7 week old - bad sleep associations? Colic? Reflux? Or just high needs?

[pastrygirl]

The ones that sleep and self-soothe are an anolomy!! (In my experience, anyway. I had very bad sleepers, and only survived by co-sleeping and babywearing. Yes, every nap was ON ME.)

ETA: both of mine had reflux, but meds never helped with their sleep issues.

[BDKmom]

All of this sounds pretty typical for a 7 wk old, IME. Even my awesome sleeper DS didn't start settling in until 9-10 weeks. And my DD didn't really STTN until 9 mos, and is still up most nights at least once at 2.5 yrs.

[123LuckyMom]

I'm glad we could help you know that your friends' babies are unusual, and yours is NORMAL! Reading the chiropractic suggestion above reminded me to recommend Cranio Sacral therapy. It's gentler than chiropractic and works very, very well for sleep and feeding issues. BTW, if your friends are trying to sleep train their babies, they need a little education. I love Ferber's methods and used them very successfully with my children, but I didn't guess at how to do it. I bought and read the book. He explains why sleep training should never be attempted with a baby younger than six months old. Even that is very early. We trained ours at 10 months. No baby is capable of "self-soothing" at 7 weeks. A baby might have a very placid temperament and be a good sleeper, but not one is reasoning his or her way to happiness.

[nomnom]

How early should I be setting up a routine and good sleep habits? For example, when should I stop nursing to sleep? I'm thinking there's an age where it will become a sleep association that could become hard to break.

[goldenpig]

You may want to try eliminating dairy (and possibly soy) from your diet. All of my kids were poor sleepers and had "silent" reflux (not big spitters) but it turned out to be milk protein intolerance (and milk and soy protein for my littlest). They did so much better when I eliminated all dairy (and this time soy as well) from my diet. It's hard for them to sleep well when there is a medical reason for it. Some have said that up to half of all cases of "colic" are due to reflux and/or protein intolerances. I wouldn't worry about sleep training at such a young age.

[pastrygirl]

How early should I be setting up a routine and good sleep habits? For example, when should I stop nursing to sleep? I'm thinking there's an age where it will become a sleep association that could become hard to break.

It's not something you *have* to break. I never did and everything ended up fine. I always nursed to sleep.

[SnuggleBuggles]

How early should I be setting up a routine and good sleep habits? For example, when should I stop nursing to sleep? I'm thinking there's an age where it will become a sleep association that could become hard to break.

I don't think habits are really formed til 6+ months. Until then, they are still in cat nap sleeping style and you aren't going to mess up their sleep ability. Of course, I always nursed to sleep because it's easy and it works!!!! By 7-9 months, the boys wouldn't fall asleep nursing anymore so we just put them down awake. They played til they fell asleep. So, despite always nursing to sleep, it never once became an issue.

[Katigre]

How early should I be setting up a routine and good sleep habits? For example, when should I stop nursing to sleep? I'm thinking there's an age where it will become a sleep association that could become hard to break.

I stopped nursing to sleep when it stopped working, around a year old for each child. No regrets at all - I have so many precious memories of cuddling and nursing a sleeping baby. I'm doing it all again with #4 . For me the most important sleep habit is putting your child to sleep when they're tired and making sure they get adequate sleep - that can be done in arms and at the breast just as well as in a crib.

[Liziz]

I stopped nursing to sleep when it stopped working, around a year old for each child. No regrets at all - I have so many precious memories of cuddling and nursing a sleeping baby. I'm doing it all again with #4 . For me the most important sleep habit is putting your child to sleep when they're tired and making sure they get adequate sleep - that can be done in arms and at the breast just as well as in a crib.

This was me, too. I nursed DD to sleep almost every night until she was just under a year -- and when we stopped, it was because she wasn't falling asleep to it anymore, not something I had to break her of. I struggled with this one early on -- I felt like I "should" stop doing the nurse to sleep, and that I was creating bad sleep habits....but then I also realized I enjoyed nursing her to sleep, and that it was a million times easier to put her to bed that way, too. I know it doesn't work like this for every child, but DD would fall asleep nursing, and then I'd un-latch her -- it would usually wake her up a bit, but then I'd hold her until she fell asleep again -- or put her in her crib and "cradle" her in the crib with my arms (easier to extrract myself vs. transferring to the crib later).

I've also learned from DD that learning that "self-soothing" is an on and off skill. DD couldn't do it at all early in life (and we didn't really try). Then, around 10 months, we did some CIO (which was a couple rough days but not much more, for us...worth it) that resulted in DD being able to fully put herself to sleep (i.e. - I could leave her in her crib awake and she'd go to sleep w/o crying). So I thought we were golden....until we hit age 2, where all of a sudden she lost all capability (or, more likely, desire) to put herself to sleep, and it was like I was back to the beginning again...but now she's back to being able to fall asleep on her own. My point being -- don't worry too much about it, because kids find a way to challenge you no matter what!

[hellbennt]

My baby had reflux & (one of) the lesson(s) I learned is: you do what you do that works, until it doesn't work anymore; if it's not broken don't fix it...ds2 didn't have reflux, but the same applied. I: nursed to sleep, nursed lying down (not full co-sleeping), rocked to sleep, wore to sleep, you name it, I at least tried it. My boys were being tucked in by 2, I'd say (weaned at 15mos)...so try & hang in there - everyone will say that you get sleep eventually, & you will


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