I know there are a lot of sleep questions on here, but they are hard to sort through since there are so many. So I decided to ask instead of trying to look for my exact situation.
For the past 2 months or so, our baby has gotten more difficult to put to bed. He has some reflux issues, so we used to have him sleep in the Nap Nanny. It's just an elevated pillow type of thing. But we also use the regular crib so that he gets used to that too. Up until about 2 months ago, all was fine.
At 4 months, he starts flipping to his tummy. He rolls all over the house and it's quite cute-except for sleep time. If we put him in his nap nanny, he tries to flip out of it and if we lay him in the crib, he flips to his tummy and pretends to forget how to flip back over. He usually ends up spitting up a ton since he's on his tummy. If we can get him to sleep, he'll only sleep 1/2 hour to 1 hour before he starts doing his tricks again (either flipping out of his nap nanny or onto his tummy).
We have a 2 and 3 year old and we are very tired. It's getting too hard to wake up constantly to fix him and get him to sleep again. He won't sleep in his swing and I don't think sleep positioners will work as he'll probably just flip over them. We have tried using pillows on his sides, but those don't work.
How can we get him to sleep WITHOUT the "cry it out" method. With a 2 and 3 year old who sleep across the hall, we have ZERO desire to have 3 kids awake. We just want to deal with this one. :)
Thanks!
I forgot to mention: he HATES being on his tummy. If he wanted to sleep on his tummy, by all means we'd let him. But he just fusses when on his tummy and refuses to sleep that way.
My son also had reflux. He is now almost 2 and is just now growing out of it. When he was a baby he would only sleep about an hour at a time. We were so tired, we also had a 3 year old. I remember his relux did get worst at 6 months for some reason. Your baby could be waking because he is in pain or uncomfortable and unknowingly flip over. It could also be teething.
Snuggle spot...It is a baby bed/pillow that makes a baby feel like it is being held when you cant hold it. www.laneybug.net
N.,
Our son is 9 months old and also has acid reflux, we found out around 2 months of age. He only sleeps on his tummy (has been since that time too) and at first we were nervous wrecks about it but he would sleep longer and it wasn't on me or in the swing. We struggled the first three months with no sleeping (for me anyway) because he slept on me.
We give him Tagamet twice daily, I had to quit breastfeeding at three months and he had started hypoallergenic formula. We had LOTS of spit ups. What worked for us was feeding him, keeping him up-right for at least 20 minutes before laying him down.
It took a while but it did get better. By four months sleeping improved tremendously and he was in his crib with nothing else. (We had also tried everything to help him sleep on his back, positioners, things with an angle, etc.) If he is turning on his own I would let him sleep with nothing else in the crib, on his tummy. It probably feels good on his tummy as we figured with our son. If he is able to turn his head back and forth he is strong enough.
Good luck.
I always wrapped both of my kids up in a good wrap (I love gysymama, but many people love moby, which is a bit cheaper) and wore then in that throughout the day, tummy to tummy. It seriously worked wonders for their reflux!! It allowed them to feel warm, safe, and close to mom, but also kept them upright, which is huge. They would both nap really, really well in it! Plus then I had my hands free to cook, clean, play with siblings, etc.... I totally agree with you on not letting them cry. I wouldn't let my babys anyway, but ESPECIALLY with reflux. I can only imagine how much pain that would cause. I read a wonderful book that I highly recommend. It's called the No Cry Sleep SOlution by Elizabeth Pantly. It is a LIFE SAVER!!! You can get if from amazon.com, the library, or on her website, just google her name. Good luck!
Also.... we took both the kids to Dr. Kirk Van Metre. He is a chiropractor with four girls of his own. It really, really, really helped. Between the wrap and him, I never had to mediate them.
I read that a chiropractor can help with baby reflux issues - you can ask your pediatrician if they can recommend someone specializing in kids.
Also if your kiddo needs elevated surface to sleep on, you can put a regular size pillow under his mattress in the crib. That way he'll get a bit of an incline without having a pillow right in his face. I do that when my son has a stuffy/runny nose.
Another thing that helped us was swaddling - several of my mommy friends and myself swaddled our poor sleepers till 7-8 months. That way they didn't have much freedom to get in trouble. It doesn't work for everyone, of course, but when we are desperate anything is worth a try...
Good luck and good night ;)
A. S
