Sleep Troubles - Glen Ellyn,IL

Hi. I know that is difficult when your baby cries and the only way to get them to go back to sleep is to have them in the bed with you. However, children get to that and then it is hard to break the habit. We went through that recently with my 2 year old. I found some good advice on Children's Memorial website regarding sleep strategies. I hope it helps to look there:http://www.childrensmemorial.org/kids_doc/advice/category.... Hang in there. It will pass soon. I also asked my pediatrician for advice whenever my son had difficulty sleeping.
Good luck.
C.

Hi! I am a new mom of a 3 month old, so I cannot speak from experience, however, just so we don't have any sleep issues, I have been putting my son thru Sleep Bootcamp this week. It has been hard and tiring, but I am seeing progress. I am following what is in the book called Sleeping Through the Night, by Jodi A Mindell (Amazon has this book). I have leared a lot from this book and there may be something in there that can help. Do you rock your son to sleep or feed him? This book talks a lot about babies learning to soothe themselves to sleep (with your help) so that when they wake up in the night, they can soothe themselves back. All babies, toddlers and adults wake up in the night. As adults we would have to be awake for 3 min or more to rememember this, but it does happen. We can quickly go back to sleep and that is what we need to teach our babies and toddlers.

If you would like to chat more, let me know. They say to start all this around three months, so I'm doing it now. My problem is my son hates his crib and would wake up every 1 1/2 hours screaming. He aslo doesn't go down to sleep real well in the crib (cries & screams) where in the car seat he went right to sleep. I put him in a car seat by chance and he sleeps 7-9 hours straight thru. This isn't the solution, long term, so I have had to try the crib now... and it's been trying, but I see improvement every time I do it.

I'm at ____@____.com, if you would like to chat more.

Hi!

I feel your pain. I have a 2yr old that didn't sleep through the night until just after she turned 2. My son is 8 months and still wakes up at night. I don't really have a solid solution, but I think that crying it out doesn't work with some kids. Those kids(like my daughter) can cry all night without sleeping. I found that when I would try to let her cry it would take her a long time to get settled and wouldn't help a bit. But, I guess it does work for some kids.

What I would suggest is to not bring him into bed with you , even if you have to sleep on the floor, or on the couch with him. That is one less association for him to get over. Actually what helped with my daughter is to move her into her own full size big girl bed(but,I didn't do that until she was 18 months or so - my son was on the way and I need the crib). I started being able to lay with her in there, and then she slowly didn't need me in the middle of the night. Also, another thing that helped is letting my husband go in to get her. She wasn't happy at all about it at first, but then she(slowly again) realized that she didn't always need me. A good book for ideas is the "No Cry Sleep Solution".

My main advice for you is be prepared for it to take awhile, and do what feels right for you.

Good luck!

J.

Not sure if you have tried this yet, but it is worth a shot!
When he wakes up go into the room and sit next to the bed/ crib. You can re assure him that you are there for him verbally or with a hand on his stomach or back, but DO NOT pick him up. This will take 3-4 nights of you potentially sleeping in whatever chair you place in his room so make it as comfortable as possible. (I used the glider) The older he gets this cycle will happen from time to time, depending on what is going on in his head (new daycare, teething, change in daily schedule... etc.) This is the only thing that has worked for us. But I will warn you the first 2 nights are terrible! Earplugs work! After the first or second cycle he will know exactly what you are doing and the crying will only last 2-3 minutes. Then once he is asleep, you can go to bed as well.

Hope it helps!!

My son used to wake up without fail at 5 or 5:30 every morning. The only thing that worked for me was keeping him up till around 9 or so. He is now almost 15 months old and usually sleeps till about 6 or 6:30. He really started sleeping better once he went down to one nap a day. Instead of two shorter naps I tried one long nap in the afternoon and that seemed to work for him. GOOD LUCK!!! I know the sleep troubles all too well.

Does he take a bottle or nurse just before he goes to bed? He may be waking up because he's hungry. Try putting him to bed 30-45 min later or shorten his last nap - assuming he still takes 2 naps/day - so he extra tired in the evening.
I have 3 girls, my oldest is 14 and my youngest is 5. Throughout their infant, toddler, adolescent years they hit growing spurts and have insatiable appetites.
Although it is incredibly easier to put him in bed with you, he'll get used to it QUICK and will grow to become dependant on being in your bed with you in order to fall asleep. Trust me, you don't want to go there!

Get to the bookstore for a copy of
"Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child"
by Marc Weissbluth MD. This will help.

Let me know how it goes.

M.