Thanks in advance and we're looking forward to trying a few new things!!!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Calling all Moms (and Dads!)
Will has never (that's right, not ever) slept through the night consistently in his 26 months. We are in DESPERATE need of advice. PLEASE! Tell us your secrets, your ENTIRE bedtime routines (including times), ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that has to do with sleeping. It is beyond me how a VERY BUSY 2 year old can function on the amount of sleep he gets... it's just baffling. With a newborn around the corner (hopefully she can hold off about 4 weeks :)), we have GOT to get this whole Will-sleeping-through-the-night thing down! I would love to hear from all of you out there on this - doesn't matter how old your baby/toddler is.
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I found your blog through another blog of a blog I read...haha. I hope you don't mind me commenting. I thought I'd give some advice because I know how difficult it is when you have a child that won't sleep through the night. At 11 months old, after not sleeping through the night and waking up a lot during the night, we followed the Ferber method. He has a book called "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" and it was a miracle for us! I can't imagine going for 27 months without sleeping all night so I know you must be exhausted. It does involve crying but there are set amounts of time that you go in and check on your child and let them know you are still there. It took 3 or 4 days to completely work but the crying times got shorter and shorter each night. She would whimper a few minutes when we would lay her down for about 2 weeks. After that, we could lay her down completely awake and she would "talk" for a little bit and go right to sleep. She has slept through the night since then and she is now 18 months old. As far as routine, at 8:30pm, I take her to her room and we read a book in her rocker in a semi dark room, rock her a few minutes, and then lay her down awake and she goes right to sleep. Hope you find something that works for you soon! Good luck!!
B sleeps GREAT. He goes down at 6:30 or 6:45 and on the weekend will go until 8:00am. I had to get tired enough to let him cry a few nights. Only took 3. I would cut the baby monitor off and shut his and my door. So I would sleep through most. If he cried (and I heard) for 45 min or an hour I'd go in and check on him. But after 3 nights he started going through the night. We do have a ritual too though. Every night we do bath and then book time. He drinks a glass of milk while I read to him and then we cut the lights off. I do hold him and we sing for a few minutes, but then I lay him down and he doesn't make a sound. If he does fuss it's over by the time I shut his door. He's gotten to where he will only sleep in his crib now, which is really a great thing!
So...in my short time as a mommy (7 months on Saturday!), I've learned that as long as I can get B to stick to a certain schedule, we have no problem sleeping through the night. He usually eats dinner around 5 - 5:30 each evening, plays for about 30 minutes, and then takes a bath. After his bath, he usually can stand about 15 minutes before he wants his bottle and goes down for the night (usually around 7pm). I've figured out that if I can keep him awake once I get him from my Mom's house (at 4pm), we have no issues with him going to bed after his bath. If he sneaks in a nap during that time, it usually takes a little while longer. The bottle before bedtime is key - he usually falls right asleep and I sneak the paci in his mouth before I lay him in the crib. Maybe a glass of milk before bedtime???
We used to spend up to an hour getting Austin to sleep every night and it was getting frustrating and exhausting and there was still a chance he'd wake up whining in the middle of the night. After he turned a year we decided to try the Ferber method after friends of ours had success with it. (I personally wouldn't try it on a baby any younger than 1 though.) So we did our usual routine of bath, books and milk and then rocked for a few minutes, I kissed him and told him goodnight and put him in his crib awake. He cried for the first couple days and if he continued for too long I'd go up there and rub his back for a few minutes but not speak to him or pick him up. In a few days he started going down without a peep and now I can not even remember the last time he's gotten up in the middle of the night. Seriously, it's been at least 9-10 months. Rarely he will wake up and start talking, but we let him be and he always falls back asleep. Sometimes after we put him down he will stay up there and talk for an hour before falling asleep (usually only about 20 min.), but we don't go up there unless we suspect somethings wrong. Now that he's older he has a couple blankets and stuffed animals in his crib with him. He also takes a car or two to bed with him most nights as well. We've tried to make it a very nice and inviting place and he truly loves his crib now. We also have blackout curtains and a small fan blowing in his room at all times for the white noise. We also have a white noise CD that we take when we travel. You've gotten a lot of good advice so far, hope you're able to use some of it and make things work! Keep us updated!
I'm going to send you a long email, Kathy!! Thinking of y'all! xoxo
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