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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Sleeping Challenges

I am faced with a new struggle with Caelyn: sleeping. It seems as if the only way to get her to go to sleep is to bounce, standing up, with her, until she falls asleep. We cannot keep doing this and I know that. In fact, I don't want to keep doing this.
Really, how hard is it to go to sleep? I love to sleep. I would kill for someone to cuddle me, put me in my bed, cover me up, give me kisses, turn off the lights, and let me sleep for a few hours. Really.
So, why is this a struggle? I have nooo idea!
As I am typing this, she is laying in her crib fussing, now screaming.
I never believed in the "cry it out" method. I believe its cruel, if not cruel, really mean. But, what am I left to do?
She is tired and needs a nap.
Please give me some ideas here moms!
At night, its not a huge issue because she takes a bottle and is sooooo sleepy that we lay her down and off she goes, but naps are a fight. Morning nap isn't. She tends to just fall asleep after her morning bottle.
Afternoon and night time naps are a battle. She HATES to nap, but if she doesn't, she is a witch. She screams all day long and is just plain mean. So, please some ideas.
Do I leave her in there to cry and cry until she just stops? nothing is wrong and I know that. Or, do I do something else?

4 comments:

  1. Gillian Grace used to scream before naptime and bedtime too. Then once she was asleep she'd wake only to scream and cry for us some more. Needing sleep and knowing that she needed sleep even more than I did, I finally used the Ferber method of sleep training when she was around 4 months old. I allowed her to "cry it out" for short bursts at first and then progressively got longer in between the times I'd go in to check on her. Now of course I had a monitor so I could actually watch her without her knowing. Often she was just fussing to fuss, not really needing me. Once she began to learn that we weren't coming in every time she let out a peep, she soon began to self soothe and go to sleep without a fight. I know this method may not work for everyone but it certainly worked wonders for us. Now when she's sick, teething, or just has an off night when sleeping is interrupted, all I have to do is go back and retrain. Within a few days (at most) we're back to sleeping through the night. Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions!

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  2. Grace hates her afternoon naptime (sometimes). There are days when we skip it because she's refusing, (and a holy terror, at that); so we go to Target and walk it off. I just don't know what else to do. I have left her in her crib fussing/crying/screaming for hours, periodically coming to check on her, with no avail. She knows how to put herself to sleep, but sometimes she just doesn't WANT to sleep.

    I know the feeling though. It's miserable and exhausting.

    My first recommendation would be to put her down (rather than bouncing her) and let her figure out how to get herself to sleep on her own. If nothing else, it will do you all a favor.

    As for the afternoon naps, though, I don't really know what to say. Sometimes you just have to skip, and your baby WILL be a brat for it - but you can't MAKE her sleep and you can't let her cry for two hours straight. My mom says that it's good to even just let her sit in the crib and play alone, because if nothing else, she understands it's "her" time and not "her&mommy" time.

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  3. We do a 5 minute thing...I go and put her down, pat her head, shhh her, etc, then I leave, and she cries, 5 minutes I let her cry, then back in their the same thing. It seems to work well and each week or so you can up the intervals a little. so may 6 than 7 min between. If they go to sleep then wake up I wait 5 min also. It sounds mean but my daughter is the same way... I still rock her to sleep, nurse her etc...Also, I put her down groggy, not sleeping, she has a little harder time going to bed, but she does not wake up so scared. Good Luck, and most importantly do what you think works for you guys :)

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  4. My first NEVER slept. I read every book under the sun about sleep and only recommend two. The Baby Sleep book by Dr. Sears and the No Cry Sleep Solution. They were the only two I read that actually considered that the baby might have feelings and why they might be doing what they are doing. The others just gave ridiculous "solutions" that don't consider the baby at all.

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