Night waking support

[Kimberly®]

As stated to you before, earlier is better. LO's need to go down earlier. The later you keep them up the crankier and worse they will be with wakings. If your LO is getting grumpy by 7 put her down for bed by 6:45. TRY IT. It does work, she wont mistake it for a nap. You can't expect her to go 14 hours at once no, but you can start your day at 7am and it will she may wake once to start, eventually she'll sleep through. balence out. Obviously putting her down at 8 isn't working so put her to bed at 7 BEFORE she's overtired, and you'll be suprised by the results.

[teezee]

totally agree with karita here..i have soo many ppl in my family telling me to keep dd up til 10 or 11pm so that she will sleep better...ha - they see how well she does now - so why am i gonna throw it all off with some absurd suggestion like that??! these are the same ppl that i remember saying 'he/she wakes up all night long..why won't he/she sleep past 4am...' etc - all through my teenage yrs. anyway, point is that lo's need to go to sleep earlier as once they are overtired it just gets sooo much harder for everyone...

[Sienna Raynes mum]

Thanks for all the advice & encouragement!
I am going to try giving her water when she wakes up, thats a really good idea because I don't want to completely change things on her at night or it will take me twice the time to get her back to sleep!!

kat1jk- when your lo wakes up in the night and you don't feed her, what method are you using?  Does she stand in her crib and you have to keep putting her down?

Last night when she woke, i fed her but took her off the breast much sooner then usual (trying to lessen the feeds) but I think tonight i will add a little water like you suggested and hopefully she will be less interested in getting up.

[Elphyrafire]

Shimmer- I think the main point the mods are making is... if it isn't working then change it! Your bedtime is not working so try an earlier one. With that being said, we had terrible nightwakings and now they have gotten a little better (still have one or two- had six or seven). I just kept trying different things and the one for us was less daytime sleep (as I belive Karita suggested to us?) Also, knowing the difference between a "cry" and a "fussy-settling-cry" helped a lot. Once I kept in mind "DS is OK. DS is OK. DS is fine. It only sounds like he's unhappy but he needs this skill and I'm not letting him learn it by going in every second."
Be consistent with your choice for a few days and if you see no improvement try the next thing! Don't give up!

[shimmer]

How do you limit daytime sleep & still stay on a decent schedule?

She used to take 5 30 min. naps but was always cranky.  Now she averages 3 naps, 2 that I extend to 1 1/2 -2 hours (they are not consolidated naps, so it's more like 2 45 min. naps right next to eac other).  Could this cause night wakings...?  I thought that sleep begets sleep...

[Kimberly®]

What do you mean by not consolidated naps?
Yes sleep begets sleep, but if your LO is up late enough at night to be overtired then its all going to fall apart.
If your LO needs AEASY instead of EASY then do that. We do and have since she was bout 5.5 months old.

[Kate A]

Sienna's mum..we are using PU/PD sort of.  I tried the reducing minutes of BF and that didn't seem to work, so I made the decision this week that she no longer needs to eat in the middle of the night. I was worried about milk supply, but she has adjusted her calories accordingly and is now nursing longer during this day..this is good!  So I have learned over the past couple of days that half the battle of dealing with night wakings is what you tell yourself.  If you are tired, you have to get the mental capacity up to say, this will only be fore a short time and I will eventually sleep at night if I work on this now.  I go into her room, pick her up and cuddle.  I knew she wasn't hungry when I did this because she would settle down and nuzzle into me.  If she was hungry she would go insane at the smell.  Once she was calm I put her back down.  Sometimes she would pop up, but I would lay her back down and continue to do this until she calmed.  Then when she woke at 2, DH would take her and use his special way of getting her down.  Similar, but his own version.

We started this 3 nights ago and last night she totally skipped the 11 o'clock wake up and slept from 7-2 a.m.   I couldn't believe it and it made it feel like things were working.  So we will continue to work on it until it finally falls into place. 

good luck

[Tatumsmom]

It's funny everynight I play this little game with my husband, it's called maybe tonight will be the night she sleeps through...I lose everynight.LOL. I thought that there must be something wrong with my parenting skills because everyone including the nurse at my health clinic says my dd who is 5months should be sleeping through the night. After reading all these post it's nice to see I'm not alone.
The last week has been a major turning point as she only wakes once to eat and then right back to sleep. So I know one night will be the night she sleeps through, maybe tonight...
KH

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Hi there Tatumsmom:

Just popped in a moment to let  you know that Hunter didn't really start sleeping through until just recently  ...  after he turned a year to be honest.  I tried supplimental feeding at night with formula, cereal at doctor's suggestion and NOTHING!  Don't feel bad, your dd will sleep eventually.

HTH

[Kimberly®]

Tatumsmom Deffinitly not alone Some babies sleep through the night early, some not untill later. I'm sorry you felt like you were a bad parent, but take heart, you are not

[Elphyrafire]

TatumsMum- LOL- We play that game too! I don't know where all the hope comes from when I continuously get shot down every morning. I just think I am very very stubborn and I'm not going to let "it" win!  I wake up and think "bring on the night again- this time it will be different because I'm going to ___fill in the blank___" I just keep going back for more.
When I was a kid and Super Mario Bros came out I stayed up all night for three days to finish it and you bet that I did! I haven't changed much only now I'm battling "sleep" instead of Bowser.

[olleezmom]

Tatum's Mum...Sounds like lots of us are playing the same game!   Every day we thank God for the fact that he....ONLY got up once during the night, or slept 10 minutes longer this morning....My nother keeps reminding me that in about 15 years I won't be able to get my DS to wake up!   I can't wait  to play that game!  Keep the faith!
Dawn

[Sienna Raynes mum]

I am also playing that game... Everynight i say to my DH say a little prayer for me that she won't wake up!
...and every night- WAAAAH!!
sigh

Kat1jk - You are right when you say " If you are tired, you have to get the mental capacity up to say, this will only be fore a short time and I will eventually sleep at night if I work on this now."

Its true,You really have to get your head in the right space before you can attempt doing anything!
I realized I am losing sleep anyway so why not try to tackle the issues at the same time..

Does anyone ever wonder why nobody mentions sleep issues when you are pregnant! They teach you how to bath a baby, change the diaper etc.. but nobody says anything about sleep!! THey should have a baby class that address the REAL issues! 

[Kimberly®]

do you guys have mantra's or something that help you through the rough days?

Mine was;

"She has to sleep eventually, she has to sleep eventually.." 

Sometimes it was all that was keeping me sane.

[colenliam]

Hi,
I just seen this thread,
I just posted, yet again, another post about ds sleeping.
I just don't understand.
I am so tired of trying new things and I am sure ds is tired of that as well.
I was just reading about someone saying how they were tired of people saying things like:
-maybe hes going to bed to early
-maybe not eating enough
- your letting him have to much sleep in the day>fine you deal with him when he is cranky cause I won't let him have his nap
-let him cry it out, your spoiling him>spoiling him??how do you spoil him at this age?  Ovisiouly he needs something or he wouldn't be crying, its his only way to comunicate with me.
Needed a quick vent session there.
Feel a bit better.