Author Topic: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies  (Read 26109 times)

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Offline Buttonbobs

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Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« on: May 23, 2014, 19:58:15 pm »
Continued from here:
Sleep and EASY Support for spirited babies

Please have a read of this before continuing.

How to use this Support thread
(most of this 'entry' is borrowed from the "Birth Club Rules of the Road" and modified - Thx to the Site Admin Team for composing it)

Many of our members have found it beneficial to talk with other parents who have Spirited Babies.  The support thread is intended to be a place to discuss with, help and support fellow parents who are dealing with similar milestones, trials and tribulations.  It is wonderful to have that company and a shoulder to lean on.  In order to keep the thread open and inviting to all parents, the thread will continually be locked after 30 pages and restarted.

We do request that the topic is kept to issues surrounding raising spirited babies. Please use the appropriate birth clubs for more general chatter.

The role of the moderators is to review the support thread to ensure content is appropriate for the site, provide support to members, and help guide members to the main EASY board or other forum boards for additional help when issues arise that would benefit from their own thread & "airtime".  Examples might be sleeping or settling problems with their babies.  On the EASY main board and in other forums members often receive larger ranges of answers and support and other members benefit from hearing about others' problems and how they were solved, without having to wade through lots of pages of daily "chit-chat".

A gentle reminder may be posted by a moderator to encourage you to post on the main EASY board or another forum board if they feel your question could be better answered by the larger community.  We urge you to follow through and post elsewhere, as you will see more support and advice from more experienced members.  Please feel free to post a link in this thread so that others can chime in with support as well.  If you choose to leave your post here, it will likely be split from the thread and moved to the appropriate forum by a moderator.

We also hope that you share your experiences throughout the community.  Even if you are a new parent, you can offer support and hugs to another.  We all started out as the new parent on the boards without the experience.  We all learn from each other and your advice and support is valuable to us all.  Please do not feel like you do not know enough information to post or that your input is not valuable - we are all parents who want the best for our babies, and we all have something unique to add to the boards.

** Please note, any posts saying M@arked or "saving your spot for later" will be deleted. Please take the time to write a few sentences or make a note to come back later to post.

Happy chatting!
~ Naomi ~




Offline lrj

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2014, 21:48:20 pm »
anyone here? could use some advice on my spirited one month old. or at least some sympathy  :P

Offline Aromy

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2014, 19:47:18 pm »
My DD is 9 months old (corrected age is 8mo). We’ve been on EASY since she was 5 mos, but we’ve had our battles with short naps, OT, and habitual waking. After taking the Baby Type Quiz, she is a combo of spirited and textbook, with a bit of touchy. Isn’t it the best of all worlds? She is breastfed and started solids at 6.5mo. We sleep trained her at 5 months using PU/PD. She loves to whimper and wrestle a bit even before I put her down. For her naps, if she wakes up between a cycle, she usually can’t resettle. And at night, we usually have had to go into her room 1-2 times a night to resettle her. But on good nights, we hear her cry out and then resettle herself.

The most painful part of getting her to sleep is that she just doesn't get drowsy. Instead of just slowly nodding off, she just fusses a lot. So when we put her to bed, it's always going to bed crying or whimpering. As her mom, it definitely raises my stress levels. Do spirited babies ever grow out of this? Will there ever be a time where I could put her down awake and she'll put herself to sleep? Or do I have to readjust my expectations?

But for the past month, it's been crazy. I know that 9 months is a tough time because of sleep regression/growth spurt/teething/ and we've had a cold thrown into the mix. But there have been so many night wakings and cot parties. I'm just thankful that my husband handles the nights! I'm getting quite tired of theorizing whether I have to push A times, should/n't cap naps?, OT, UT, EBT? It's exhausting.

So right now, I think I'm just going to ride the wave. Take it easy, and if and when we have a good day, I'll just try to reenact it!

Offline Bears mum

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2014, 20:03:14 pm »
My LO is the same at 15 weeks, has to cry and fuss before every sleep. He tummy sleeps and bobs/wipes his head/face on the bed over and over before finally giving in! Drives me totally bonkers, especially as I am trying shush-pat at the moment.  :-\

Offline Mamma Bear

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2014, 14:16:59 pm »
My LO is 6.5 months old and is overall a very pleasant baby and easy to get along with if his needs are anticipated and met. If we are slow to respond to what he needs, though, he will certainly let it be known. Based on the baby type quiz I think he is primarily a spirited baby but possibly with a bit of angel baby blended in.

I discovered E.A.S.Y about a month ago and have been working to get him on a good 4 hour routine and overcoming earlier accidental parenting since then. Until 6mo he was exclusively BF but has recently started solids, he mainly sleeps in his crib for naps and at night in his own room but will sometimes nap in his stroller or in the car if we are out and about. Our biggest challenge is getting him to settle at bedtime and eliminating night waking. I don't know if we are misreading his sleepy cues or don't have a good bedtime routine but getting him to bed is a real struggle especially since once he gets tired he gets really hyper and won't stop kicking and tossing about and I know he is overtired tired by that point. I tried a bath as part of his bedtime wind down at first but it seemed to make him too excited. I was thinking of trying evening bathing again but a bit earlier before he's showing signs of being sleepy.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what is a relaxing bedtime ritual for a spirited baby? He also fights going to sleep at nap time but I have had more success with sush/pat and pu/pd in the daytime and think we are getting closer to the goal of him being able to settle to sleep without so much assistance for naps (he usually has two plus sometimes a late afternoon cat nap).

I look forward to hearing what sleep strategies work for others with very active spirited babies!

Offline kellswastaken

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2014, 02:18:21 am »
My 4 month old is mostly Spirited with a side of Touchy, and my only mum friend has an Angel/Textbook... Sometimes I find myself feeling so down when DD is screaming her head off or waking 8 times a night when my friend's 2 month old is sleeping through the night and sits docilely in her stroller when out and about.

Then I feel guilty for feeling jealous about my friend's baby!!

I do love my daughter a lot and I love her just the way she is but it's very trying at the moment as she only naps in her cot, takes short naps, and her A time is peaking at about 1h30 at the moment meaning that I'm basically stuck at home all day to make sure she gets her naps in.

 :(

Offline mycatmonet

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2014, 05:10:32 am »
Hugs kellswastaken! My dd was spirited touchy, and is highly sensitive. It is hard when friends have 'easier' babies. My ds is an angel textbook and wow, I appreciate how hard dd was even more now! It will get easier, it is hard being a slave to naps at home.


Offline newkidontheblock

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2015, 08:05:07 am »
Hi there:) Is anyone still chatting over here? Would love to talk to some more parents with spirited babies. Just did the BW know your baby quiz and finally the answer makes sense! So far it always came textbook but she is simply too feisty for just that!Today it came to textbook/spirited.  I think this side of her personality has just taken longer to show. Reading through old threads of this support group and it really sheds light on some of the issues we have been facing! Anyway, hope to connect with more lovely mummies as we navigate our way through the first year






Offline jnduff

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2015, 18:22:29 pm »
I have a LO who will be 12 months in two weeks and I just took the quiz (again) and see that I may be dealing with a spirited baby.  We took the quiz before and the answer wasn't really clear.  However, scrolling through old posts on this board I see that I am dealing with a lot of the same issues and would like some input/feedback.  Are people still connecting on this board?

Offline newkidontheblock

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2015, 02:17:31 am »
I'm here. I remember seeing your post about night wakings. Have things improved?






Offline jnduff

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2015, 13:05:08 pm »
Things have improved.  Honestly I haven't had to tweak that much for that to happen.  Basically I have slowly realized that he doesn't need as much day sleep as he was getting.  I hate waking him up from naps etc but it has helped the night issues.  I recently did the quiz again (I had completed it when my LO was a  few weeks old) and am wondering if he is a spirited baby. 

Offline newkidontheblock

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2015, 14:17:27 pm »
What did the quiz say? DD always came back textbook/angel but now it is textbook/spirited and honestly, I can't believe I didn't realise it earlier. She is constantly engaging in death defying acts of flinging herself all over the place and all sorts of nutty nonsense! And she is LOUD!






Offline Frankiefrankiefrankie

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #12 on: January 31, 2015, 22:41:42 pm »
oh the pleasure of having a spirited baby.... Oh the joy during nap and sleep time.....it's the only time I donot enjoy... Other then that a spirited baby is lots of fun....
I just can not get the nap routine into place....  So today I am putting her down for her first nap at 2 hours and 10mins... I know that is early bu I have to start somewhere in working her awake times.... Is this the right thing to do or should I start closer to 2.5hours awake?..

Offline Frankiefrankiefrankie

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #13 on: January 31, 2015, 23:06:28 pm »
Well that just back fired on me... She played in her crib and then screamed for awhile.. Obviously not tired enough... Now she is playing and it creeping up to 3 hours since her night sleep.... Can a 7 month old have an awake time of 3 hours and more already?...

Offline newkidontheblock

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Re: Sleep and EASY support for spirited babies
« Reply #14 on: February 01, 2015, 02:53:59 am »
Yes, A times for her age are closer to 3.15 - 3.30.

It doesn't necessarily mean UT. Or rather, she might have not been tired enough to begin with but that can quickly change to overtiredness. It actually sounds to me like she got her second wind.