Sleep.....HELP!!

Michelle - posted on 02/19/2010

I wish there was a magic recipe for getting babies to sleep. Charlotte has settled into a schedule if you would call it that. She's usually down around 6-7pm, wakes to feed at midnight, then again at 3am and then up at 6-7 am (give or take about an hour with all those times... she doesn't like to be too scheduled). We noticed at first she was great the first half of the night with the second half, waking sometimes every hour then every two, now about every 3. We feed her by bottle at night and I make sure she gets about 4 oz in at that midnight and 3 am feed or she would be up much earlier. Sometimes I have to rock her a little to get her to doze back off. It seems like her 3 am feeding she wants to get up and talk so sometimes I have to talk to her a little then feed her again and THEN she finally will go back to sleep. I wish I had a way to get her to sleep as well the second half of the night, but so far nothing. She does what pleases her. I have the book 'Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child', but most of the suggestions are for 6+ months old.

Tracy - posted on 02/19/2010

Well I guess I'm one of the lucky ones...Austin sleeps throught the night, most nights. Last night we finally moved him into his own room and that kept daddy up all night. The monitor turns on and makes noise at each noise in the room and daddy's not used to it. Since mommy works now daddy's on night duty. The one good news thing is that the angelcare monitor didn't accidently trigger because he moved too far on the bed...I was more worried about that. I think daddy might want to rethink the monitor choice and just go for one that is sound only, but then again he doesn't like the fact that the sound goes off all the time, can't win with him. I don't think other monitors are as noisy when they go on as this one is, but he really wanted this one as it had the movement sensor to notify you if the baby stops breathing. I guess its just something we are going to have to get used to. Austin never liked swaddling, he always wanted his arms out...now I can barely keep a blanket on him as he likes to kick a lot. The sleep sacks are great, if I can convince daddy they aren't too much trouble when changing or feeding in the early morning..he tends to get twisted up in it some though. I don't know of anything to help on the staying asleep...our issue around here has only ever been getting Austin to give in and go to sleep. Wish I could help more.

Christina - posted on 02/18/2010

Mine sleep 8 - 10 hours but only if I swaddle them. They break out of the swaddle if I just use a blanket. They will not sleep through the night if not swaddled. I tried breaking them from the swaddler but only got 3 hours out of them. I use a swaddler and put them in the crib then turn on their music and they are out.

Jennifer - posted on 02/18/2010

Do you have any sleep sacks? What I've found, with both kids actually, is that we have to have a fleece blanket down over the crib sheet. The crib sheet can get cold over the night and this will wake them often. If there is a soft fleece blanket down (pulled tight and folded if possible) this helps to retain their heat and keep them warm. We also use sleep sacks with a small blanket over them. Another help for us is this glowing seahorse that she got from Christmas. It lights and plays music while incorporating water sounds. This helps her to drift off to sleep if she's already tired. I try to lay Abby down when she is drowsy but this doesn't always work depending on the noise level around the room. She tends to sleep well at night, usually getting up once around 2:30-4 to nurse and then falls right back to sleep and I have to wake her in the morning. She's slept through the night probably four times but never in a row. The past two days since Ethan's been sick she's been up every four hours to nurse. Not sure if it's the noise of Ethan being sick and screaming or a growth spurt.