Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[bananaz]

Oh, I hadn't even thought of putting him down on his belly. Maybe I will try that. He HATES being on his belly but happens to sleep well that way. I think he'd have to be very sleepy in order to tolerate it at all. I'll try it sometime tonight if all seems to be well.

My LO hated being put on her belly before she could crawl too, but what I would do was put her in the crib asleep (or very close to it), gently roll her onto her belly and pat her back a little when she fussed. Much to my surprise, 9 times out of 10 it worked and she resettled no problem. Also, I think the fact that she stirred a little when I put her down helped her orient herself to the crib. Anyway, this solved the rolling issue for us, and after a while she started immediately flipping onto her belly by herself.

 

[bananaz]

Argh. As predicted - bad naps yesterday (one was only ten minutes!!) meant really bad sleep last night. He also woke at 930pm and his nappy had leaked so there he was, wide awake and kicking his chubby little legs on my bed having a grand old time while I stripped him out of his sleeping bag and sleep suit. I think this wake up might have affected things too.

I have a question about bed time routines. Ours is very simple. We do bath time, baby massage, pjs, book, nurse then bed. It takes about half an hour and bath time can be very splashy. Should I lengthen our bedtime routine and not do bath so close to bed? It's hard as he is in bed so early, I feel like any routine that requires us to be home even earlier will be quite tough. As it stands, I have to feed him and put him down for his cat naps in the house so we are very limited in our times for outings.

If bathtime is a stimulating activity for him then having more time between bath and bed is probably a good idea. Maybe you can add some quiet play time or make story time a little longer? My LO's bedtime routine is pretty much the same and whenever she seems wound up I will do the bath a bit earlier and read more books since that's usually calming for her.

 

[seaweed eater]

My LO hated being put on her belly before she could crawl too, but what I would do was put her in the crib asleep (or very close to it), gently roll her onto her belly and pat her back a little when she fussed. Much to my surprise, 9 times out of 10 it worked and she resettled no problem. Also, I think the fact that she stirred a little when I put her down helped her orient herself to the crib. Anyway, this solved the rolling issue for us, and after a while she started immediately flipping onto her belly by herself.

Perfect, thank you for that description. I was wondering how exactly I would get him onto his belly. I will definitely try that.

 

[seaweed eater]

Stephie, I know what you mean about its being hard to have a longer routine. Ours has been about 30 minutes on bath nights or 20 minutes without a bath. And then the past few nights when LO has fought bedtime I've been finding myself sitting on the floor with him in the dark, trying to be boring while waiting for him to decide he's ready to sleep (as he bounces up and down clapping his hands, of course). So I'm thinking our routine will involve more of that sort of thing. Reading books and then maybe just quiet dark playtime for 10 minutes.

 

[stephie_corin]

I'm so tired. He just woke from his first nap at 750am after 20 minutes from 730-750am. I feel like crying. Sorry for the moan just need to vent.

I can't figure out what in doing wrong. It's two steps backwards for every one forward at the moment.

 

[seaweed eater]

I'm sorry sometimes it's nothing you are doing. Just keep giving him opportunities to learn the routine that is best for him. I totally know the feeling though

 

[Boo44]

By the way noelle what is WPB?!

Must be a secret gang!!

 

[stephie_corin]

By the way noelle what is WPB?!

Must be a secret gang!!

Haha! I didn't see the context but I guess Way Past Bedtime?

 

[polaris]

We had another good night last night! She took a bit longer to get settled at bedtime and I ended up feeding her until she was half asleep but then she slept from 7.30 until 12, had a feed and then slept until 4, another feed and back to sleep until 7. I can't believe how much better she's sleeping all of a sudden. I'm not doing anything differently so she must be just growing up. We are definitely having more good nights than bad in the week now, well, last week was four good nights and three bad, but the three bad nights were when she was sick.

Seaweed - I agree with bananaz' suggestion about trying putting him down on his tummy. That worked really well with Clara at about that age and solved the rolling problem (for a few weeks until she started rolling onto her back and crying, LOL). I thought Clara would never settle on her tummy as she would just get up on hands and knees straight away but if I waited until she was very very sleepy and then popped her in cot on her tummy and gently patted her back and sort of gently pushed her down if she was trying to get up on hands and knees then she would usually just flop down and settle.

For those who are struggling with short naps - I don't know what the answer is. I think very short naps are a bit of a nightmare to deal with. I think you do have to be flexible about the daily routine though and either stretch wake times so you can get through the day or else reduce wake-times and have an extra nap. With my oldest boy, stretching wake-times wouldn't have worked and he was on four naps for ages as a result. I think he was on four naps (with 2 hours wake time) until maybe 6.5 months.

 

[polaris]

Also re bedtime routines, poor Clara doesn't really have a consistent routine at all because I have to work around her older brother and the routine changes depending on whether OH is here or not and whether her brother had a nap that day or not (which changes the time that he needs to go to bed). So sometimes she has a bath with her brother (very stimulating with loads of splashing and hysterical laughter), sometimes she has a bath on her own (much more relaxing), sometimes she doesn't get a bath at all. Sometimes she goes straight up to bed after her bath, sometimes she has to play in her jumparoo for ten minutes while I get her brother sorted, sometimes she has her bath really early and doesn't go up to bed until an hour later. Obviously it would be better if I could be more consistent but honestly it just isn't possible!

 

[mellyboo]

So she woke up twice last night not bad hopefully were back on track again!

 

[bananaz]

polaris - I'm so glad to hear the good nights are continuing. Hopefully she made some kind of developmental leap and is settling into a better pattern now.

stephie - Ugh, I hate that feeling. You're probably not doing anything wrong though, there's only so much you can do to control these things as much as we like to think otherwise!

mellyboo - Glad you had a good night


So it's almost 5:45 and LO is still asleep!! Even with a *#$ing jay calling as loudly as it can outside her window. I've been up since 4:55 of course, but I went to bed early so it's not too bad.

 

[stephie_corin]

Bananaz, amazing!!! What did you do different!?

Melly, great news

We are about to do bath and bed, wishing everyone a great night! X

 

[bananaz]

Bananaz, amazing!!! What did you do different!?

Melly, great news

We are about to do bath and bed, wishing everyone a great night! X

Well it could be a coincidence but the past couple mornings I just ignored her when she got up at 5. She wasn't crying though, just wandering around her crib and yelling intermittently. It's 6:15 now and she's still asleep! I hope this isn't a fluke...

Hope you have a good night

 

[Noelle610]

Bananaz yay!

 

[mrssunshine78]

Bananaz, amazing!!! What did you do different!?

Melly, great news

We are about to do bath and bed, wishing everyone a great night! X

Well it could be a coincidence but the past couple mornings I just ignored her when she got up at 5. She wasn't crying though, just wandering around her crib and yelling intermittently. It's 6:15 now and she's still asleep! I hope this isn't a fluke...

Hope you have a good night

Wow amazing!!!! I live in hope

 

[bananaz]

Wow amazing!!!! I live in hope

Haha, yeah she slept until 6:30, making it her best night ever! She seems so much happier now too.

Note to self: Next time take Noelle's sleep advice right away rather than just trying it for a night and giving up

 

[seaweed eater]

I'm so glad to read about all the good nights/mornings!!

Our night was a disaster. I can't even talk about it. If it wasn't a one-off I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Putting him down on his tummy failed, but so did everything else, so it wasn't a fair test and I'll try again some other time.

Question though -- if LO has missed a LOT of sleep during the night, should I change anything about the daytime routine? I'm thinking not really...right?

 

[Noelle610]

I'm so glad to read about all the good nights/mornings!!

Our night was a disaster. I can't even talk about it. If it wasn't a one-off I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Putting him down on his tummy failed, but so did everything else, so it wasn't a fair test and I'll try again some other time.

Question though -- if LO has missed a LOT of sleep during the night, should I change anything about the daytime routine? I'm thinking not really...right?

I'd reduce wake times slightly to prevent overtired-ness.

 

[seaweed eater]

Thanks Noelle. Does that mean letting him nap longer? Or possibly an extra nap? I know it's presumptuous to assume he'll nap for too long but we need to drive DH to work today so he'll be sleeping in the car anyway and can go for pretty long that way.