Another sleep question, help!

[heytootsy]

I should first mention that letting Maya CIO is not really an option for me. I once had to let her cry due to outstanding circumstances. She wound up getting so worked up she kept "throwing up" afterwards. I do not know if this is because of her reflux or what.

Anyway, she is 4 months old, and a fantastic sleeper. Most nights, she sleeps 8-10 hours straight. She also goes down for her naps really easily, no crying or fussing. Getting her to sleep at night is a total disaster. She fight it with everything she has. If she falls alseep in my arms, she will sleep for hours. No matter what, the minute I put her in the crib, she screams.

I try singing, rubbing her belly, picking her up to calm her down. I am starting to dread the nights. How do you get your baby to go to sleep, preferably on their own, without a huge fight. I am willing to try anything!!!

[egoldber]

What time does she go to bed and how long has she been up at that point? She may actually be getting OVER tired and that can make it harder for her to get to sleep. You may want to try putting her to bed a half hour earlier and see if that helps.

Good luck!

[heytootsy]

Beth,
I start our nighttime routine at 7 or 7:30. She usually wakes up from her last nap at 4:30. Do you think she should go down earlier?

[ocmama]

I would try earlier. At 4 months she should be ready to go back down after 2 hours. DS is 10 mo and has been going to bed at 6:30 since he was about 4 mo. HTH

[ginalc]

Hi,

Congratulations to you for starting the sleep-training early! You're smart to do it now!!! :)

Let me share that the sleeping in the arms thing and the "crying til you vomit" thing didn't get any better as my DD got older (our situation was much like yours). I didn't start letting DD CIO until 10 months when I just couldn't function from lack of sleep. Holding her all night wasn't working any longer and things just got worse.

I used the "Sleeping Through the NIght" book by Jodi Mindell. She suggests putting your child to bed between 7 and 8:30. Let them CIO as best you can, and she has many suggestions in how to do this.

I waited until 10 months to sleep-train with DD and she is now 2.5 yrs old. She has been sleeping through the night since 11 months old for the most part. At times (illnesses, travel, teething, etc) she strays and we have to get tough with her again (Get in bed NOW!) But it worked for us. Honestly, it took about 8 days of letting her CIO at bedtime before things calmed down. We just sat at the kitchen table and played cards, going in to tell her she was OK every 5-10 minutes until she settled down. After that, she looked forward to the bedtime routine of: nursing, brush the teeth, bath, pajamas, bedtime story, lights off.

I'm currently sleep-training my 7 month old and I've learned you just have to stick with whatever program you've chosen. Help them learn to fall asleep on their own and eventually they will look forward to bedtime as much as you do. :)

BTW, DD STILL vomits after she's cried too much. Drives me nuts! :)

gina, mom to 3

[newbelly2002]

Oh, I know that feeling. You'd think there was some pressure field around the crib the way DS starts screaming the minute you transfer his sleeping little head from your arms to the mattress.

Here's what we have done with recent (moderate) success. We laid DS in bed from where he immediately started crying and scaled the crib rails. I kissed him goodnight, told him I loved him and walked out. He started crying, I would wait anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes before going back in, removing him from the rails, laying him down, kiss, "I love you," and leave. IF he is quiet(and doesn't scale the crib rails/sob loudly), then I sing him him to sleep and stroke his head. But the minute he gets active I repeat the proceedure and leave. Yes, it's hard, but my thought is that he knows I am there; he knows I'm in the next room; he knows he's not alone. After about 2 weeks of that, he only does the stand-up and scream thing once and after seeing that I DO mean business, he stays down and makes me sing about 15 minutes worth of songs before drifting off to dreamland.

But, he is also 11 months old.

Earlier, around 4 months, we went through a similar bout of sleeplessness. My solution then was to lay DS in the crib and then busy myself about his room, hanging laundry on the drying rack (we don't have a dryer), picking up toys, straightening, AND talking to him the whole time until he drifted off to sleep. That worked pretty well and eventually, I got to the point where I could just lay him in the crib, awake, kiss him and leave.

Good luck and sweet dreams!

Paula, Mama to Dante
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=...21b32384e84594 -6/25 update

[daisymommy]

Along with all the other great advice that people have posted here, let me just add two little things that may help you:

-Just to agree with you, CIO is definetly bad for reflux babies, as the crying makes them reflux (and vomit), even more. This of course makes it even more impossible to get them to fall asleep, as they are now in pain in covered in spit up or vomit.
This happened to me once when I had gotten up 8 times in one night with Josh, and literally couldn't get out of bed I was so weak and tired with a migrane. DH fed and changed him, then left for work, while I tried to get some sleep. Josh had to CIO--which was absolutely horrible. 30-45 minutes later he's still crying, so I force myself to go in to him, and there's spit up everywhere, and Josh is screaming like I poured poison down his throat. I'm bawling, holding Josh, and calling DH to tell him to "Get his butt back home to help me;)). The Ped. later tells me, never do CIO with a reflux baby for this very reason.

-Also, I had a terrible time laying Josh down for naps or bed as well, because when laid flat, he would reflux. We had to put his crib and bassinet on an incline in order for him to get any sleep out of our arms or off our chest in bed. Reading Elizabeth Pantley's book "The No Cry Sleep Solution" gave us great advice for other ways to lay him down, and keep him asleep. For months Josh would only sleep for 20 minutes in my arms. I thought this was normal, it had to be this way. After reading her book, he now takes 3 two hour naps in his crib--and I never have used CIO other than that one time.

Good Luck, and Sweet Dreams for your entire family!