noise I'd turn on after her night feedings and she really liked that/put herself back to sleep. Even some nights now Rubes will wake for a water refill (I know. I know. But the kid loves her sippy. I love my sleep. It's a battle we don't fight!) I will turn her projector on and she settles herself back down.

Is she too hot or cold? Rubes was REALLY touch about that. Still is. She hated the swaddle in the hospital so I never tried at home. She was always so hot anyways. Even now I can't put fleecey jammies on her or she'll sweat right through. Even has a newborn she slept best in a long sleeve onesie and a diaper.

It could also just be a phase and in another couple weeks she'll have worked through it.

[bunnymendelbaum]

Thank you so much!
I swaddled and it totally worked!

We have a routine, but I'm not super consistent with it. I'm going to get better at that too.

[timetomove]

we used the miracle blankets for swaddeling and i laid them in their cribs to apply the swaddle. GL!

[sratsey]

Ditto the Miracle Blanket.

[Deleted]

With DD2 we swaddled which helped control those little baby flailing reflexes. Also, our pediatrician recommended raising one side of the matress a little bit to help with digestion and gassiness. We put a couple folded up towels under one end of the matress so the matress was higher on one side but she was still laying on the matress (not the towels or any other item that could suffocate her). He said babies often have a little trouble digesting at first so it is good to have them at an incline so their little heads are higher than their feet and gravity can help the food flow downward more easily.