baby wont sleep

[betseylover]

hey all! my first time posting in here! i just had a baby boy a few months ago and he is the love of my life! only problem is that he doesnt like to go to bed! its tough. i have to rock him, or breastfeed him to bed. anyone else have problems like that? any advice as how to get him to sleep better? its getting so bad that i am thinkiing of hiring a sleep consultant. anyone have experience with one? he is just so fussy due to lack of sleep poor little man!

[omgsweet]

When my daughter had a hard time falling asleep, I would put her in her boppy bouncer and put it on top of the dryer. I would turn it on and stand there with her until she passed out. It usually only took a couple minutes.

How long does he usually sleep?

[juicy couture jen]

I don't have much advice to offer since I'm on the same boat with you! I usually breastfeed or rock him to sleep at night.

You could try placing him in his crib and sitting by him and watch him sleep, so he knows you're there. I only do that in the mornings when I know he is sleepy. I can never get him to sleep in his crib in the daytime. He usually naps on our bed in the day time.

Good luck, and your little one is adorable!

[betseylover]

Originally Posted by juicy couture jen

I don't have much advice to offer since I'm on the same boat with you! I usually breastfeed or rock him to sleep at night. You could try placing him in his crib and sitting by him and watch him sleep, so he knows you're there. I only do that in the mornings when I know he is sleepy. I can never get him to sleep in his crib in the daytime. He usually naps on our bed in the day time. Good luck, and your little one is adorable!

ur little one is adorable too!!!
he usually sleeps in my bed too, sometimes the crib if he is terribly sleepy and already in dreamland. i have tried putting him in his crib while he was awake and sleepy, but he refuses to fall asleep there. he just stares back at me :P

and omgsweet, he usually sleeps 10 hours at night, but wakes up every 2-3 hrs. i think he might wakeup so much cuz i am sleeping beside him? i am going to try and sleep in living room on the sofa bed as soon as our visitor who is currently staying with us leaves. as for naps, its anywhere from 20 min to an hour that he naps, 2-3 times a day.

[omgsweet]

How many months is he?

[betseylover]

he is 4 and a h alf months. what a cute little girl u have on ur avatar wearing her burberry and all. is that ur daughter?

[biggestbaglover]

I had the same problem with my son when he was born. For the first four months of his life, no one in our house got any sleep. He was basically awake all day long, no naps and continuous waking throughout the night. A friend who knew that we were having a really difficult time brought by a few books for me and one REALLY helped. The book is called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth MD. The author is a doctor who deals specifically with sleep disorders in children. One of his basic philosophies is that children who do not sleep enough become overtired and this leads to them being unable to fall asleep. He has very concrete ideas and a schedule of nap times/awake times for different ages of babies and children. I followed everything that he said in his book and honestly, IT WORKED. My son went from NEVER sleeping to sleeping 11 hours at night and three naps of 1-2 hours each. He went from being a cranky baby who needed to constantly be held not to cry to one that was happy and pleasant and content. I know it sounds strange but it really did work. I had a little girl 6 months ago and began sleep training her with this book right from the beginning. She began sleeping through the night at 2 months old! She now sleeps 10-11 hours at night and three naps. Nap 1 is 1 hour, Nap 2 is 1.5 to 2.5 hours and Nap 2 is 1 to 1.5 hours. My son is now almost 3 years old and he is still a good sleeper averaging 10-11 hours at night and one 2 hour nap. I have recommended this book to all of my friends who have had babies. It has worked for the three of them that followed the ideas of the book. One of my friends refuses to put her child down to sleep as she does not like to hear him even whimper. Needless to say, he is now 9 months, does not nap AT ALL and sleeps in 30 minute increments all night long. Although she did not want anything to do with that book in the beginning, she is now at the point where she is willing to give it a try and has been sleep training her son for the last two nights. See if you can get the book from the library to read. If you can give it a try, I think you will be surprised at how quickly the child can go from not sleeping at all to sleeping and napping well. Good luck to you! Oh, and I see you are from Vancouver! YAY! Me too!

[betseylover]

Originally Posted by biggestbaglover

I had the same problem with my son when he was born. For the first four months of his life, no one in our house got any sleep. He was basically awake all day long, no naps and continuous waking throughout the night. A friend who knew that we were having a really difficult time brought by a few books for me and one REALLY helped. The book is called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth MD. The author is a doctor who deals specifically with sleep disorders in children. One of his basic philosophies is that children who do not sleep enough become overtired and this leads to them being unable to fall asleep. He has very concrete ideas and a schedule of nap times/awake times for different ages of babies and children. I followed everything that he said in his book and honestly, IT WORKED. My son went from NEVER sleeping to sleeping 11 hours at night and three naps of 1-2 hours each. He went from being a cranky baby who needed to constantly be held not to cry to one that was happy and pleasant and content. I know it sounds strange but it really did work. I had a little girl 6 months ago and began sleep training her with this book right from the beginning. She began sleeping through the night at 2 months old! My son is now almost 3 years old and he is still a good sleeper averaging 10-11 hours at night and one 2 hour nap. I have recommended this book to all of my friends who have had babies. It has worked for the three of them that followed the ideas of the book. One of my friends refuses to put her child down to sleep as she does not like to hear him even whimper. Needless to say, he is now 9 months, does not nap AT ALL and sleeps in 30 minute increments all night long. Although she did not want anything to do with that book in the beginning, she is now at the point where she is willing to give it a try and has been sleep training her son for the last two nights. See if you can get the book from the library to read. If you can give it a try, I think you will be surprised at how quickly the child can go from not sleeping at all to sleeping and napping well. Good luck to you! Oh, and I see you are from Vancouver! YAY! Me too!

yay vancouverites!
i will be checking this book out for sure, it sounds helpful that he has schedules in there too for different stages. i tried a few books, didnt like them. i dont like to ferberize, and i don't like the pick up put down method either. :(
i totally believe that he is overtired and has trouble going to bed due to that. how long was the transition from not napping to napping?? and prior to that, did he have his own room? and how did u manage to put him down to bed before the training? thanks!

[treck]

Hi all!! all your babies are adorable!!
As for the sleeping problem, my son now 9MO was a fussy sleeper, actually he would only sleep on mine or DH chest for the first 4MO. We tried everything including the dryer trick but to no avail. On our 3MO doctor visit, our pediatrician was shocked when he found out what we been doing, which is basically one of us will stay up all night in front of the tv cradling our precious baby on our chest, as crazy as it sounds but at that moment both DH and I are so worried about the baby getting his snooze that we care lil' about ourselves. We told the doctor we tried EVERYTHING, all the tricks on those baby books and some other advises from other mothers as well ...all but one, which is letting the baby cry it out...my DH was against it so much he'd rather suffer himself. Our doctor told us we should give it a try, actually he ordered us...lol... we tried doing it that night and after listening to my baby cry his lungs out for 4 hours straight, my DH has had enough and swore he will never let his baby cry out ever, he picked up his baby and cradled him to sleep. We were stuck with this cradling to sleep thing for the next 2 or 3 weeks then one day, around his 4MO, my baby finally slept in his crib no fussing at all. I guess the moral of my story is, eventually and when your baby is ready, he will sleep on his own and let you guys have your good old snooze time again. Until then, cherish those clingy nights because as crazy as it may sound, I sometimes missed holding him on my chest while he sleeps.

[biggestbaglover]

Originally Posted by betseylover

yay vancouverites! i will be checking this book out for sure, it sounds helpful that he has schedules in there too for different stages. i tried a few books, didnt like them. i dont like to ferberize, and i don't like the pick up put down method either. :( i totally believe that he is overtired and has trouble going to bed due to that. how long was the transition from not napping to napping?? and prior to that, did he have his own room? and how did u manage to put him down to bed before the training? thanks!

My son was DEFINITELY overtired and I'm sure your little guy is probably going through the same thing. One of the key things that this guy says is that bedtimes are usually too late. We were putting my son down for the night at 9 but he says that bedtime should be from 6 to 8 pm with them ASLEEP by that time. This will help them get the rest they need through the night and will help set the tone for the next day for napping. Before we started the training, it was a complete gong show in my house. I would nurse my son until he fell asleep in my arms and then I would gingerly place him in his crib. Even though he was knocked out cold after nursing, his eyes would pop open as soon as I would put him down. My husband would then proceed to rock him for hours at a time. It was complete insanity and we were all overtired and stressed. Honestly, I was at my wits end and when my friend brought that book over, I was willing to try it. I found it really helpful that he had sleeping schedules and "rules" like a baby should not be awake for more than 2 hours at a time from 2-6 months old and 3 hours for 6-9 months old. I had no idea what I was doing as a first time mom so these "rules" really helped me and I felt like I finally had some sense of control over the situation. My son took 2 days to train. By the third day, he was sleeping through the night and napping. By the fifth day, he was completely on the sleep schedule and it was like clockwork. I did this with my daughter from the time she was born and no issues with her. Of course, now she is flipping onto her belly and can't flip back so she wakes herself up and starts crying until I flip her back but that's a whole other
story!
Good luck to you! I really hope you try it and that you find it as successful as I did. I would not be preaching how helpful it really is if I didn't believe it really works!

[omgsweet]

Originally Posted by betseylover

ur little one is adorable too!!! he usually sleeps in my bed too, sometimes the crib if he is terribly sleepy and already in dreamland. i have tried putting him in his crib while he was awake and sleepy, but he refuses to fall asleep there. he just stares back at me :P and omgsweet, he usually sleeps 10 hours at night, but wakes up every 2-3 hrs. i think he might wakeup so much cuz i am sleeping beside him? i am going to try and sleep in living room on the sofa bed as soon as our visitor who is currently staying with us leaves. as for naps, its anywhere from 20 min to an hour that he naps, 2-3 times a day.

Originally Posted by betseylover

he is 4 and a h alf months. what a cute little girl u have on ur avatar wearing her burberry and all. is that ur daughter?

At 4 and half months, my daughter slept about the same. I thought it was pretty normal. She ate every 2-3 hours, night or day. I let her sleep in my bed during the day. Her crib is in our room, but I don't think our noise bothers her.

Yes, that is my daughter. I am surprised at how many people could tell she is wearing burberry in that tiny picture!

Your son is so freakin cute. I LOVE all the hair.

[biggestbaglover]

Oh yeah, my son slept in his crib in our room until he was 9.5 months. He started going from a lying down position to sitting up and looking at us so it was then time to move him to his own room. My daughter sleeps in her crib in our room right now. We will probably move her into her own room in a few months, about the same time as we did with my son.

[betseylover]

thanks everyone! biggestbaglover, i think i am in the same boat as you. i BF him to sleep, but he wakes up as soon as i put him down. i have to hold in my arms, lay him to sleep with me, and then when i am sure he is sound asleep, i sneak my arms from out under him and run out of the room for some mom time. sigh... will definitely check to see if i canfind the book tomorrow. ur story gives me hope!!!!

[Sternchen]

For a while before bed (depending on your baby, could be an hour to a few hours) don't do any too stimulating activities. I'm also a big believer in routine...maybe not a time-set routine, but a bedtime routine.

Bath (on bath day), diaper change, clothing change, lights down low, snuggle time with mom, soft music and then sleep. We had a bit of trouble with this when my daughter was still smaller, but luckily we don't have it anymore!

[rileygirl]

betsey--when was your son born? Mine is the same age and is a non-sleeper. HIs older sister who is not quite two yet was the same way so techincally i haven't slept in more than 2 years. i wish i had advice to offer you but with my older child i just had to wait until she got older. i wish you the best of luck and some sanity.