[Vincent'sMommy]

I'm wondering if anyone else has a sleeper like mine or any suggestions for me. Our sleep situation's not terrible but I'm totally jealous of those who can put their baby to sleep and not have to get up and check on them 10 times a night. On an average night I think I get about 7 hours but it's definitely interrupted.

Here's our typical routine. Most nights we do a bath and book bedtime routine and he'll fall asleep while I'm holding him. I'll put him in his crib and he'll sleep there for maybe 3-4 hours. But in those several hours he changes position several times and sometimes loses his pacifier and he immediately cries and wakes up - can't ever seem to find his paci and put it back in and/or settle himself. If I come in and try to find a good position for him and give him his pacifier he will generally go back to sleep. But now that he's more mobile, a lot of times he starts to sit or stand up and that wakes him up more. Eventually I try to go to bed a couple hours later and have to tend to him once or twice before I decide to take him to bed with me.

When he's in our bed he still moves around quite a bit but he still appears to be sleeping. I can generally get sleep when he's still. But usually after a couple hours I end up moving with him to the couch because his moving is disturbing DH's sleep too and he is a real crab without enough sleep. On the couch Vincent is about the same as in the bed. We get some sleep but he keeps squirming periodically and now that he's bigger its harder to get comfortable.

We've had a couple fluke nights where he slept all or most of the night in his crib but they have been few and far between. I just don't know what I can do differently. I feel like he'll never be a sound sleeper. I've tried putting him in different positions but I honestly don't know which is most comfortable for him. I've tried putting him down to fall asleep on his own a couple times but that never works. I'm thinking of trying a weighted blanket since I've heard they can help with troubled sleepers but I don't know much about it and don't want to spend $35 on something that may not make any difference. He's already got an amber necklace he wears around his ankle at night and that makes no difference - of course he has no teeth yet either so I don't think (most nights) teething pain is the problem. He has his last bottle several hours before bed but I don't want to change it to a bedtime bottle since we'll be switching to milk and sippy cups soon.

[shockandawe]

huh. Well Maggie sleeps pretty great as a rule. Teething is the only thing that has created any sleep issues for us in the last 10 months, but they were pretty significant. That said, she's in her own room, in her crib. BUT she is restless. She escapes from every blanket I put on her before my hands have even left the crib (hates anything covering her legs), and pretty much gets around the entire crib space through the night. Sleeps most often on her tummy with her butt in the air. I worried about the blanket thing, but gave up on that. Some people are bred this way, and my DH is the very same. I can't stand it, but he's a restless sleeper and would rather sleep with nothing covering him. I just make sure she's in warm pj's and wearing socks. Make sure that the temperature is properly under control in her room and let her be. I put a sippy cup with water in there in case she needs it through the night (rarely needs it), and she has her bunny (attachment toy) with her at all times.

We have a routine which I rarely if ever deviate from. It's bear in the big blue house while she chills out in my lap with her bottle and maybe a song or straight to bed. And yes, she is still getting a bottle right before naps/bedtime. I'm not in a huge rush to get rid of it. I figure there are still some people breastfeeding, and she's just not ready to give up the bottle yet. Plus the extra calories help right before her sleeptime I think.

If she chirps through the night, because she is an active sleeper/dreamer, I find myself waiting. I found that if I jumped straight away, just my creaking across the hallway floor, or coming into the room would be enough to wake her from her dream. She sleep talks. Her whining/crying is her dreaming. I wait to hear if she's really awake before going in. And then I take her out, assess what's wrong, and most of the time, just rock her back to sleep. Usually doesn't take very long, and again, I know she's going to get to a point where she won't need this, but if she's had a bad dream, I'm going to console her no matter how old she is. But then she goes straight back in the crib. There's no more moving her through the night. I found that when I did that, it quickly created a habit I wasn't able to sustain.

I don't really know if this gives you any ideas. I guess my only suggestion would be to reconsider a bedtime bottle or sippy cup (whichever you prefer), and sticking it out with putting him back in his crib til he gets used to it. Also give yourself a few minutes before going in (if you're not already) when he's woken up. Give him a chance to self soothe and drift back off to sleep. I wish you good luck with it though. I'm knocking on wood at the moment.

[Ally-Mac]

^^^^ditto. We do the same thing.


Becky -- question. Now that bear in the big blue house is not on at 7:30pm anymore on Disney, what do you do? I've DVR a couple of episodes..I keep forgetting and I swear I've watched the same episode every day for the past 2 weeks.

Tutter is starting to irritate me. He is so whiny

pretty much . Kaileigh is a wonderful sleeper but she does move round her bed a lot. She doest wake up but just moves. I dont do bed/nap bottles, and I wont recommend it if you plan on weaning bottles anytime soon because that can be confusing to only give it for a few weeks then take it away again. I began giving a night snack to Kai when we got rid of bed bottles. Kaileigh gets a banana, yogurt or cheerios, or anything else we have as a night snack before bed. It's a routine because my oldest gets it too, and has for a long time.

[Vincent'sMommy]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I just have to experiment with some different things. I suppose he might sleep better in his own room but he doesn't have one - his crib is in our room. He doesn't have anything he is attached to besides the pacifier and my hair, which soothes him. I wish I could find some other kind of lovey that would soothe him. I've tried some small stuffed animals and he didn't seem to care. I think if he could go to bed without the pacifier he wouldn't wake as much because it wouldn't keep falling out but I don't know how to go about that or even if he would be ready for it. I've tried waiting for him to calm himself but the majority of the time when he wakes up he's immediately crying and the longer I wait the more upset and awake he gets and now he's standing up sometimes before I can get to him. I guess the first thing I should try would be to sacrifice a couple nights sleep and just keep putting him back in his crib when he wakes up and just see how that goes.

Also do you have a binky holder thing? Kaileigh has her clipped to her jammies at night and she never looses it.

[Vincent'sMommy]

Originally Posted by KaiX2Momma

Also do you have a binky holder thing? Kaileigh has her clipped to her jammies at night and she never looses it.

I do, but for some reason I was always nervous to use it at night. I'm not sure why, I mean, it's obviously not long enough to be a choking hazard or anything. I can give that a try and see if it helps at all.

[Daffodil]

Arie had recently been doing great with sleeping, sleeping through the night...but lately she's been a mess. It might have to do with the fact that we are moving and I'm at the new house everyday getting it ready so her routine is getting messed up. Or maybe a growth spurt or teething...who knows.

In the past few days, she's been doing this thing where she'll be really quiet and still and for all intents and purposes seems to be falling asleep or already asleep...and then all the sudden she'll sit up and move around. This has been happening quite a bit. If I try putting a pacifier in her mouth or hubby tries getting her to lay back down, she whines and cries. I went from no nighttime feeds to 2 last night, and that was after 2 attempts with just water.

And I don't know if I would call this restless...its almost too forceful to be restless? She's been really into I would say actively moving around like a crazy person. For the longest time, she'd roll over and over and over in place, like a puppy. I thought that was bad. But now she's flailing all over the place. I don't know if she's playing or trying to get comfortable or something else, but its really weird to me. I don't understand why someone who is sleepy doesn't just try to go to sleep. Of course, that's an adults perspective!

So no advice, just that I comiserate!

[starrsgirl]

Emmett moves around a ton at night. He starts off in his crib. When he wakes up the first time, I feed him and put him back in his crib without talking to him. Often, he will jump back up and yell at me but I give it a few minutes and he settles down.

Throughout the night, sometimes I hear him cry out and move around. But I give it a few minutes there too. A lot of times, he is sleeping or just woke up really briefly and will settle back down on his own.

[shockandawe]

Originally Posted by Ally-Mac

^^^^ditto. We do the same thing.


Becky -- question. Now that bear in the big blue house is not on at 7:30pm anymore on Disney, what do you do? I've DVR a couple of episodes..I keep forgetting and I swear I've watched the same episode every day for the past 2 weeks.

Tutter is starting to irritate me. He is so whiny

Ya- tutter isn't my fave either, but I have too big a mommy crush on bear to worry about tutter..hahahaha.

YES, disney moving the time of Bear really picked me off! BUT, I bought a couple dvd's off amazon (way too expensive, but I had to have something for her overnighters with my mom), and I've set the DVR to record it whatever time it's on every day. SO, through the week, we watch the one that tapes at 5pm every day, and on the weekend I cycle through the ones on the two dvd's I have. I'm tired of watching the same ones over and over again, but she doesn't seem to care, and I "could" always read my book at the same time. I've done the same thing (DVR) with Bunnytown and imagination movers...her faves. I should also do it with clubhouse, but we're surviving pretty well with what I have, and it's just enough to get us through that chillpoint before naps and bedtime.

[Vincent'sMommy]

So I really wanted to try to get him to fall asleep in his crib and not take him out last night. He didn't get sleepy until late though and I put him down a little after 10 and he was almost asleep but immediately was fully awake and walking around in his crib. I left him there for a little while but he showed no signs of going to sleep so I went in and had to sing and pat and rub him for a long time and finally at 11:10 he fell asleep. The good thing I guess is that he slept 6 hours straight in his crib. At 5:11, he cried for his paci after he rolled across the crib and woke up so I got up and gave it to him and he seemed to settle down right away but then for the next hour I thought I heard him moving around a little so I couldn't sleep well because I kept thinking he was going to wake up. A little after 6 he cried then he was standing up and wide awake. I took him to the couch and although he seemed very tired still he would not fall back asleep.

So he normally gets 10 hours of sleep and last night he got 6-7. And I got 5, which is not very cool.

[shockandawe]

Remember to have patience. Nothing changes overnight unless they do it behind our backs like rolling, standing, walking and crawling. You've built a different routine with him. Changing that is a curve ball, and he needs time to figure it out.

You may also just have a cat napper on your hands. And this stinks, but it may just be the norm for you guys until you get your own home and he can have his own room. Sorry it didn't go better for you last night. just keep trying things til you find something that works...hug.

[nat1970]

Sorry, don't have time to read all the responses, but try to let him go to sleep on his own. This will help him do it himself when he wakes in the middle of the night. Go buy lots of pacifiers and spread them in his crib. I swear I have 8 in each of the boys cribs so they can always find them. I lay them down at night wide awake and they put themselves to sleep at 7:30am and I get them up at 8am. Good luck.

Also, do you keep stuffed animals etc in his crib? I have a bear, monkey and a few other things and I will often see them just sitting in their crib playing.

Jamie's def a restless sleeper, you are not alone!

I've just begun trying to teach Jamie to put himself to sleep. It took 2 hours the first night of letting him hug me over the edge of the crib and then laying him down and saying "time to sleep." He'd arch his back and throw a fit but would calm down after a few seconds. The second night it took 1 hour 20 mins! yay! Then last night it took 50 mins! So we're seeing progress but it's hard. I'm very tired but I think in the long run it'll be worth it.

Jamie can't find his paci either, don't know how to teach him that one. I like the idea of muliple paci's in the crib but usually he wakes up crying, sits up and just waits unitl some one comes to him. I don't know how to show him to his paci.

oh well, baby steps.

good luck!

[.s.o.p.h.]

I'm pretty much in the same bed. If you put Eva down in her cot she'll just stand up. We haven't really tried just leaving her to sleep by herself cause she's generally cries straight away. Same as when she wakes in the night, she'll be half asleep and roll over and then she's woken herself up! It's really taxing hey? You'll have to let me know if anything works!