Last night was one of the most interesting so far as a mom. I've been trying tons of strategies to get her to sleep, concluding that "crying it out" is not an option. Alana has a cold, and we think she's teething, but last night she was up from 2-5:30. She's never done that before. She just wanted to play. She'd scream if we put her in her bed, but if we laid her next to us she would just coo and stare at Stuart. It was kind of cute...except for the time of day. FINALLY she fell back to sleep.
I feel like I must be a terrible mother for my baby to have such sleep problems. No offense to anyone who falls into this category, but I am so sick of people telling me their infants sleep 10 hours straight. Mine goes 5 on an excellent night.
Some things I've tried:
1. keeping her schedule pretty consistent (major days events happen at basically the same time each day)
2. Bedtime routines (bath, read books, sing, nurse, go to bed)
3. Crying it out (which never works because the sounds of her crying breaks my heart, today I went running while I was trying to get her to go down so Stuart stayed home with her...he doesn't like letting her cry either.)
4. Letting her play in her bed so she realizes it isn't a scary place.
5. Lots of stimulation when she's awake
Basically my conclusion is that the "experts" (Pantley, Babywise people, Weissbluth, Sears, etc...) don't know MY baby. I'm trying to follow the Spirit to do what's best, but is it really going to hurt her if she only sleeps 9 hours one day, when they say she needs 14 hours? I don't know.
At least I got some cute pictures out of letting her play in her crib!
4 comments:
One thing that will sometimes help Jacob is giving him a baby massage and doing some baby exercises. You could give it a try! ;)
Oh, how frustrating. Kaden wasn't a very good sleeper sometimes either. He would wake up several times in the night and I would always get up and nurse him back to sleep. It wasn't until he was 11 months old that I finally let him cry himself to sleep. He cried for 2 hours the first night and 45 min the next. He's a dream now. I just lay him in his crib, say good night and he'll cry for 2-5 minutes and then be fast asleep for 12 hours. But he's 14 months. I don't think you can really expect a 6 month old to sleep through the night.
Crissy don't panic! You are a great mom! Each child is different. Kyler didn't start sleeping through the night all the way until about six months. And if she's teething or having a growth spirt or whatever could affect that. You are doing so many right things, so don't put yourself down for it!
You are doing great - every baby, just like every grown up, is different... for example, I need my sleep to be a happy person, but Micah is pretty good on much less sleep. If she isn't cranky or acting too sleepy then I wouldn't worry too much. I'm sure you've heard this before, but in case you haven't, one tip I received with my first baby was to start noticing his initial signs of getting tired - staring off for a moment, loss of interest in what he was playing with, rubbing eyes or ears, etc. I know it sounds so simple, but I found that if I put him down quickly after those initial signs he slept much longer and more restfully than if I waited until it was totally obvious (crying, being cranky, etc) he was tired. I hate letting them cry - its so stressful! She is such a cutie and looks so sweet!
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