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1ontheway
02-06-2004, 04:51 PM
DD is definitely a touchy baby and always wants to be held. We have resorted to cosleeping just to get some rest at night. Now that DD is beginning to stay awake some after feedings we have run into another problem. She has trouble going to sleep. She'll do fine for 30 minutes or so, but then she has a meltdown crying for another 30 minutes or longer. DD is BF. She won't take a pacifier. She gets upset if we try to hold it in her mouth. Rocking, walking, baby swing, nothing seems to help. Once she wears herself out crying, she will finally nurse for a few minutes and finally fall asleep. Any advice?

Christina
and Leah Grace 1/19/04

Marissa
02-10-2004, 04:30 PM
Have you tried carrying her around in a sling or fabric carrier? We had problems similar to yours with our son, then got a Hug a Bub carrier (it's a stretchy fabric carrier that kind of wraps around you and the baby together). He started falling asleep in the carrier, and would sleep for hours. It also cut WAY down on his crying at night. What if you tried nursing more regularly?

HelenD
02-11-2004, 01:06 PM
You mentioned that your DD does this after feedings (I'm assuming that you probably nurse to sleep). Does the crying sound like pain at all?

Are you sucessful burping her after each feeding?
She she vomit a lot?
Can you hear a "wet hiccup" sometimes?
Does she have a persistent or re occuring bright red diaper rash?
Does she arch her back during these episodes?
Does she not like the car seat?
Does she seem to be congested a lot?

I ask this because I had a very similar experience w/ my DD (now 4/5 months) and she had very mild GERD (essentially acid reflux). We would have days and days where she didn't sleep for 16-18 hours. Depending on what other "symptoms" she has, she might have some pain that is causing the waking.

I will also second the suggestion for the sling, regardless of whether or not you think there may be some acid reflux involved.

Also, are breast feeding? If so, you might want to think about keeping a food diary to see if something you are eating is irritating her. (Cut out nuts and especially peanut butter first, all cafeine - sodas, coffee, tea, and Chocolate, then try milk products)

If you are formula feeding, you might want to try changing formulas. Sometimes mild food allergies (like a dairy allergy) can get you this type of reaction (the waking after eating w/ crying).

Good Luck - I know what you're going thru!

msw
03-17-2004, 05:02 AM
Yep, I've been there too, the last poster gave some excellent suggestions. She was less fussy, that when we were more attentive to burping and minimizing gas.

My daughter would not take a pacifier ( I don't personally like them :-) ), but now at 6 months she finds her thumb and that helps soothe her to sleep. She is sleeping 11 hours straight now. (It is so sweeeeeet!!!) She finds and sucks her thumb if she wakes up and puts herself back to sleep. We did try to encourage her to find her thumb when she was quiet and not fussy.

One thing that worked for us was to place her higher on the shoulder... meaning, her arms would be over my shoulder, I think stretching her out like that helped her tummy. Then we would walk or rock her and repeatedly say "shhhhh" ( you have to do it as loud as she is fussing ), that really would calm her down.

The most important thing to stave off her being overtired was to make sure she took enough naps during the day. She was difficult to get to go to sleep. I know the book recommends putting them down still awake, but to get her on a semi-regular nap schedule I would nurse and rock her to sleep, and then worked on putting her down half awake when she got used to taking naps during the day. Also she has a Fisher Price acquarium crib toy that helps distract her and gets her to sleep.

I hope some of this helps you too! Good luck!

1busymommy
01-23-2011, 03:48 AM
Every baby is different, you just have to see what works for your little one. We found a sleep device that really helped us. "Sleepy Bee" (sleepybees.com) We would turn it on like 10 mins before wanting to get her to fall asleep and she would related the sound to sleep. It's kinda like sleep training. Or the Pavlov's Dog theory. haha! ...not to relate our baby to a dog, but you get the point. :)