My 2nd child is just shy of 5 months old. We had been doing great, and around 2.5/3 months, she was sleeping about 5-6 hours at night between feedings. She was also napping pretty well in the afternoons and early evenings. Now, it's a whole different story. She got a cold, and started waking up more often at night, and ever since has been waking up every 1-2 hours at night. I don't feed her every time. I give her a pacifier and let her go back to sleep. I let her nurse if we try several times and she doesn't go back to sleep with the pacifier. I can't let her cry herself to sleep in the middle of the night and wake up our 3 year old and my husband. I have tried to let her cry herself at naptimes, when the older girl is awake, but I haven't been able to make it stick. She gets so worked up at crying that it's not very long before she is hysterical and sometimes making choking sounds, which of course causes me to rush in and check on her and try to settle her down a bit before leaving her again. I hate this part of parenting. I hated CIO method so much that I coslept with my oldes for 2 years, but neither of us got very good sleep during those 2 years, and now that I don't have the option of sleeping when the baby sleeps, I can't really get on board with that method again.
Recently, she's starting taking very short naps. I'll put her down to sleep when she gets drowsy, and she does pretty good at getting herself to sleep in the mornings, but she'll only nap for 40 minutes, then she's up again. She needs to sleep longer at her naps, because she can only stay away and not grumpy for an hour tops before she's trying to sleep again. The problem is that the next nap only lasts 40 minues also, and it just continues this way all day long if I let it. Up for an hour, down for 40 mintes. If I try to keep her up until the next reasonable nap time, she gets very crabby and hysterical, and it makes it near impossible for me to take care of my 3 year old and get dinner ready and myself ready for work (I work evenings).
I've started reading Dr. Weissbluth's book, and am going to try to use it, but I don't think it's possible to follow it to a T with an older child in the house, based on previous comments/questions. He doesn't address this issue in his books, either. Has anyone used Dr Karp's method that also tried Weissbluth, or a hybrid of the two methods.
We started with the naps - I used Dr. Weissbluth's book to help me determine sleepiness cues from my daughter. She still needed to nap more often than I realized - so we aim for a nap every 2 hours. Sometimes she still fusses when I put her down, but if I pay close attention and catch her before she's very tired, so goes to sleep pretty easily. I wasn't going to worry about the evenings, until she started waking up hourly and wanted to be nursed back to sleep. It got pretty difficult to let her figure it out on her own, but I toughed it out with the help of my husband. Turns out my older daughter was sound enough asleep that it didn't bother her or wake her. Now, the baby sleeping for 4 hour blocks at night with 1 or 2 feedings at night. While I couldn't really stick wtih the Weissbluth method 100%, I found a way to make a plan that would work for us.
No answers here as I'm in the same situation with my six month old and have a 2.5 year old. We can get through this...just try and figure out what works best for you. However, when my babies are sick, all 'rules' go out the door and I just focus on comforting them and doing whatever they need to get through their sickness. Good luck!
We used a combination of the baby whisperer's methods and the Ezzo's. The baby whisperer is about a loose routine while the ezzos is more strict, although I was never able to let her cry it out as an infant.
Hello H.,
I dont really have any answers for you but I am in the exact same situation as you are. I have an almost 6 month old son who started waking up more at night, not really crying but just fussing and moving around and also started taking very short naps. The nap thing is driving me crazy! He was taking 45 min naps exactly and this week has started staking 30 min naps. I dont know why or whats going on...its very frustrating. He is so over tired. I have decided to somewhat follow the no cry sleep solution and today started letting him cry. First nap he cried for an hour and I had to go in and pick him up, he had no morning nap :( . 2nd nap he slept for 30 mins and in the book it states to leave them in the crib for another 30-1 hour to see if they fall back asleep, nope didnt work for me. 3rd nap was 30 mins again and I just couldnt let him cry after he woke up, it seemed too much already for the day. Finally at his 4th nap, he cried for 8 mins and fell asleep for an hour and 18 mins! woohoo! Now, I dont know if he was just so exhausted and thats why he slept for so long or if something was finally clicking with him. I guess I will find out tomorrow.
I just wanted to tell you that you were not alone and I feel your pain. Trying to deal with this and potty training my toddler is really hard for me...I can only hope that it gets better.
Please post your progress or message me personally as I would love to know what works or doesnt for you. Most of the other moms I know have dream sleepers who nap for 1 to 2 hours...I feel terrible when I talk to these moms. lol
Listening to your baby cry is one of the most difficult parts of parenthood! It got to the point with my son where I realized that letting him cry would, in the long run, be better for him. He was doing the same thing, not sleeping long enough for naps, waking several times at night. He was not getting enough sleep, and this is essential for development! It became clear that his main problem was that he had no clue how to self soothe once he woke up. I decided to use the advice in the book The Sleep Easy Solution. It is mostly allowing them to cry, and making sure you follow the same schedule before each nap or bedtime. I started this on a Friday night, because I also have a 3 year old, and I would be able to let her sleep more the next day. Friday night he woke up twice and both times cried for exactly 55 minutes, while I sat outside his door forcing myself to stay out. Saturday night he woke up once and cried for maybe 30 minutes. Sunday night I think he woke up twice again, but he cried for no more than 10 minutes each time. The amazing thing was that there was an immediate change in his naps. On Monday, my babysitter was amazed b/c he was taking great naps again. Now my son sleeps all night, takes amazing naps, and is in a great mood! I highly recommend The Sleep Easy Solution!!!!!!!!!!
I also have a five month old and he has been sleeping through the night for 2 months now. But last week he got a cold and is real congested and will barely sleep for longer than 5 hours.........so I wouldn't feel so bad about it. Once the baby gets well I'm sure she will go back to normal. Try not allowing any naps after 5 pm and keeping her awake until at least 9.
