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View Full Version : This Bedtime ritual stuff is NOT working (also in Lounge)



tarynsmum
04-07-2006, 06:11 PM
OK, so we've been trying to do the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child" method, I guess. I've been starting early, about 6:00 (we've been trying for the past 4 days). I nurse her, get her in her jammies, read a story/rock her, then put her down. The book says to put her down whether she is fully awake or asleep. Well, I put her down, walk out of the room, and she's immediately starts screaming. And I TRY to wait a couple minutes, but it's really a COUPLE (read:two) minutes before I go in and get her. I don't really want to do CIO this early, I doubt it would work anyway. I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong.

If/when she finally does fall asleep (this can b an hour+ later), half the time she'll wake up within a half hour, and it's back to square one. The past few nights I've started bedtime at 6:30-7:00 (tonight I started at 6:00) and she's actually gone to sleep "for real" at 10:00, 10:45, and 11:30, respectively.

What in the world do I do?!?!

Any help/input at all is GREATLY appreciated.

TIA,

chloe07
04-08-2006, 10:59 AM
Heather,

I use the same book for my daughter and it seems to work out fine. Here's a couple of things I noticed in your post.

First of all, you said your daughter is 2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days old (noted at the bottom of your post) If I'm wrong, please correct me.
If this is the correct age, go back to the chapter, "Months One through Four." Look at the question at the bottom of page 203. Read the question and answer. I think this will help you. The time your daughter wants to go to bed (later, 10, 10:45 etc...) seems to be a better time for your daughter at this point considering her age. As she gets older, she will gradually move her bedtime up.

The method of going to sleep between 6 and 8 like you have been doing works better for babies who are older- 4 months and up.

My daughter is 5 1/2 months old now. She was colicky for 3 months and had reflux on top of it. It was very hard to establish a schedule for her but reading this book helped me a lot.

Also, one thing I've learned with naps. Some days she takes longer naps and other days she takes shorter naps. I can't make her sleep longer with the shorter naps but at least she is taking them. As she gets older the naps get a little longer. Being consistent with the naps has helped. In the book he mentions that if the nap is short to leave them alone to see if they can sleep longer. Once my daughter is up, she is up. If I leave her in the crib too long, she goes nuts! It just interferes with her time to be awake. I take her out of the crib and play, feed, etc... and put her down again when she starts getting fussy or rubbing her eyes.

Anyway, I hope this helps you.

Chloe

lmkirche
04-16-2006, 05:05 AM
I have a 4 1/2 month old and we also use the healthy sleep, happy child book. One thing I noticed is that if he does not nap well during the day, he will have a hard time going to sleep at night. We strictly follow the "no more than 2 hrs awake" philosophy that is in the book. If he is refusing to nap, I will either put him in his swing or take him for a car ride. I just make sure that when he falls alseep we turn off the swing or drive home. The doctor is right when he says that motionless sleep is best.

Also, when I first incorporated this sleeping philiosophy I changed my soothing ritual a couple of times in order to find something that truly does soothe the child. Maybe you want to look at that. And sometimes I put him to sleep awake, sometimes drowsy, sometimes already asleep. So maybe do not put too much concern on whether or not your child is asleep when you put him to bed.

If you are still struggling, check out this website -

www.familysleep.com

They follow Dr. Weissbluth's philosophy and will give consultations for only $15. Well worth the money I think.

Good luck!

kayak1
04-22-2006, 08:39 PM
I have a 7 month old. We had a terrible time getting him to sleep through the night initially, but once we got him on a schedule at around 4-5 months, he began to sleep longer. He was sleeping through the night until about 6 months at which time teething got worse and was causing him to wake 1-2 times per night.

We don't believe in the CIO method. We bought the book "Healthy Sleep Habits" and "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer". If you pay attention to your daughter she is trying to tell you something, you might not know what it is right off the bat, but when you go into her room and she is screaming, watch her and see if she is giving you any clues as to what she wants. When we were in doubt, we picked him up and snuggled with him. My phiolosphy is you can never spoil a baby. Some kids don't learn how to self soothe until they are older and that is ok.
A little snuggling never hurt anyone. Some may disagree, but our son is on a great schedule and is sleeping wonderfully now.

Hang in there, it will get better, I promise!!