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sorry, the whole title did not fit. Anywho, I’m in a desparate need of teaching Ariella to fall asleep on her own. I see that Gabbs asked the exact same question but my situation is a little different. the only difference is, Ariella will get HYSTERICAL once I leave the room when I put her down in her bed. She can stand in her crib now so she just stands and wails (the neighbors must think I’m torturing her). I tried staying with her in the room, patting her back, giving her a bottle with water, her favorite toy. NOTHING WORKS! Even rocking sometimes doesn’t work. On bad days, I have to take her on a stroller trip (but it’s getting way too hot for that). I physically can’t rock her anymore (bad back
) so I’ve got to train her. Is there a gentler way of doing this other than hearing her wail for hours???
when I put baby in the crib, I put him on his belly & I take a weighted stuffed animal like a beanie baby and put it on his back & then I place one hand, palm open on top of the weighted stuffed animal on his back pressing down with pressure, as I sing and the other hand is on baby’s tushie jiggling it as I sing- as baby tries to pop his head up, I gently put it down again (sounds mean as I type but I don’t mean slam baby’s head down or anything! I mean gently put it down again as you’re still singing) and continue with the pressure on his back and jiggling his bottom- then after some time & baby isn’t trying to pop his head up anymore I slowly slow down w/ the jiggling and then I take my hand off of his back and the stuffed animal is still there so he still feels the weight & then i leave the room
sounds easy, huh? HA HA HA!!! this takes time.
We are going through this a bit ourselves. Strange this is that Ben will go to sleep by himself at night, but struggles, struggles, struggles for naps.
We have a routine for both naps and bedtime. We use a noise machine (got ours at Brookstone), and his room is darkened. He yawns as soon as I turn on the noise machine. I leave the machine on pretty loudly during his naps (we have a small house) and I leave it on all night too, but turn it way down when we go to bed. Anyway, for naps, I used to be able to rock him for about 10 minutes until he was calm and drowsy and then I would put him in his bed and he would suck his fingers or paci until sleep. He still does this at night time just fine.
However, naps have become war ground of late. He’s teething, has learned how to sit up and pull up on his crib, etc. Anyway, the rocking until calm thing hasn’t worked lately. What I’ve been doing is rocking him anyway, sometimes cradling him and singing two or three songs and then telling him it’s time for bed. I put him on his tummy and say “night, night” or something like that and then I leave. He wails for a minute or two and then stops and then wails and then stops. This went on this morning for 30 minutes until he finally went to sleep.
With my daughter, I used the graduated system. I would leave her, wait 5 minutes before going in.. talk to her, rub her back and leave, then wait 10 minutes and then 15 and keep it at 15 until she went to sleep or until an hour had passed from when I first put her down.
With Ben, going in seems to upset him more, so I try not to unless he is really hysterical (i.e. he screamed out yesterday and had his leg stuck in the slats!
). I think what Beth suggested is the way to go.. it may take several days of not sleeping, but they will finally get it. (I hope!)
jenny,
you did not miss your chance!
you just have to do what works for you 2 until it doesn’t work anymore, and then you figure something else out
you all should have SEEN the production(s) we went through to get Jonah to nap! nursing to sleep, then when that didn’t work, wearing him in a sling to sleep, rocking him to sleep, wearing him in a sling AND rocking him to sleep, etc etc etc
he finally became a good napper at 18months. I don’t tell you this to scare you! I tell you to let you know it’s not too late!
hang in there everyone!
Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I will definitely try to use some of them and I PRAY that one works. Like mentioned before, I’m in too much pain to continue to rock her. In fact, I’m risking to drop her if I continue to rock her to sleep (sometimes the pain can get very intense
So I would rather her learn how to fall asleep on her own then continue risking dropping her. While we’re in “traning” so to speak, should I continue taking her for stroller rides or will it defeat the purpose?I just used Laura’s technique for Gabby’s nap. Usually Gabby will only nap with me. That is the only way I could ever get her to sleep when her reflux was at it’s peak and now she doesn’t know how to sleep on her own. I know, I know, it’s terrible. But I tried Laura’s technique a half hour ago and she is sleeping. Thanks Laura!
A nap in the crib is such an achievement for us. 🙂he’s 11months, so 11months,lol!
the falling asleep on his own started maybe at 9 months? I’m one to do what I do until it doesn’t work anymore
– so there was a point where I was nursing him to sleep & then he’d pop up and be awake- so then I started figuring out how to put him in the crib and leave the room, lol…I didn’t want to ‘do’ anything w/ his baby- just enjoy him
– I took a year off of work & thought to myself that I’ll follow his lead until I can’t stand it anymore…so far I’ve been standing it, lol
once he showed me he could sleep through the night (very recently), when he wakes before 4am, I let him fuss a little- not freak out, but I give him 10minutes & that usually does the trick…
now, he’s going to a babysitter’s starting in august (soon
), so I figure ‘it’s not my problem’ how he naps with her…sounds mean, but what I mean is, the 2 of them are going to have to figure out what works for them. I’m trying not to nurse him before naps, but it’s not working- it’s just too easy for me to do…so I’m procrastinating & not facing the issue and figure I’ll be at work and it’ll take a while for everyone to get adjusted…
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