Sleeping the Nite Away
I started off with my daughter sleeping next to me in a playard/basinet…who can stand to be away from their newborn right? I also was waking up so much through the night to put her pacifier back in her mouth I ended up moving her in the bed with me; of course this is in addition to her every three hour feedings. My fear of crushing her in the bed lead me to buying a co-sleeper that fit in the bed between my husband and I. My daughter stayed in the co-sleeper until she was about four months, when she was too long to fit comfortably. My one mistake is that I was still waking her up to feed, every four- five hours, as if she was still only a few days old. It was right at about four months when she started sleeping through night (6 – 7 hours) without cereal in her bottle. At four months I started adding cereal to her night bottle and honestly it did not seem to increase in the length of time she slept.
At four months I moved her back into the playard/basinet. She continued to sleep 6-7 hours, but for the duration of the night she wakes up every hour and a half wanting her pacifier. Once she turned six months, we moved our daughter to her room, in her crib (can you hear my heart shattering). Where her sleep pattern is the same, her bedtime routine starts at about 8PM with a bath, then I lotion her skin, she has a bottle in the dark, while listening to her lullaby CD in the glider. She is asleep by 9PM, but is awake again by 4AM and the remainder of her night/morning is restless until 7AM.
Johnson & Johnson’s bedtime bath and body lotion has always made a difference in the length of time she sleeps.
Am I the only Noir Mommies guilty of the squeeze? What is the squeeze you ask? My munchkin is a little sleeper, sneeze and she wakes up. In additional to sleeping lite she loves to cat nap, everytime I lay her down she will only sleep for 15mins maybe 2 mins if Im lucky. So to keep her down longer or if I need a nap as well….I squeeze/hold her to sleep. Ofcourse nothing painful or sufficating, just hold her tight enough to keep her warm, snuggled and its an instant knock out.
I do this at nite as well to decrease the length of time it takes me to get her to sleep. I turn out the lights play soft classical music, sit in the rocking chair and hold her tight and close.
The squeeze is priceless
My honeybun is 13 months old and still does not sleep through the night. He naps for a maximum 3 hours then he’s up. The weird thing is he hates his crib, he will fall asleep in mine or his dads arms and as soon as we attempt to put him in the crib he wakes up religiously.
I have padded the mattress to make sure it is comfortable, I give him late baths, soothing lotions the works, but nothing seems to work, he always ends up in my husband and I bed just so we can get some sleep. Of course both my husband and I are full of aches and pain because my honeybun is such a bad sleeper he will turn cross way the bed, upside down you name it.
Any ideas on how to get him sleeping through the night I would even take a full 5 hours, anything at all, I’m desperate for sleep.