Did we miss it?

[Anonymous]

Did we miss the WOW (window of opportunity) with Ariella? There are a few issues here. She won’t nap or fall asleep at night unless she’s rocked to sleep. She’s babysat by my mother in law when I’m at work and my mil is 68 years old. She can’t rock a 17 lbs baby to sleep for half hour (I must admit that I can’t either). She will fall asleep on the bottle ONLY and now that she’s teething, that’s the last thing I want to do since oral hygience/health is very important to me. She’s been falling asleep on the bottle and not drinking her norm (which is 6-8 oz) so she’s been waking up at 2-3 am hungry and won’t go back to sleep for a couple of hours even after she’s fed. We don’t want her to get used to being fed in the middle of the night since she hasn’t been since she was 3 months but at the same time she won’t go back to sleep unless she’s fed (even after that it takes her a long time b/c she wants to play).

Now, moving on to the napping…She fights it!!! I end up putting her in the stroller and walk around the apartment with it so she falls asleep. Ugh…the older she gets, the worse this issue gets. We need to sleep train her SOMEHOW but I hate leaving her in her crib crying because she gets hysterical and throws up all over herself. HELP!!

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, we had to do cry it out at 6 1/2 months with Addy. Nothing soothed her and she would scream! After 3 nights of that, she learned to go to sleep on her own and how to put herself back to sleep in the middle of the night. I didn’t like doing it, but it was our last hope…we had tried everything else! Good luck and I hope you find something that works for her!

[Anonymous]

I don’t think there’s any easy way to correct the situation. As long as she’s pain free and not sick in anyway you should probably start some sleep training before bad habits become further entrenched. And no, you didn’t miss the window of opportunity, at least I don’t think. Babies of all ages can be sleep trained. It’s a little harder when they are older because habits have had more time to take hold, but habits can be broken.

I’d read some of the expert sleep training books and see if you can find a plan you feel comfortable with, then discuss it with dh so you are both on board, and then go for it when you feel you are ready. I like much of what Dr. Weissbluth says (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby), and the newer book by Kim West (Good Night, Sleep Tight). I haven’t read it but lots of moms here reccommend the Baby Whisperer….not sure what her book is called but I’m sure you could find it on amazon.

Good luck, and remember – sleep problems are the number one complaint of parents of infants and toddlers, so you are definitely not alone.

[Anonymous]

We did not do any type of sleep training with Briannna until she was 11 months old (well at least for naps, we did night time sleep training at 7.5 months). Brianna was always a terrible napper. She would fall asleep OK, but would wake 30-45 min into EVERY nap. I think for a while it was from pain, but once she was on good meds, she still did it. I would run upstairs and bounce, rock, pump her legs (in case it was gas) and do plyometrics (seriously, this was a bonus…it put Brianna back to sleep and I got a work out), until I could (hopefully)put her back down for another 45 min or so. I used to leave her room sweating from trying to get her back to sleep. I just didn’t want to do CIO with her. But one day, she started to not fall asleep for naps. I was at my wits end, and so I just left her room in tears. My DH said I needed a break and to go out of the house and he would watch be. 35 min later she was asleep and I haven’t looked back from there. She still will wake up from her nap sometimes now. Not really sure why, but she might cry for like 20 seconds, and then she gets comfy again and falls asleep. Now she can put herself back to sleep at night (if she wakes without a passy) and during naps. But it took me until 11 months to have the guts. I did read the healthy sleep habits book, and I liked that one. In the end I think you just have to try and see what works for your LO. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Maybe you could start with the naps since at least you won’t be losing sleep if you have a struggle.

Ben falls asleep almost every night nursing, but on the nights that he doesn’t, he can go to asleep on his own because he falls asleep on his own for naps.

Maybe start by making sure she is getting enough to eat at other eating times during the day, so that you know she doesn’t “need” the bottle at nap time. Then, maybe start putting fewer and fewer ounces in the bottle at naptime… lowering it every few days until it’s not much at all. After she finishes it, or if she seems to be falling asleep eating, take the bottle out, rock her a bit until she’s really drowsy and put her down. She’ll probably cry for a bit, but hopefully, she’ll be drowsy enough to go to sleep fairly soon.

After you have the naps down, then I would work on the nighttime the same way,.. maybe move up the feeding a bit or jostle her awake slightly before you put her in the crib so she knows that she is going in there? This is what i do with Ben. I rock him almost to sleep at naps and then put him down.. he sleeps on his belly, so most of the time just positioning him that way will wake him up a bit.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the other ladies that you will probably need to do some sleep training and also agree that you should get different types of sleep training books and see what works for you. Just so you know though you don’t have to let your baby cry it out alone. I did sleep training with Justice where I stayed in the room with him and just kept laying him down. Once he would lay down I would rub his lower back in circles. eventually he didn’t want me to rub his back anymore, so I would just lay him down. He now goes down anywhere btwn 7 and 8 and sleeps until 4 or 5 am. At that point though he wants to sleep with me. That I will have to break later, but for now we enjoy our cuddle time. Not that you have to do what we did, but just saying you don’t have to do cio. There are other ways.

I did’nt see this book on here, but the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.

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