I know, I know....I'm talking about sleep again - but it's not that long!

[Judegirl]

ETA: I asked awhile ago about whether people would wake a sleeping baby to get her back on schedule..

But...do I really wake her up at 7am even if she's just gone to sleep at 3am? This has been going on for weeks. I can't bring myself to get her up before 8 or 9...and I can't really take care of her at 7am if I've gone to bed at 6am! (Or not gone to bed at all, which is the next step...)

The teeth aren't in yet - just four big swollen buds - and the crawling hasn't happened yet... and we simply cannot get her to sleep before 2 or 3 - even if we start at 6!

So if I deprive her of even MORE sleep, will this help? I hate to get her up when she's only getting about 6-7 hours a day as it is, and has for nearly 2 months.

Aaaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh my baby is a nutty hyper monkey. I should post a video somewhere...

Jude

P.S. Please don't recommend another book... unless it's called "The Magic Way to Get NuttyHyperMonkey-Babies to Stop Jumping and Flailing and Laughing and Grabbing at Everything and SETTLE DOWN."

[Saartje]

I really can't think depriving her of more sleep would help. But I freely admit I don't know much about this one; my own tactic is to make sure Isaac's got enough sleep first, and worry about when he sleeps once he's well-rested. Sorry you have it so rough, though!

ETA: The few times I've tried waking Isaac in hopes of adjusting his schedule, he gets very angry and yells until I let him go back to sleep. So I don't do that any more. Seems a certain little guy wakes up just as grumpy as his Momma! So YMMV.

This part is why I had to respond, though:

>P.S. Please don't reccommend another book... unless it's
>called "The Magic Way to Get NuttyHyperMonkey-Babies to Stop
>Jumping and Flailing and Laughing and Grabbing at Everything
>and SETTLE DOWN."

LOL! Sounds like a book someone here should write. ;)

[HannaAddict]

I would definitely NOT wake her up once she's down and sleeping. I would run and jump in my bed and get all the sleep I could until she wakes up! I hope things get better on the sleep front soon. We went through nutty baby syndrome (but not as nutty as you've described) and lots of wakings but things just recently have settled down again now that 2 teeth have poked through. Let her get sleep while she can and I hope you can get some too.

Good luck.

[HannaAddict]

I would definitely NOT wake her up once she's down and sleeping. I would run and jump in my bed and get all the sleep I could until she wakes up! I hope things get better on the sleep front soon. We went through nutty baby syndrome (but not as nutty as you've described) and lots of wakings but things just recently have settled down again now that 2 teeth have poked through. Let her get sleep while she can and I hope you can get some too.

Good luck.

[ellies mom]

You know what, don't start at 6pm. Start later. When I was putting DD down at 8 she was getting up every hour until midnight and then sleep for a few hours. When I started putting her down between 9:30-10 she started sleeping longer. Let her run amok during the evening; get out some of that energy. If she usually goes to bed at 2am, start your bedtime thing between 10-1 when she starts to slow down a bit, and let her sleep until she wakes up, even if it is noon. Do that for a few nights until she is well rested, then slowly start shifting her schedule earlier. I would try shifting the schedule in 30 minute increments. And you, Lady, sleep while she is sleeping. I know easier said than done, as I'm writing this at 2am. I know how hard it is to just go to bed when you want a few moments of no one hanging on you time, but you need your rest too. If she sleeps to noon and you are staying home with her, then you sleep until noon too. At least until you start waking her at 11:30.

I'm doing the same thing right now because DD's schedule shifted while DH was on nights for a bit, plus she had just learned to walk. She would race around the living room laughing until she was ready to settle down between 11:30 and 12am.

Nope, this isn't advice you'll find in a book, and I bet a billion people will tell me I'm way off base but your child doesn't care what is in a book and it is pointless to try and settle some children until they are ready. The best you can do is slowly edge that time earlier until it is something you can live with, and if that time is 10pm, then so be it. Who cares what time the other mothers put their kids to bed? Put your child to bed at the time that is best for you and yours.

I'm sorry this is so disjointed, but I need to follow my own advice and get some sleep. I hope this makes at least a little sense and I hope it helps.

Edited to correct the more glaring grammatical errors.

[dowlinal]

I think that Veronica may be onto something here. I know I just posted about Madeline not sleeping but last night we started bedtime at 9pm, she was out cold by 9:30 and slept until 7:45. Since she seemed tired to me at night I had been trying to move her bedtime earlier and that's when our problems got bad. My husband and I are night owls so it makes sense that she would be too, plus like you we live in the NYC area and it seems that everything here is later. I love the 9:30-8:00 schedule because I am not a morning person and I am a horrible mean witch if I start my day any earlier. Truthfully I'm not entirely funtional before 10 am.

[ellies mom]

Alexis-
Thanks for expressing my thoughts so much nicer. I was very tired. I'm not much good before 10am either. Thank God DD sleeps until 9-10am.
Jude-
I thought about this as I was falling asleep, so I wanted to add this. I think I remember reading in another thread of yours something about not establishing a good night time schedule. That could be because you are trying to force a schedule that is unrealistic for you and your family. I get the impression that Alexis will agree with this. I know that when DD was going to bed at 8pm, it seemed as though just as DH and I really got going (we are both night owls too) that it was time to go home and put her to bed. So since this was so unnatural to us, we were always running late. Once we started putting her to bed later, at a that time was much more realistic for us, we are able to do a much better job at a consistant bed time. We are all the happier for it. An early bedtime may simply not be realistic for you. So, don't worry about those people that say earlier is better. What is better is what works for you.

[dowlinal]

You're right - I totally agree. I can't even imagine a 6pm bedtime and my day is much more likely to end at 5am then it is to start. When Madeline gets older and school becomes a reality I know we will have to adjust, but for now this works best for us.