My worst nightmare is here - our travel has routined our routine!

[Gina M]

I was so afraid this would happen, and it did! My little girl (23 weeks old) will no longer sleep, and is now so OT I want to cancel the rest of our trip. I am visiting my parents who live out of state, and they are very upset with me. But this has been anything but a vacation for me or for my daughter. In fact I am now more sleep deprived than ever.

We got here on Fri - I tried to put my LO down for a nap, after over an hour of PU/PD I took her in the car and that did not work either. I put her to bed at 6:30p (she usually goes to sleep at 7P). She was awake for FIVE hours!
She woke up at 8:30p - I was able to pat her down. She woke again at 4am, but put herslef back to sleep.
She then woke at 5am (which she usually does to bed fed - an issue for another day). I fed her, put her back to bed, and she woke at 7am.

THEN, then next day I tried to put her down for her morning nap - it took over an hour of PU/PD for her to finally fall asleep. She slept for 40 min.
Her next nap took over 30 min of PU/PD and she slept for 40 min.
Her next nap she went to sleep right away and slept for only 30 min.
I then put her to bed at 6:15pm - earlier again to make up for a missed nap. She is a catnapper anyways, but usually takes 4 40 min naps a day.
She woke at 8:30p, 9:30p and 10:30p, but put herself back to sleep.
She woke at 11:20p - and after an hour of Pu/PD I fed her. I hope I just did not start a bad habit (another one of my worst fears from taking a vacation), but she fell back asleep for about an hour.
She was then up again on and off from 1am - 3am thrashing around her crib and then woke at 5am to bed fed, went back to sleep til 7am.

UGGHHHHHH!

I seriously want to go home. My parents and my husband think I'm crazy. I am BEYOND stressed out. I would love some advice.

[lilmonkey]

Hi Gina,

Hugs.  I think that you should hold off on the sleep training till you get home.  Sleep training is most effective if you are in the home enviroment where there is little or no deviation in the routine.  It's tough to have that when you are on vacation.  Use this time to relax and have your dh and mom help out as much as possible during the day so you can get some rest from the nws.  There were times when I just have to go with the flow when visiting the ILs.  I just make sure that both he and I get as much rest as possible.  If he wakes early from a nap, I would try to get him back to sleep by holding him but if that doesn't work then I jsut give him  the next nap a little earlier.  It's tough on everybody when they hear a crying/screaming baby especially in the middle of the night.  And when they (read MIL) doesn't really understand BW.  Anyway, enjoy your vacation with your mom and your dh.  Let them take care of her so you can catch up on some sleep.  Once you are home again, you can start training. 

Hugs.