Seaweed - I still nurse Sofia to nap but not to sleep at night. However, she also does go down for naps without nursing if she's tired. She's in a good pattern now so I don't need to fight her napwise. But when she was younger (4-5 months) I would give it 30 mins, if she was still upset I'd get her, play with her and then try again after 30 mins. When did he start napping in her crib?
Thanks. He started napping in his big boy crib the weekend before last, so almost two weeks ago, although for the first week I wasn't as consistent about it because there was a lot of other stuff going on. He started napping in his bassinet around 4 months, and before that it was in the bouncy chair. I've always nursed him to sleep, though. He naps at daycare without nursing -- I think they rock him or bounce him -- and on rare occasions DH can settle him, but I can't settle him without nursing.
I would try taking him off the breast sooner. With my LO I had the best luck getting her down when she was mostly asleep and her sucking had slowed down but not stopped entirely. Then I could take her off, put her in the crib, give her a few pats on the back and she would resettle very quickly.
Wow, thanks, maybe I should try that for a few days! Did it take her time to get used to that or did you find a sweet spot right away? I used to let him unlatch on his own and then wait for ages before putting him down, and over the course of maybe three months I've been trying to take him off myself after he's stopped for a few seconds and very very gradually put him down earlier. We got stuck at 10 seconds so I went back to 20, but maybe it would be less frustrating to him if I didn't let him fall asleep there at all...I know I certainly feel frustrated when I'm just drifting off and then someone wakes me up! Happened a few times just today!
I feel bad on here as unable to give any advice to others but empathise with pants sleep! But I really feel like I know nothing about babies and sleep so who am I to advise?!! But hugs to all the sleep deprived mummies out there! The older S gets the more I realise I know nothing!!
Don't worry about it. As NotNic said, it's good just to have someone who can listen and sympathize. I don't have much to contribute other than sympathy, myself, though, so I know how you feel!
I'm sorry you had such a hard time at bedtime.
I agree with NotNic that all the different things you tried might have been stimulating to her. Everything you did sounds appropriate but maybe it was just too many different things. I don't think leaving her for 5 minutes really "counts" as CC or CIO if nothing else would calm her down. Some babies on some nights are just stimulated by everything. I know I have done that before with mine. He never settled that way, in that particular situation, but sometimes he was able to calm down and fall asleep afterward, so I guess maybe it at least gave him the message that it's bedtime now. And I at least didn't feel like I was making things worse.
I can tell you that what I do with Munchkin depends on what exactly he is doing, but then I do pretty much the same few things...if he's awake and wiggly and cheerful, I hold him on my lap without talking to him or leave him down in the crib until he fusses. If he's persistently fussy, I keep trying to nurse him, or leave him in the crib until he cries. If he's crying inconsolably and won't nurse, I have generally called the doctor and/or given him Tylenol if I can think of a reason he would need it, because he's never done that unless something is going on. If I feel like I'm getting too frustrated, then in goes DH, and I try again once I've taken some deep breaths. And, if all else fails and he's already lost a couple hours or more, then DH takes him in the car, which I hate doing but which is so far the most reliable way to get him to SLEEP. But I try to reserve it for really extraordinary situations.
So my theory is this: could that first stretch of sleep actually be a third nap that has got joined on to her night time sleep? My understanding is that the first stretch of sleep is usually the deepest but that just isn't the case with Clara, her sleep is very unsettled for the first few hours and only then does she go into a deeper sleep. This is the case regardless of how she napped that day and whether or not she is over-tired at bedtime. And she was quite young moving to two naps at six months. What do you think? Is this possible? And if so is there anything I can do about it or is it just a matter of waiting it out? She doesn't want to get up when she wakes at 45 mins, she clearly wants to go back to sleep but just really struggles to go into a deep sleep.
Polaris, your theory sounds plausible to me, though I'm certainly no expert! Just one note from my experience though. Munchkin also has lighter sleep for the first 45 minutes -- he's only actually woken up then this past week when he's been overtired, but even when he doesn't wake up all the way, he often makes noise or stirs right at 45 minutes. My understanding was that it was normal for them to have a lighter first cycle and then transition into a deeper cycle at 45 mins, which is why that's a fragile time. So, if I'm right about that (which I may not be), I wouldn't read too much into the initial 45-min waking. But the fact that it doesn't seem to vary based on whether she is overtired, and the subsequent waking when she is harder to settle -- those sound more unusual to me.
I moved her bedtime from 6pm to 7pm (no 15 mins each night or anything, just one night forced her to stay up anothe hour and she was knackered but it worked) and those short, early evening wakings stopped instantly. Might be worth considering
we had to pat her back shh her to calm down .. I didn't pick her up though only because she didn seem like pain and when I walked in she started to get excited ... She refused her night time bottle so I did try handing her the bottle she refused .. She only had 2 (6oz) bottles all day .. I figured she would be up eating.. Woke up at 1am for a bottle finally... Then woke up at 6am and is now back in bed I feel like I got so much sleep I can't go back to bed lol !Between 8 and 10 months, she went to bed at 6pm and would wake every 30-90 minutes until 10 or 11pm (Noelle reckoned this was cause she was going to bed too early so we switched to 7pm bedtime which definitely helped some) and she'd wake up between 11 and 2 am and stay awake for 1-3 hours - she did that for about 2 months lol!!!! When she woke hourly or less one night, I decided enough was enough.
Anyone been able to sleep train their partners?! 
