I need sleep!

[mrslefty]

For the past 3 weeks H has slept between 30 min-1.5 hours at a time.  He wakes up crying,  not just fussy.  If DH tries to soothe him it only makes things worse. The second I pick him up he goes immediately back to sleep. If I try to Pat his back in his crib it gets worse. The only way I can get him to sleep more than an hour is to let him sleep with me, but he has to have my face in his hands with our noses about touching so I get very little sleep that way. We've tried to see if he can settle back down on his own but again it just gets to the point where he is too worked up very quickly. I'm exhausted.  Last night I fell asleep standing up rocking him. We tried Tylenol to see if he was maybe tteething to no avail. He is perfectly happy all day long...help me out guys. I need some sleep!

[jamer]

I just have to say thank goodness I'm not alone in my sleepless nights. Not that I want that for you but it's nice to know I'm not the only one suffering. No real suggestions other than you can flame me for putting my dd on her tummy to attempt more sleep. I was still up 4x last night. Do you feed him ever at night? I'm sorry I have no real suggestions

[karebear219]

how old is baby lefty again? I probably don't have any suggestions either. Teething was my first thought.

Could be on the verge of a huge developmental leap, like crawling or standing. That tends to keep their brains up at night.

[mrslefty]

He's 6 months now. I feed him at night, about every 3 hours or when he gets really upset.
jamer I'm glad I'm not the only one too

[jamer]

Dec 18, 2014 15:36:03 GMT -5 mrslefty said:

He's 6 months now. I feed him at night, about every 3 hours or when he gets really upset.
jamer I'm glad I'm not the only one too

I feed every 3 hours too for the most part. After holidays we are contemplating crying it out

[dana86]

Is it a long lasting growth spurt? I would probably begin short time spurts of crying it out. Go in settle him and lay him down after so long of crying. But take it with a grain of salt. I am still getting up 3 times or more to feed J who I can't get to sleep through the night without thinking she NEEDS to eat still. She will be a year on Saturday, not cool babies not cool!

[ilovebed]

I agree with short periods of crying it out. I started with 3 minutes at this age with Blb. When they go through periods like this, it's best to stick with your normal routine and help them self soothe or else you'll never get them out of your bed! Unless you don't care. A lot of people swear by co sleeping to get a better quality of sleep. Every baby is different but it only took a few days if letting Blb cry it out for very short periods before she learned to settle herself.

[jamer]

Dec 18, 2014 23:21:37 GMT -5 ilovebed said:

I agree with short periods of crying it out. I started with 3 minutes at this age with Blb. When they go through periods like this, it's best to stick with your normal routine and help them self soothe or else you'll never get them out of your bed! Unless you don't care. A lot of people swear by co sleeping to get a better quality of sleep. Every baby is different but it only took a few days if letting Blb cry it out for very short periods before she learned to settle herself.

How long of crying it out did it take. I tried 5 min last night and she was soooo worked up when I got in there. It was a painful 5 min which scares me for real crying it out if we move forward with that.

[ilovebed]

I didn't follow any plan or book. I just decided I was comfortable letting her cry for up to three minutes. If surveys still crying id go pat her back and then leave and start the three minutes over again. Sometimes it just didn't work and is give up and nurse. But I think it was only about a week of doing this before she would settle herself before te three minutes.
Later she would regress and is have to go through it gain but it took less time. And the older she got te longer i would let her go.

She's a great sleeper now so I think we did the right thing for her.

[karebear219]

I did what I love bed did. I was never comfortable with CIO. I wanted her to know her mommy would always come back to her. I think because of that we have a much easier time now. If she's upset and I need to go get something I tell her that I'll be right back and she stays calm.

[ilovebed]

Omg I just re read my post. I really hate the keyboard on my iPhone. So many typos. Sorry ladies!

[jamer]

Did either of your kids use binkys? Mine does and not sure it's helping my cause but it definitely helps her fall asleep. Last night she only had 2 wake ups! I can live with that. But 4 + is killing me. I have a hard time waiting a any length of time to go in partially bc I don't like hearing her cry and also I don't want her waking up her sister. Ugh. The oldest was sleeping thru the night at 4 months. I guess I can't get lucky 2x

[karebear219]

BKB used a binky until she was about 2 and a half. Only during sleep time (nap and night time).

[7costanza]

Where does he sleep? We moved the baby to his own room at about 6 months because he was waking up so frequently, I didn't think it would help but it actually did (a lot!), but it was a struggle to get to that point. He went from RNP, to PNP, to crib over about 3 weeks. Then we did an accidental CIO at about 8 months because I didn't hear him wake up, and that got me over the CIO mental block and helped too. Sleep deprivation is so hard!

[mrslefty]

I would let him cry a but but he isn't waking up just fussy, it's like inconsolable screaming. We tried putting him back on his reflux meds (he's been off for 6 weeks) because we had similar issues before we started meds but it didn't help either. Patting his back in his crib only makes it worse even sleeping with us he won't sleep.
I think we're going to try moving him to his own room.

[mrslefty]

So in his own room he slept a smidge better. We got one three hour and then an hour and a half followed by the normal 30-60 minutes. Hopefully it gets better from here.

[ilovebed]

Dec 22, 2014 17:18:20 GMT -5 mrslefty said:

So in his own room he slept a smidge better. We got one three hour and then an hour and a half followed by the normal 30-60 minutes. Hopefully it gets better from here.

It will. It's just a phase. Stick to your routine and it will pass. These sleeping strikes really suck though. Just be extra careful and mindful. When I was going through this level of sleep deprivation I remember thinking that I understood how moms can make the horrible mistakes that you read about in the news. I always put my purse and lunch in the back seat with Blb just to make sure I wouldn't forget her! Not a joke. Sleep deprivation does crazy things and causes terrible forgetfulness.

[InBetweenDays]

I promise you it will eventually get better. Both our kids were horrible sleepers - waking up ever 45 minutes most nights.

With DD we did CIO around 7 months. It wasn't planned, it was just the result of both of us being sick and pure exhaustion. She would go to bed fine, but wake up 45 minutes later. So that night when she woke up we both felt like crap and I decided I was going to let her cry for a bit and make a cup of tea before going up. 7 minutes later she stopped crying, and slept through the rest of the night. With those 7 minutes she went from a horrible sleeper to an amazing sleeper.

DS wasn't quite as easy. We tried the put him down awake/CIO/check on him at set intervals around 7 months and he wasn't having it. We waited until closer to 10 months to try again (when we hit a breaking point because I had to work all night and H couldn't get him back to bed). We put him to bed, and again when he woke up 45 minutes later we let him cry. We tried checking on him at set intervals but it just got him more worked up so we eventually just let him cry. Took 20 HORRIBLE minutes but he went to bed on his own. Next time he woke up it took 10 minutes, then 5, then he slept through.

Hang in there

[picksthemusic]

Dec 19, 2014 12:33:09 GMT -5 karebear219 said:

I did what I love bed did. I was never comfortable with CIO. I wanted her to know her mommy would always come back to her. I think because of that we have a much easier time now. If she's upset and I need to go get something I tell her that I'll be right back and she stays calm.

This is what we did, too. No books, really, just tried putting M to bed earlier (which worked, and helped her sleep longer), and gave her a lovey, which really helped her soothe herself.

Good luck!

[mrslefty]

last night he slept 2 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour, 4 hours. OMG I feel like a new person! He actually woke up at 4am and played LOUDLY in his crib (we could hear him through two closed doors..screaming in delight at something) and apparently went back to sleep.
This needs to continue.

[mrslefty]

Dec 23, 2014 14:45:25 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

Dec 19, 2014 12:33:09 GMT -5 karebear219 said:

I did what I love bed did. I was never comfortable with CIO. I wanted her to know her mommy would always come back to her. I think because of that we have a much easier time now. If she's upset and I need to go get something I tell her that I'll be right back and she stays calm.

This is what we did, too. No books, really, just tried putting M to bed earlier (which worked, and helped her sleep longer), and gave her a lovey, which really helped her soothe herself.

Good luck!

We moved his bedtime up by two hours once I started back...which has him going to bed at 7 but it did help him sleep longer for his first "sleep" from 7-10 but then he was still waking up every hour after that. 
He has a blankie which really helps him soothe to sleep when we put him down first thing but wasn't working when he woke up in the middle of the night. I think he might be using it now because it has a little rattle inside it and I heard him last night shaking it.