Friday, March 28, 2008

NEED MORE SLEEP!!

If you will notice, I am posting this at 3:30am. My baby boy is only 2 days away from being 3 months old and he is not sleeping through the night! I know that people say all babies are different. "Some will sleep well, some won't...". Well, I'd REALLY REALLY REALLY like for Maddux to be the kind of baby who is sleeping through the night. I have read and implemented "BabyWise". I feel like we're doing all the "right" things. But there is obviously something that we are missing! I know that lots of you reading this are experienced mothers and I'm desperate for some experienced advice. So what cha got for me!?!?! I'll take all the tips I can get because right now, a good stretch for us is 5 hours of sleep, most of the time it's 3-4 though!

13 comments:

Marisa and Rob said...

Hey I had the same problem with Amirra, she would not sleep through the night until she was almost 6-7 months I can't remember. But it got to the point where I couldn't take it any more. So I fed her, changed her, and did all that I could and I put her in her crib and let he cry. I let her cry for almost an hour and a half.

It was hard but I had to do it. The doctor said it was okay, so I just did it. I would go in there and check on her and pat her on back and tell her it was okay, then I would leave and let her cry. She got spoiled from the very start and I had to break it. Now she is sleeping great and I'm getting sleep. :) Hope this will help.

Sometimes you just have to let them cry and not let them think you will always pick them up when they cry. That's what we had to do and it is working now. :) Good Luck

Brittani said...

are you still breastfeeding only? or have you switched to formula? If you are breastfeeding only then you still have at least a few months of waking up at night. If people tell you their babies sleep through the night at 3 months then they aren't telling you that they put their baby to sleep at 11pm and then they wake up at 5am... that is not sleeping through the night in my book, but it is for some people.

Anyway, ryann didn't sleep through the night until we started rice cereal at 6 months. I don't recommend rice cereal at 3 months either... sorry.

He just needs to get some fat on him and then it will happen. I also don't recommend letting him cry through it at 3 months because they really are hungry when they wake up at this time.

I know it isn't fun to hear, but your baby still needs to eat at night and rice cereal shouldn't be introduced until 4 months unless he is in like the 98% for weight... which for some reason that little peanut doesn't look like 16 lbs! Sorry

DKAZ said...

I like Baby wise and it made all the difference with my kids. You'll take a lot of heat for it from some. I admit it's a little cult-ish but I'm ok with that.
I think the breast feeding has a lot to do with it but in another month you'll be able to start some cereal before he goes to bed. What I'm about to write is not for 3 month olds. It is rare for most babies to be sleeping through the night at three months, but it doesn't stop those moms from telling you about it.
In the mean-time Quinn was also 7 months and not sleeping through the night. That is when we started Baby wise and we also HAD to finally just let her cry it out one night. She cried for almost 21/2 hours (they cry really hard-and so do you). We would check on her but we wouldn't get her out. Then the next night she cried for 45 minutes. After that she was cured!!! It was great...until she started climbing out of her crib at 18 months! I'll save that comment for a future post. Hang in there!

He's also your first, and that she was my hardest one.

Brandis said...

I got nothin'. Last night I went to bed at 11, got up at 2:30, and again at 6, which was when my other 2 got up for the day. My best advice is take a big long nap in the afternoon because little babies just do what they want to do, and if they're not ready to sleep all night, they won't. It does get better!

Fife Family said...

Okay, maybe I am just a bad mom but with both my kids I've started testing out the letting them cry thing at around 3 months and it's worked for us.
Maddux may be a little smaller so maybe he really is hungry when he wakes up, but maybe he just doesn't know how to get himself back to sleep. I don't know if he's still sleeping in your room, but you might want to try moving him to his room so you don't feel the need to feed him at every noise because he's right there and you just want to get back to sleep as soon as possible. (We finally did this with Audra and we're all sleeping a lot better.:)
Another thing we did with Evan to help him learn to fall asleep on his own was to have a special blanket just for sleeping. We'd give it to him every time we put him down so he'd associate it with sleep and that worked great too. (He actually still sleeps with it, but he doesn't HAVE to have it anymore.)
Well I think that's all I have, good luck!!

Nate and Nicole said...

I understand how you feel, but I've got nothing for you! Will is almost five months, and he's still waking up to eat usually twice a night. He does, however, fall right back to sleep usually, so it's not too bad. I probably need to get better about letting him cry it out, but oh well :)! Good luck!!!

Tierra said...

Ethan is almost five months old and he still wakes up two times a night sometimes more. Makayla even wakes up for a drink of water or to go to the bathroom or with aches and pains. I am so tired. I am nursing and I am not ready to let him cry it out yet. I am going to start rice cereal soon and I am hoping that will help. With Makayla we eventually had to let her cry it out and it did the job. She finally slept through the night. I remember how hard it was for me ( I cried along with her) and so I am sad for when I have to do it with Ethan. Yet I am excited to hopefully sleep through the night again. Anyways just know that I am right there along with you. Good Luck.

Sunny Jo said...

Girl, i wish that i had some advice for you!! both my girls werent good at sleeping through the night, it just changed after some time!! He is SO cute Tarah, seriously, congrats!! Isnt being a mommy SO fun(besides the sleepless nights)!! Hope ur doing great!!

Alisa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alisa said...

Tarah, I did the Babywise thing and Natalie did start sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. (8-10 hours). I'm not really sure what did it, but when she did cry I would just let her for a few minutes and she did eventually learn to self soothe back to sleep. It was so hard to let her cry though; I had to look at the clock and give myself 10 or 15 minutes of cry time because it always seems like it's going on much longer than it is. Like 1 minute will seem like 10.

Anyway, you could do it gradually. Let him cry for 5 minutes for a few nights before you go get him, then 10, then 15, so eventually he learns that he needs to be able to put himself back to sleep.

I second the previous poster about putting him in his own room. When he knows you are nearby he won't let you off that easily. :-) Of course he might just be hungry, if he is a little guy. My sister's baby was small and she still feeds her in the middle of the night sometimes at 14mo. It will get better though, don't worry!

PS, do you swaddle him at night? If not, maybe he doesn't like being "loose." That really helped with Natalie, except she liked her arms out.

Ryan & Keri said...

Hang in there, Tarah. Sleep is such a wonderful thing, and we don't realize just how much we take it for granted until we have a baby. Matthew didn't sleep through the night until he was six months old. Crazy, huh? But then David started sleeping after about a month. I do think every baby is different. We tried babywise, but in a lot of ways, we had to simply train ourselves. We decided that we needed to let him cry things out at night. It took a good week, but after that, Matthew slept through the entire night--AMAZING!! I'll say a prayer for you. Again, hang in there. You can make it.

Heidi said...

Hey Tarah,
Well, I don't know what I've been doing with Christian to get him to sleep, I think it just depends on the baby. Your little guy is pretty small, so he probably is still really hungry and can't make it throughout the night without feeding. Christian is a little chunk and does ok for about 8.5 hours. I put him to sleep at 7:30 (not 11pm as a previously commented) and he falls asleep anytime between 7:30 and 8. He usually doesn't get up to eat until sometime between 3:30 and 5 (this morning it was 5:15). We have nighttime down pat, it's during the day that we are struggling with a sleeping schedule!! How is your daytime routine going?? Any advice for me?
Anyway, like I said before, it all just depends on the baby and some routines that work for others don't necessarily work for everyone. Just remind yourself that it's a stage and this too shall pass!! He is adorable though, fun to see how much he's growing! Hang in there, hopefully he'll give you a break pretty soon!!

Garrett, Tashina, Breck, and Addilicious!! said...

So sad for us Brecken is almost 10 months old and has only slept through the night three times!! I hope your baby does not do this!!!