Hi C.,
I am not a physician, but am a mom too. I do not do well without sleep and our physician also told us the same thing, but I could not take it anymore and talked to my sister,(who had 3 kids) she told me that Matthew was starving and that I needed to feed him some "real food". He slept for the first time all night long on October 15, 2003 (born June 29, 2003)I pumped for 6 months, so she told me to start with cereal first and then graduate to fruit after he did this for about 1 1/2 weeks. So, I began putting 1 teaspoon of cereal in a small bowl with my breast milk (or formula) the regular that you have been feeding him and and I began feeding him with a spoon. You want the consistency of the cereal to be like cream- a-wheat, not too soupy, but not too lumpy. His first reaction was very weird, because he didn't really know what to do and he kept spitting it out, but I kept at it until it was all gone. Example, if you give him 4 to 6 oz of milk at each feeding, I would do it just 3 times a day, not every time you feed. He is a big boy and mine was too. After a 1 1/2 week of this, then I did fruit, progressed with all the fruits and then went to vegetables. Same thing, 1 teaspoon, and then moved it up to 1 1/2 teaspoon and just started addind a little more and more each week and he loved it. Got the spoon feeding down and began doing much better because he wasn't so hungry anymore.
Email me at ____@____.com and I can tell you more.
A WONDERFUL book that I read and it helped me tremendously was the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". Letting them cry it out did not work for Matthew, (I tried and he cried for 2 hours), so obviously I didn't do that. Another thing I did was keep it consistent EVERY SINGLE NIGHT even on the weekends. We feed him around 5:00pm to 5:30pm as much as he could, bottle mixed with his food and after dinner, the nightime ritual would begin. Ours was the same EVERY NIGHT. WE never deviated from it, when we did, we paid for it the next day. Babies, kids love consistency and structure. It makes them feel safe and familiar. I would then began putting bedtime music on, the bath, the rocking, singing to him and then the bottle (always one at bedtime for him) until I found what worked with him and he began sleeping from 7:00pm to 7:00am. Some of my friend's kids would go to sleep at 5:30pm or 6:00pm, I don't know your schedule, but it is tough when you can't see your baby for longer than 1 or 1 1/2 hours, but SLEEP TO HIM IS MOST IMPORTANT!! I cared more about him getting his rest than me seeing him. Again that book helped me out a ton!!
It cramped our style expecially on the weekends when we had to get home to put him to bed, but it was more important for him to get his sleep than for us to be out and about. Plus it made the weekends so much more pleasant when we just followed our routine.
Matthew just turned 3 and I can honestly say that he still sleeps 10 to 12 hours a night w/a nap during the day and he is one happy little boy!!
Sorry this was so long, but I BEG YOU TO BE consistent with his sleeping and his bedtime routine and you will be amazed at the difference it makes in your child and in you, not just now, but in the long-run.
G. B.