Let me just start by saying how much I love my sweet little girl, no matter what. But I have been so tired lately!! She has developed some new sleep behaviors that I don't know how to steer back to a more desireable place- for both of us!
She has never really had too much trouble getting to sleep on time or within 30 mintues of her bedtime. In the past, she would occasionally wake up as soon as I put her down, but it took only another few minutes of rocking to get her back to sleep. No big deal. Night feedings were a breeze: she would wake up- not cry, just awaken- eat, then go back to bed easily. Great! 20 minutes, tops.
Lately though, that is not the case. The past week or two her initial going to bed difficulty has been escalating. I am keeping the same routine with her, but she is beginning to fight sleep .(apparently I did this too when I was a baby- payback?) I have tried laying her in her crib when she is tired, but not sleeping and letting her soothe herself to sleep. It has worked once with the help of her rainforest mobile, but not again since then. I have tried allowing her to be freaked out and panicy when she pops her eyes open as soon as I put her down and NOT pick her up again, but instead tell her it's okay in a soothing voice and rub her belly. No dice. I've tried just walking away with and without a mobile playing- not happening. She gets so distressed! She doesn't really cry, but I can tell she's unhappy. I've read that at this age (4 months) it's still too young to let them "cry it out". I'm not sure I could do that anyway when she's just this little.
Well, the initial bedtime is not the worst part. Now she refuses to go back to sleep after her night feeding! She usually wakes up 2 times at most. It's the second feeding where she resists going back to bed. It's the same thing; she'll fall asleep while I'm holding her. But as soon as I put her down, she opens her eyes and panics! The other night she woke up at 1:30. She didn't really want to eat or be rocked. She bucked around in my arms, but I rocked her and rocked her and tried holding her different ways to get her to sleep....I nodded off in the rocking chair a few times myself. Finally, I admitted defeat and decided to take her into bed with me. I looked at the clock- it was 4:30!!! I had been trying to get that child to sleep for 3 hours!!!
Now I'm at the point where I don't want to lose sleep trying, so when she wakes up I just get her, and bring her into bed with me, and feed her in there. I don't want to get into the habit of letting her sleep with me, but I'm at my wit's end!! Not to mention she kicks a bit, so I don't always sleep well. She does cuddle, though, which is nice, but I'm exhausted every morning and so is she!
If anyone has any advice out there, I'd love to hear it! I've done research and talked to her pediatrician, but I tried all of that to no avail.........
1 comment:
I totally feel for you! Akira was sleeping perfectly through the night for 8-10 hours and then all of a sudden I couldn't get her to go to bed, or she would wake up twice in the night and not go back to sleep. Or she would only sleep on me or with me in bed!
How does Maysies nap? They say good naps durring the day can help them rest better at night. I started to get Akira more consistnat naps at the same time of day and making sure doesn't nap past 6pm like she likes to do. And that has seemed to help. Also- a consistant bedtime routine. I know, probably the same thing everyone tells you. Just know you're not alone, and eventually she will get back to sleeping regualaly!
Post a Comment