I will never sleep again. Okay, I know this is temporary, but I am exhausted. Finn is rapidly approaching the weight limit to his bassinet so Sean and I decided to begin putting him in his crib to sleep at night. We have gone through two nights now and I am planning on going to the bookstore this morning and looking at every book on infant sleep they have.
The first night was not so bad. We got through bedtime routine and rocked him to sleep. He slept happily in his crib until about 11:30 which is pretty much what he used to do in his bassinet. I jumped up when he woke and nursed him. He fell asleep after his snack, but he woke up the minute I tried to put him back in the crib. So, I broke down and brought him to bed with us.
In all honesty, I would happily co-sleep until he turns one, but he doesn't seem to sleep that much better in bed with us. He thrashes around a lot and none of us get any rest. Plus our bed just isn't big enough and I am so hyper-aware of his presence that I don't feel rested.
Last night was tough. We got him to sleep in his crib at 8pm, but then he was up again at 10pm. Then again at midnight and every hour thereafter. I know he wasn't hungry every time because he would nurse for just a couple minutes then fall asleep. I would rock him until he seemed in a deep sleep which could take awhile and then once I got him down, I would get a half hour before we had to repeat. Ugh.
I know Finn is not feeling well rested either because he is currently sleeping soundly on my lap. I think he just wants to be held all the time to sleep. I wish I could provide it for him, but obviously we need to move past this as he gets older.
I think I am going to see if they have The No-Cry Sleep Solution at the bookstore. I have also heard good things about The Baby Whisperer for getting a baby on a bit of a schedule, but I don't really know the whole basis of that one. This is so difficult because I want to make sure I am doing what his best for Finn and not just for myself. I want to accurately understand what his needs are regarding sleep and nutrition at this age, but also I want to meet his emotional needs. I feel like these are such huge decisions given that our actions can directly affect his brain development and how he views the world.
Nothing like a heck of a lot of pressure on tired parents!
4 comments:
Also check out Healthy Sleep Solutions, Happy Child or something like that. Mandy's read it and I think we might check it out too. Luckily M sleeps well anywhere i put in during the day, wrap, crib, swing, couch, on Hans. Last night was bad at our house. M usually sleeps really well with us, quiet no thrashing or kicking. But last night he was stuffed up and couldn't get comfortable. Then P was up at 3:30 coughing so hard I thought she would be sick. Listening to that through the monitor was not restful. I threw in the towel at 5:40 this morning and just started my day. :-( I know it won't be like this everyday and I thank my lucky stars for it.
We are going through the same thing too - Soren isn't fond of his bassinet at all, so we decided to bring his crib into our bedroom, same thing, he'll wake the minute I lay him down and pretty much every night he ends up with us. We're still sleeping together ok, and like you I would be happy co-sleeping for a while longer but I can already tell the tides are changing with the restlessness, etc and I feel guilty that I am somehow doing something wrong or that will make it more difficult when the transition really must happen. Keep posting and let me know any tricks you come up with -- and know you're not alone.
hi sadie - i totally feel your pain...we've been there too. we tried the crib transition around this age too with (unfortunately) little success. for a while we had a big family bed, but like you said, no one got a lot of rest. what we did for a while which in hind sight worked out reasonably well was to put our futon mattress or air mattress on the floor in our room. i would usually nurse him to sleep and then get out of that bed and into ours. that way, he still has the comfort of knowing you're close and scott would sleep much better that way. then we started moving the air mattress out of our bedroom and into other parts of the house. in the family room and then eventually in noah's room. we tried for a while at this point for me to sleep on the floor in noah's room with him in the crib, but we usually ended up noah and mama sleeping on the floor in his room. just about 15 months old we got rid of the crib altogether and got a twin bed. then we transitioned to noah sleeping part time by himself in his room to all night. now when he wakes up in the middle of the night i go in there to comfort him, but usually don't stay unless he's having a particularly bad night. not that you should do any of what i just mentioned since we have a 2.25 year old who still gets up in the middle of the night, but that has been our sleep journey so far. but, i will also say that cosleeping gets easier as they get older. when we cosleep now, we all sleep pretty well.
i actually didn't really enjoy the healthy sleep solution, happy child book as much as the no cry sleep solution. she has a lot of good tips in there. i think our sleep training failure was that we never waited long enough to see results before trying something new. and also, i have a SHORT temper with sleep issues at 3:30 am. another something that i will suggest is to get sean involved sooner rather than later with night time stuff, although i think that might be better a little later when you're ready to night wean. its pretty clear that noah knows now that if mama is home that he'll wake up, i'll come to him, he'll have some mama snuggles and he's using(abusing?) the boob system. but, if mama isn't home (ie work trip) he'll sleep through the night, no questions.
those are my stories...please call if you wanna talk sleep...we tried everything. honestly, it was very stressful for us for a few months, but then at some point we kinda made peace with noah's sleep needs and right now we're not gonna push him.
that's all, my novel is over. :-)
ooh!! just thought of a few more ideas when i was in the shower, ones that actually worked for us!! we put an electric heating pad under his crib sheet and turned it on when we got him out of his bed. nothing like a cold sheet to wake a sleeping baby from a light sleep, especially in the winter. don't forget to turn it off after you put him down though...don't want him to overheat.
also, wrap him up in your grubiest tshirt. you know, the one you wear every day for a week with spitup and breastmilk on it? he'll smell your scent and be soothed. we also found swaddling a big(er) help for solo (ie non cosleeping and non slingified) sleeping. we swaddled noah well into the heat of the summer till 9 months old or something. (get a nice big breathable blanket for that. we made one out of an old sheet but i LOVE the aden and anais blankets too)
ok, now i have overrun your blog. sorry!!
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