End of April
1 week ago
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Help!
So the girls are still not sleeping well after our full antibiotic run. Any suggestions?? Instead of napping at 9-10 am and 1-3 pm and going to bed and sleeping from 7pm-8am, they now no longer will take a morning nap and hopefully sleep for an hour in the afternoon. They are so tired by 6 from not sleeping all day that they go down for bed and either fall asleep drinking a bottle or have to be rocked to sleep-which never has been the case. They would go to sleep even if they were put to bed awake. They then will wake up 1-4 times through the night. We feed them small bottles just to calm them and get them back to sleep, even though I don't think they necessarily need them. I am open to ANY suggestions-I may even be partial to booze, for the kids and myself at this point. We haven't had a great night since they got sick the beginning of March. How do you get your kids back on a schedule? I'll even read a book on it if I need to if you can suggest one. I feel like we did great getting Charlie on a schedule and the girls too when they were born, but nothing seems to be working recently. This is my frazzled call for help. Nothing is to big or small to post--thanks...
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5 comments:
I've never used it myself, but I hear Benadryl works like a dream! :) Will had a rough couple of months when he had a lot of ear infections (pre-tubes) and would wake up a lot in the night. I don't know why we did this (most likely because it drown out the crying) but we started turning on the humidifier and he started sleeping better. Could have been a fluke. Might be worth a try. Good luck!!
I am in no way an expert, but my baby girl is a pretty good sleeper, so I will give some advice, but take it for what it's worth. I have found that for the most part, my kids kind of have their own schedule and I try to flow with it instead of fighting it. That being said, I also try to work their schedule into my schedule. So Kinsey usually wakes up around 6:30 am. By 8:30-9 she's acting like she's getting tired (rubbing her eyes, maybe fussing). So I lay her down (I feed her when she wakes up at 6:30, and then give her cereal and a 2nd foods fruit around 7:30). Kinsey usually goes down with a paci in the mouth and one in the hand pretty well, but sometimes she fusses a little which I let her do. If she's crying, I give her an hour unless it's the type of cry where I know something's up (like a hurt cry, or a stinky diaper cry or a "I am standing up and don't know how to get back down" cry). If she cries for an hour, then I take her out, but she rarely makes it to an hour. She eats lunch around 11:00 and then I feed her again at noon. I try to keep her up until 1, but sometimes she's ready by 12:30 for her nap. Same thing as above, I just stick her in, make sure she has pacis. Oh, and I forgot to mention, she has a stuffed animal that you pull the cord and it plays a lullaby and I ALWAY do that. So she knows everytime she hears the lullabye it's sleepy time. Then she's up by 3 and I give her a snack of some kind. Then I feed her dinner at 5 and she's ready for bed at 5:30 (her choice). I'm not saying that this works for everyone, but I LOVE it. It gives me time in the evenings to get stuff down without her. Sometimes her naps aren't 2 hours, but I figure she sleeps so good at night, that I'm ok with it. The one things I've learned is if your baby is tired let her sleep. Don't try to keep her awake. Doing this usualy assures an overtired baby and that's no fun for anyone. Hope this helps!
OH I forgot to say that I nurse her again right before bed. We're down to just 3 times a day now.
I use and highly recommend "Good Night Sleep Tight" by Kim West
Everyone I know who has followed the advice she gives doesn't have sleep problems with their kids anymore. The biggest things I learned are "sleep begets sleep" -the more sleep they get the better they will sleep. and also I didn't realize you have to teach your babies how to calm themselves and put themselves to sleep without you. You can't be running in all night giving bottles or pacifiers. Anyway, if you do read it I bet it will help solve a lot of your problems as long as they aren't medical.
I'm sorry that you are having a hard time. It is hard enough not sleeping with one baby let alone two of them. Good luck.
I think I'll have to send you an email about all the stuff I tried with Lincoln but my doctor recommended just letting him cry for 2 nights in a row. He said 95% of all babies will sleep through the night if you let them cry it out for 2 nights. That being said you might have to separate them for those nights, so they don't wake each other up.
If I didn't love you guys so much I would have trouble sympathizing with you since my baby didn't sleep through the night for 9+ months... but I do love you, so I am sad for you. So I'll email you soon about what I have learned.
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