Sleepless in Castle Rock

I followed a program with a book called "Babywise" with both of my kids. My son was sleeping through the night at 10 weeks and my daughter at 8 weeks. It has to do with getting their eating schedules on track and they sleep better. Try it...it works!

Hi J.,
We were fortunate in that both of our sons slept through the night at "early" ages (6 weeks & 11 weeks). We found that if we "topped" off their tank right before their bedtimes - around 9 it put them to sleep and they slept through the night. Also, we found that our sons wouldn't sleep if it was really quiet since they were used to the noisy womb. We had a fan going or even an air purifier (a friend of mine does this), but just having this background noise helped them. Good luck - just when you're about to pull out all of your hair they will start sleeping through the night :) :)

Hi J.--

To help we could use some more information. Are you breastfeeding or bottle feeding? Is the baby falling asleep while sucking?

Don't give the baby rice cereal---They shouldn't have solid food until at least six months (American Academy of pediatrics--as well as natural practitioners all support that). Giving solids too early greatly increases the chance of food allergies.

You could try "stacking" the feedings before bed. For instance, if your child eats every three hours, for the last three feedings before bed try every two.

I wish I could help more--my son woke up every two hours until he was two--but he was a very sick baby (severe food allergies). We ended up co-sleeping and it helped me get the sleep I needed because I didn't have to move to feed him.

If you have more information about your routine it could help others help you.

Hang in there--this too shall pass!!
J.

One thing that worked for us when our boys were babies is to put a little cereal in their night time bottles. That adds a little more sustenance and the baby's belly will be more satisfied and hopefully the baby will sleep for longer periods of time.

We had some hard times with our daugther, she's 1 now, when she was 2-4 months. She wouldn't sleep during the day at all... and at night she was up until at least 11pm, sleeping only about 5 hours at night. The swing helped alot during the day at first. But the best help was the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. It saved my sanity and let me keep my work-from-home job. Now Payton takes two naps per day and sleeps from 7pm to 8am. I only hope I am so lucky when I have a second.

Hello,
My son (now 9 mo) was the same way. He did not want to go to sleep at night or take naps. The "crying it out" method NEVER worked for him....he just kept crying!
The problem for me was that I had been putting him to sleep ASLEEP and he wasnt learning to fall asleep on his own. I started looking for signs that he was tired like rubbing his eyes, or mood changes. They say by the third time they rub their eyes they need to be IN BED! This was true for my son, if we didnt catch his clues right away and he got OVERTIRED there was NO WAY he was going to sleep!
So once we started putting him to bed AWAKE when he was showing us signs of being tired of course he cried! He was used to going to sleep asleep. So I went in about every 2 minutes, calmed him down, and put him back in bed. I did this sometimes for hours. They say it usually takes only 3 days to break them of a habbit......not Ayden! It took about a month. It got easier every day for both of us, sometimes I would only have to go in every 5 or 10 min.
Soon he realized I wasnt going to get him out of bed so he better just learn to go to sleep. I found that going in when he was SCREAMING every two minutes helped both of us. I didnt feel terrible and he got some comfort but was put back in bed.
Now he takes GREAT naps sometimes 3hrs and he sleeps from 7pm to 8:30 am durring the night. That wasnt until 6mo though!
I hope I helped!
T.

I feed my son more oz. of formula like up to 6oz.before he would go to sleep for the night. He is still that way with the formula and he is now 8 1/2 months old. Does your baby sleep in their own room? I ask because once I put my son was in his own room, he was able to sleep through the night without waking up. I noticed that if my son slept in our room he would wake up in the middle of the night, like when my husband would get up for work around 3:30am.

Sleeplessness is tough right now. It clouds your judgement and befuddles your whole day. Once you have established there is no physical problem and if your little guy is nursing, the answer is simple, take him to bed with you and nurse him right back to sleep. I've done this with my children and we are all happier.

If your little guy is bottle fed, he is possibly sensitive to the formula, if it's dairy based, you may want to try soy or goat's milk, as it's much less antagonistic to their new digestive system. Babies are not devious and are pretty clear about what they need, so Baby just wants the touch and support of mom or dad. The 'let them cry' method is no longer as popular as once thought, as it ultimately is sending the message that their needs are not important, and everyone is suffering. Right now,is a very short amount of time, compared to a very long and healthy life, so it's not that bad to keep them with you at night, for this short while. It's been done all over the world for generations, 'the family bed'.

If both parents do not agree on this method, maybe you could put baby next to your side of the bed, in a bassinet, or whatever works for you, so that all you have to do is reach over and cuddle or touch baby to let them know you are near, before they wake up completely.

When they are in another room entirely, they have been awake awhile and crying, usually, before you have woken up and heard them and in that amount of time, it has escalated into a high anxiety situation for your baby. Nearer to your reach may make it easier for baby and you as well.

References: The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding book has some good parenting techniques in it, as well as Dr. William Sears book The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two (Key Phrases: healthy sleep attitude, nighttime parenting styles) might help give you the support and confidence you need right now.
This will all be better, soon. Good Luck.

HI J.,

I didn't sleep through the night for one year!! About that time, I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. This book was awesome! It gave some good advice that really worked for us. Check it out, it gives some advice on how to get your baby in a pattern that really works so you and baby can get some needed sleep.

Best advice anyone ever gave me... everything is a stage ( at some point this will pass!)

Best of luck!

Hi, I used The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg for my second child, my first never slept. I would have given my right arm for more than 2 hours of sleep at a time! The EASY method worked like a charm! Eat~ Activity ~SLEEP~ You. If you help your baby get into this routine (repeated all day) you and baby will finally sleep through the night! The cry method killed me too and as many times as I tryed it~ it never worked! Good luck, those dark circles will fade!
C.

Mom staying at home with my 3&5 year old girls

Have you started ricce cereal yet. The baby is probably hungeriest at night and a bottle doesn't keep him/her satisfied. I also use a blanket, i know the risks of sids and they shouldn't have a blanket on them but both my kids started sleeping through the night when they were covered with a blanket. Both of them hated swaddling and a blanket over them from the chest down did wonders.

Have you tried that night time bodywash that they make to help soothe the babies before bed time? Also try a warm bottle at bed time.

Have you checked with your doctor to make sure that there are no medical reasons for him to be waking at night? It could be something minor like an ear or sinus problems or something serious like sleep apnea.

Keep on truckin'! 4 months is a really hard time. Just tend to him or her until the pattern changes. You really should not use the cry it out method until they are 5-6 mos...just too young for that. Also 4 months is a big growth spurt, so he/she may really need fed every 2 hours. Good luck!

I totally second the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" book by Dr. Weissbluth. I still use it with my 2.5 year old.

Our twins slept with us for the first 6 or so months of their lives, which made nursing and sleeping much easier for all four of us.