megsmom
03-24-2004, 08:06 AM
It made me feel so good to read Rashmi's post this morning. At least I am not alone. Brian was up tonight at midnight, 2:30, and 4:45. I didn't get to sleep until 11 so my longest stretch of sleep was 1 1/2 hrs. I couldn't fall asleep after the last time I was so tired, wired, and upset that I'm up now posting before I get ready for work and the kids are up. I can't believe I'm starting my day like this. I won't get to have any rest until tonight at 10 pm since I have to work today.
I have no idea why my baby is getting up. I know he was sick a few weeks ago (cold with bad congestion) that I was getting up with him like this and nursing him back to sleep. Both of us were sick so I was doing anything I could to comfort him and get us both back to sleep. It seems we have never returned to any good pattern since then. He was typically doing 5-6 hr stretches before this and usually only getting me up once during the night and then not waking up till morning.
I'm not even sure he is getting up to eat, he is just up I think. He doesn't seem particularly hungry for the latter two feedings. He sleeps in his crib in his room and I get up to feed him. There is no room to have him in our bed and I doubt this would equal any more sleep from me since I'm a very light sleeper wehn it comes to kid noises.
I have done everything I can think of to get him to sleep well at night. I make sure he gets good naps so he's not overtired during the day. I try to get him to bed early. We have a good nap and bedtime routine. He typically puts himself to sleep a lot of the time after I soothe him and usually goes down quickly without a fuss. He typically does not nurse to sleep for naps anyway and put himself. He eats well during the day, about every 3 hrs. At night, there is no stimulation from me, the room is dark and it is quiet. I am barely conscious for the most part and half the time these days drift off while nursing him in the glider spending more time in there than need be due to me being asleep.
I still swaddle him. Could this be it? It seems to be his cue to go to sleep and comforts him. Plus he flails about and startles so easily that this was the only way we could get him to sleep at all in the beginning. He doesn't really use a pacifier. A couple of time I tried sneaking this in to see if he would go back to sleep, but he spit it out and kept fussing. The past several nights I have let him fuss a little bit to see if he would go back to sleep on his own. Usually the fussing seems to escalate into crying and then I go in at least to make sure he hasn't wet out his diaper and then end up feeding him usually because it's the quickest and sometimes only way to get him back to sleep.
It's good to know I have company, but does it ever get any better? I read about sleep in the Baby 411 book that Denise Fields wrote along with that doctor. I got so upset because the tone seemed to imply that if your baby has a sleep problem it was because you created it. I was just trying to be responsive to my baby when he was sick and the only solution the book seemed to offer was cry it out. I'm beginning to despair and I hate to be so tired that I wind up not enjoying this period of my kids' lives and snapping at my 2 year old. I don't want to resort to crying it out, but what's left? Is there any hope he can learn to sleep again??????!!!!!!!! My big fear is that I'm going to make some huge mistake at work (I'm in healthcare so not good to make any screwups) or have a car accident.
Help!!!!!!!!!!
Jen
mom to Meghan 7/13/01
and Brian 11/11/03
I have no idea why my baby is getting up. I know he was sick a few weeks ago (cold with bad congestion) that I was getting up with him like this and nursing him back to sleep. Both of us were sick so I was doing anything I could to comfort him and get us both back to sleep. It seems we have never returned to any good pattern since then. He was typically doing 5-6 hr stretches before this and usually only getting me up once during the night and then not waking up till morning.
I'm not even sure he is getting up to eat, he is just up I think. He doesn't seem particularly hungry for the latter two feedings. He sleeps in his crib in his room and I get up to feed him. There is no room to have him in our bed and I doubt this would equal any more sleep from me since I'm a very light sleeper wehn it comes to kid noises.
I have done everything I can think of to get him to sleep well at night. I make sure he gets good naps so he's not overtired during the day. I try to get him to bed early. We have a good nap and bedtime routine. He typically puts himself to sleep a lot of the time after I soothe him and usually goes down quickly without a fuss. He typically does not nurse to sleep for naps anyway and put himself. He eats well during the day, about every 3 hrs. At night, there is no stimulation from me, the room is dark and it is quiet. I am barely conscious for the most part and half the time these days drift off while nursing him in the glider spending more time in there than need be due to me being asleep.
I still swaddle him. Could this be it? It seems to be his cue to go to sleep and comforts him. Plus he flails about and startles so easily that this was the only way we could get him to sleep at all in the beginning. He doesn't really use a pacifier. A couple of time I tried sneaking this in to see if he would go back to sleep, but he spit it out and kept fussing. The past several nights I have let him fuss a little bit to see if he would go back to sleep on his own. Usually the fussing seems to escalate into crying and then I go in at least to make sure he hasn't wet out his diaper and then end up feeding him usually because it's the quickest and sometimes only way to get him back to sleep.
It's good to know I have company, but does it ever get any better? I read about sleep in the Baby 411 book that Denise Fields wrote along with that doctor. I got so upset because the tone seemed to imply that if your baby has a sleep problem it was because you created it. I was just trying to be responsive to my baby when he was sick and the only solution the book seemed to offer was cry it out. I'm beginning to despair and I hate to be so tired that I wind up not enjoying this period of my kids' lives and snapping at my 2 year old. I don't want to resort to crying it out, but what's left? Is there any hope he can learn to sleep again??????!!!!!!!! My big fear is that I'm going to make some huge mistake at work (I'm in healthcare so not good to make any screwups) or have a car accident.
Help!!!!!!!!!!
Jen
mom to Meghan 7/13/01
and Brian 11/11/03