need some tips!

[branran]

Hi - I posted a couple of weeks ago the frequent night wakings and early morning wakings!!  Well it is still happening!!  Although a few things are different.  (Just to keep up, my little one is 7months old and she has been crawling and pulling up since about 5 1/2 months.  She is now cruising the furniture, using the walker toys and briefly standing on her own.  She hit so many milestones so fast and all together that I know this has a lot to do with her sleep problems.)
  After posting our routine and looking at it a couple of times, I realized she was really sleeping a lot during the day.  She has never been one to require the max amount of sleep.  So we have made some changes there.  We are capping the naps to no more than 1hr 15min.  and most days she doesn't do the short eve nap.  She has now started waking herself up at an hour to hour and fifteen.  I am not having to wake her.  I was nervous about what that would do to her daytime behavior, but haven't had too many problems, a little more distracting is all.  We are getting longer sleep at night and the mornings (I'm not getting my hopes up) have extended by 15 min each morning this week on her own.  YEAH!!

My problem is  - she is still having 1-2 random night wakings almost every night.  It stinks!!   One of the biggest problems is as soon as she wakes up she pulls herself up, she usually goes right back to sleep once I lay her down, but I am still having to go in there.  I have run out of ideas!  Sometimes I think that I have created a prop of myself, I just don't know what else to do.  She can get herself down now but for some reason she doesn't do it at night. I am a little afraid that we have some bad habits starting.  I just don't know how to fix it or prevent it.  The times are never the same ( believe me I watch them hoping they will be consistent for a few days, then we could fix them, but they're not )  I have kind of accepted that this is the way things are going to be until she gets used to her mobility.  I just thought that would have happened by now!!   In the back of my mind, I keep thinking, hoping that there is a solution to this problem, but I do not have any ideas left.  She seems to be happy throughout the day and doesn't seem affected by the night wakings, but mommy is getting very tired!!

If anyone has experienced these things or something similar even with an older baby.  I would love to hear what got you through it and how long I should expect this to go on.  (It's been almost 2months for us!)  Any suggestions, advice, ideas, support, anything would be great!!   Thanks for listening!!

[jswerczek]

Hey fellow babywhisperer, nice to see you here! You know I have given all the advice I can come up with... so I'll offer my support  Hang in there and hopefully the ladies on this board will chime in and offer help. Especially mom's with babies that have hit all the mobility milestones. Any advice for this tired mommy??

[branran]

Thanks Jen - you make me smile   Over and over.  Thanks for all the support and always listening to me.  You are a great friend

[isaac'smom]

Hi there,

I think whatever you decide to do, you need to be consistent. When you go in to lay her back down, do you chat with her, cuddle her before laying her down, etc? It's best to just walk in, lay her back down, maybe say some cue words that you normally say when she's being put down to sleep and walk out.

Also, are you responding too early to her? Once I learned to hang back and listen for that "I need you right now!" cry, my son became better at soothing himself back to sleep. Does she rely on a pacifier to be popped back in? Is she teething? Been ill? Is her last nap of the day too close to bedtime? Just some questions to help get to the bottom of this.

Good luck and keep us posted. I know how frustrating and exhausing this can be...I've been there (and some nights am STILL there )

[branran]

Thank you Isaac's mom for the support.  We really are being consistent and we don't talk to her (only to tell her it is time to sleep) or cuddle.  We just go in and lay her down.  She does use a pacifier, but I really don't think that is the problem.  There are times when she won't even take it.  I have definately thought about weaning that away,  but I truly don't think that is the problem.   
I used to think that I was going to her too soon, so I learned to hang back a little,  again doesn't seem to make a difference.  She does well at naps, rarely do I have to help her transition.  I know it may sound like a crutch, but I honestly believe that is has a lot to do with her standing, she is usually standing before she is even gotten her eyes fully open.  I think she gets in that position and is so tired she doesn't know what to do with herself.  There are lots of nights where think we are developing a bad habit - I don't want her to be dependent on us to go back to sleep at night.  But I truly have no clue on how to change it.  She is definately a spirited lo, so I know that contributes a lot to it,  but I just don't know  -  is there a solution out there that we haven't found or do we just ride out this surge of milestones and hope it gets better   Thanks so much for listening.  Even if no one has any ideas right now, I do appreciate the encouragement to hang in there.

[isaac'smom]

One more thing I thought of regarding the standing up issue. Tracy said in her one book that perhaps they may not know how to lay back down. If her hands are on the rungs of the crib, she suggests gently sliding them down the rungs towards the mattress. That encourages her to sit/lay down and eventually perhaps she'll learn to ease herself down towards the mattress and then lay down.

Just a thought.
 

[branran]

Oh my gosh!!  That is a GREAT idea!!  I had never thought of that.  This could work.  I kept trying to think of a way to teach her to sit/lay down once she is up and so tired.  Why didn't that occur to me before    We are going to try this   Thank you!  Thank you!  Wish me luck! 

[Sylvia.]

i wish you luck

[branran]

Last night I tried scooting her hands down the rails, she ends up letting go and sitting down, so maybe we are on to something!!  We did have a long waking last night for about 45min at 1:30 am. (haven't had a long waking that early for a long time)  But we also had a busy day yesterday.  We will just keep trying.  Thanks for listening