Saturday, April 5, 2008
Help!! We're Exhausted!
Aiden is not sleeping well at night. Last night he woke up 10 or more times. I think that was partly to do with the fact that he hasn't been feeling well but he still tends to wake up quite a bit in the night and can't seem to put himself back to sleep. Kelsey and Lyza gave me some great suggestions. I would love to hear more of your great ideas!! Any suggestions??
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9 comments:
Oh, I am so sorry you guys. That's gotta be frustrating and exhausting. Some friends of ours have been having the same problem with their little boy (he's 10 months). They took him to the doctor and pushed the issue until they found some results. For them, their baby has acid reflux and was getting heartburn at night which would wake him up a lot. You might check into that. Otherwise, I've heard people mix a bottle with rice cereal right before bed (cut the nipple of the bottle to allow it to flow through) to help sustain them longer. The other thing our friend has had to do is just shut the doors, turn off the monitor, and let him cry sometimes. They said it's hard, but he was getting used to them coming in every time and so he couldn't calm himself. I hope you figure something out soon! Keep us posted. Oh, and definitely leave him with a babysitter and you and Brian get out on a date soon--I'm sure it'll help your emotional health.
Melissa- here are some things our doctor told us! - once a baby has toubled thier birth weight they should be able to sleep for at least 6 hours at night without having to eat- if he dose has acid reflux, you can try just proping up one end of his crib with a blanket or towel under his mattress so he is proped up and the acid won't bother him as much- I don't know if you are fedding him solid foodsor not, but cereal right before bed helps Liam sleep longer and be happy before he goes to bed- A humidifier helps Liam with the consistant noise and the cool mist helps him if he is a little stuffed up.
Hope that helps! Talk to your doctor I think that will help you feel better too!
Hi Melissa. I hate this stage of their first year. It is the hardest. I agree with Lyza about him being able to sleep through the night. He is obviously not hurting for food (wink). So he should be able to make it through. With Kaden, we didn't push the issue too much. We were living on the 2nd of 3 floors, so right between two apartments. He did not sleep well until he was almost two and a half.
With Jaren, though, I did not want to go through that again! He has always been a great sleeper, but once he was about 9 months, he started waking up more and more, to eat. And I knew he could make it without eating. So we would lay him down, awake, say goodnight, and walk away. (now we do that and he goes right to sleep w/out a sound and sleeps for at least 10 hours.(unless he is sick) HEAVEN!)Go back in and check/calm down in 5 min, then 10 min, then 15 min. If after 30 min he still wasn't asleep (which happened very rarely) I would pick him up and change/feed/do something to calm him down and put him to sleep. Hearing them cry is hard, but they do figure out if they cry, and no one comes, what's the point of crying anymore? You just have to be strong and let him be. You need a break sometimes too, and if he can sleep well, it will help you out SO much.
Sorry this is so long. Good luck and I hope he starts sleeping better soon!
Another suggestion I can offer is to make sure to have a routine at bedtime. Maybe a bath and pj's then a book and bed. I always make sure to get Michael's pj's on at the same time a night and try to get him to sleep around the same time as well. Do you feed him everytime he wakes up at night? Cutting back on that if you are could help. Maybe just feed him after its been 6-8 hours since he last ate. Then he'll realize when he wakes up he's not getting fed so he might try to go back to sleep or not wake up at all. That was something I had to break when I was breastfeeding. It took Michael a while before he was sleeping through the night and taking good naps so don't give up hope! Michael used to only take 30-45 min naps. Now he has slept up to 2 hours twice in a day plus a short afternoon nap. I hope things start to look up. It's hard to be sleep deprived, I know!
Jusy let them cry... you can only do so much, make sure they are fed, have a dry diaper and aren't uncomfortable... then put them down where you know they can't hurt themselvesmake sure your husband is home to hold your hand... and walk away. They will fall asleep. Sometimes.. they are just over tired.. and nothing helps... if you have a couple bucks I do recommend a soothing toy that plays music.. you hit the button and walk away... after about twice they associate it with sleep.. it still works for my 2 1/2 year old, in fact by 8 minths he would lay himself down and push the botton himself.. we would even hear him wake up in the middle of the night hit it and fall back to sleep... it was great!
Oh Melissa I am so sorry. I have forgotten how real those nights are. I have no advice except pray about it. That was always my best tool as a mother. Even if it did not stop the crying, I was able to cope and have the strength to get thru it. Wish I was there to help. Take Care Mother. And run words of Elder Ballard in your head all day. That was motivating.
Hey Melissa,
I saw your comment on my blog and it was so good to hear from you! Your family is darling. It's so fun to see where people have gone and how well they are doing. Did you ever teach? I just did the internship, teaching 4th grade before I had Reagan. Now I'm at home and nothing can beat this!
I empathize with you because I am going through the exact same thing but Reagan is 9 months!!!! She still is not sleeping through the nights, in fact, she's waking up more! I think I need to buckle down and just decide to not go into her at all at night, oh it will be hard but I can't keep waking up through out the night!!!
I was looking through your old posts and I saw the one where you made that feeding cover. I had seen one of those and actually was planning on making one. However, I'm very new to sewing so when I saw that you had successfully completed three I was very impressed. Can you give me some tips?? (size of fabric, pieces, etc.) You can email me at jabeck85@gmail.com
Thanks so much Melissa!! Good to catch up again.
I love BLOGS! I feel like they unite the world, ahhahaha
Well, let's see if I can leave my two cents, oh the experienced mom that I am...ha ha!
I think you've recieved lots of good advice. We would give Lydia a bath every night, give her rice, and then I'd nurse her to bed. I think practicing at nap time can help. I would sing her a song two or three times while rocking her and then kiss her and lay her
down..what Nicole said, that's what we'd do.Let her cry for 5...then I'd pick her up, sing her a couple songs, kiss her and lay her down...then cry 10 mins...come in do the same thing (we started with her at 2 months, so she never lasted longer than 10 mins, but don't be surprised if a 5month old goes quite a bit longer). She knew what was coming. And it really worked. You have to teach them...'cause they don't know.
When I would feel out of control, I would take a break and look at the situation. Whether it be sleeping, eating,ect...and ask myself. Who is in charge? This little baby or me?
He's not gonna like you trying something new, he's probably not gonna like anything...but he'll soon find comfort in a routine. He's old enough to have figured you out by now and he can get what he wants. So I would figure out what would suit Aiden best and something you and Bryan can do consistently.
Good luck. Just pray about it and use your mommy intuition, things'll get better! Hang in there.
Thanks everyone for your great ideas!! I will try these out and let you know the out come. THanks again!
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