Hello Everyone,
One week ago I started changing my 5 1/2 mo old son, Jackson from sleeping in the sling to doing PUPD (mostly PD with Pat/shh) for his naps and getting him into his own bed. (INFO: 5 1/2 mo old, exclusvly breatsfed, swaddle and binky sometimes for sleep) I also started putting him in his own bed at night instead of being the all night co-sleeping breast-feeding buffet that I have become the past several months. He still doesn't nap very well, but we are slowly overcoming the 25 min naps and now attacking 45 min naps. I know that poor sleeping during the day can lend to poor sleeping at night which may be part of the problem with continuing to wake at night. So I have a couple of questions about this transition. Jackson continues to wake at least every two hours at night. Nighttime seems harder than naps to settle him down,and I am starting to think it is because he wants to badly to nurse. Whenever he starts to root around I offer him a pacifier which sometime he'll take, other times he scream louder. Last night it took me two hours of his screaming, crying and kicking before he went down for the night. Then he still only slept for two hours before waking to start the fight over again. What what I'm wondering is this: If I nurse him every 4 hours at night, isn't he possibly continuing to wake sometimes hourly on the off chance he'll get to nurse? How can he differenciate between my nursing to feed vs me caving in and nursing to soothe? (which I'm not doing anymore). My second question is aout his crying. It is starting to wear on me. He cries before naps, when I resettle him for naps, before bed, at night when he wakes. This Textbook/spirited baby seems so angry about the changes. I guess I thought that by one week on consistency it would be smoother. Please, please - I would love your ideas on bedtime (or naps for that matter). Doesn this usually take weeks to accomplish 'success'? I beg you all for help, I'm so tired and frustrated. Blessings, Yvette