The little guy is almost 5 months old and is still struggling to have a decent night of sleep. He usually wakes up at 1am, 3am, 4am, 5am, or any combination of those times. Earlier this week he was also waking up at 11:30pm (or really anytime immediately after I had just fallen asleep). He is then up for the day at 6am or 7am (7am every day would be ideal, 6am is do-able).
Part of his nighttime routine involves swaddling. Up until now we've used the Miracle Blanket, but now he's starting to be too long for it. When we swaddle him in the Miracle Blanket he just goes to sleep immediately and can be put down for bed or a nap without much rocking. He also stays asleep for a decent amount of time and sleeps through the night occasionally. It is awesome! This week we've been trying out some other swaddling blankets. The newest one I have tried is a swaddling blanket from Aden + Anais because they are made out of muslin and are nice and thin and breathable.
Andrew has busted out of all of the new swaddle blankets we've tried this week. He then starts attacking his head with his hands or just playing with his hands and the blanket. This morning at 4am he'd woken himself up enough that he thought it was time for me to play with him too. He also seems to think it is a game to try and get his body out of the swaddle by throwing his legs up and slamming them down. Crazy kid!
So, the advice I need is this...
1. How have you weaned your baby from swaddling? If you don't swaddle, how does your baby sleep and not keep waking himself up?
2. How have you done sleep training with your kid? If you've "ferberized" your baby, when did you do it? What other methods have you successfully tried?
3. How would you recommend we do sleep training in a tiny apartment without causing all the neighbors to hate us?
I would appreciate any suggestions! I am not at my wits end yet since I don't really need that much sleep... but would love the little guy to have a decent night soon.
Note: If your baby is an angelic sleeper and has slept through the night since the beginning, you are very fortunate... please don't brag about it on my blog. :) Thanks!
12 comments:
We use the swaddle me, but you probably already tried that. It does come in a bigger size so we are planning on using it for a long time. I love that you say "busted out," too. That is what Bryant says and it cracks me up to think of the little ones plotting and planning a bust out of their mini prison. I agree though, that they can be little houdinis! good luck.
He started escaping out of the Swaddle-me during his first week home... we have several sizes though, so if you need any others when Olivia grows out of hers or they get worn out, let us know... they're just collecting dust :)
Oh sleep... It seems like it is a constant learning curve for everyone! I have really enjoyed Baby Wise, it helped us get into a pattern of eating and sleeping that was a great guide and still is at 9 mos.
We slowly started to swaddle just his body without his arms so that he would be used to it. And then slowly transitioned into just a light blanket over him now.
Good luck!
-Amber
I think Andrew probably needs to spend even more time with his Grandpa. He loves to play with Andrew or take him for a long walk while you're sleeping. ;-) Love, GK
I am not here to brag. I had so many friends with those angel babies/easy sleepers that I fully expected Max to be one (to make up for Charlie). But so far I've had two feisty redheads who do not sleep easily. Max is waking up more now too, and like you said right around 11:30 or midnight as well as the wee hours. It must be the age! I'm wondering if he's teething. My conclusion with ferberizing and all that is that each kid is really different and each mom can tolerate different levels of crying, so you just figure out what works for you. (And they'll probably go on a different schedule or start getting another tooth as soon as you have it figured out!) I HATE the crying it out, it kills me, but I do believe it has to be done at some point. With Charlie we did it around 7 months I think. With Max, maybe a little ealier. But like you said, we need to get him used to not being swaddled first, bc there is nothing sadder than a crying, flailing baby who is not used to crying and flailing!
Sorry, I don't think that was very helpful.
K, so I tried just swaddling one arm for his nap and he slept from 12:40-2:10...so maybe I'm underestimating his abilities to sleep w/out the swaddle? I did have to give him his pacifier twice when he pulled it out...so I'm not sure if that's a great practice to get into. We'll see how it goes tonight. Keep the suggestions coming!
Ok so Brody has been a pretty good sleeper but I do attribute it to Babywise. I haven't ever really been able to let him "cry it out" like the book recommends but I do pretty much every thing else. I am not down to the minute on a schedule but I think it really helps. I go with his flow and adjust here and there is he needs it. I swaddled him for a month or so but he has been so large since the beginning he always was able to get himself out. I would read the book but until you do try the following. Get him on a schedule (3 of 4 hours) Eat play for like an hour and then sleep for 2 or eat sleep play for an hour and a halfish then sleep for 2 and a half. Also try not to let him go to sleep after eating or he will associate eating with sleeping and wont want to go to sleep unless you are feeding him. If he wakes up don't feed him give him his binky (for a while I had to give it to him a few times. Make sure you are putting him to bed before he gets really tired he should be sleepy but not really tired. don't rock him to sleep lay him in bed awake. and let him go to sleep. I try and make sure he is at least calm before I lay him down. Oh and usually when he wakes up during the middle of the night I let him cry for a few minutes honestly sometimes he is still asleep just making noise. other than that yeah ready babywise or happiest baby on the block (I haven't read this one but I hear raves about it)
Hi Kristina! Kailee uses the "Swaddle Me" blankets and just in the past week has been busting out of it too. I was at Babies R Us today and saw a "Muslin Swaddle" blanket (quite large). You may want to try that. We've also been trying to "wean" her off of swaddling by doing the following: 1) swaddle her with one hand sticking out (she sucks her hand to self-soothe) - do this for a week or so. 2) then swaddle her with one arm out (helps if it's really hot because she'll like it or if she's really tired.) 3) then try the other hand out (plus one arm).. gradually, as you can see the pattern, her upper part is less and less swaddled and then eventually she won't need to be swaddled (according to the advice of the nurse who runs my mom's group.) Kailee's still on the "one arm out" swaddle step...
Take care! Katharine Kobayashi
Okay, so I swaddled Grace until she was 8 months old. My mom teases me about it still, but I had anxiety about getting her to sleep unswaddled. I just kept buying bigger blankets, using more then one blanket, and any other trick I could come up with to keep her swaddled and her arms down. Until they have control of their arms, they are going to wake themselves up with their arms. Sorry, I don't remember how I did away with the swaddle other then, it just went away sometime after 8 months.
I only let Grace "cry it out" once when she was under the age of 1. I just couldn't do it. It hurt too much - both my ears and my heart. I do believe in structure, structure, structure down to the minute. Feed, bathe, rock, sing the same song the same amount of times, and then lay him in his bed drowsy, but not asleep. Then keep your hand on his chest so he knows you are still there. Keep it there until his eyes close and he falls asleep. You can then ween him of your hand on his chest until he falls asleep. I did this but I know it was when Grace was 8 months plus.
Be PATIENT!! Grace started sleeping through the night really early on, but then I traveled to the East coast with her when she was 5 months old and it ruined everything. Just keep trying everyones advice until you find the right fit for Andrew. Also, Andrew really has more to do with this then we'd like, and unfortunately he can't be reasoned with yet! When he is ready to sleep through the night he will.
Hang in there! Express milk and have Kevin take a turn. If you need some extra milk, I've got a bank in my freezer!
Good luck!
i'm late to this, but maybe it will be helpful. i waited until my daughter could roll over both ways to stop swaddling...so about 5 months. we had been using the kiddapottamus fleece (which was hard to do in june/july when it was so hot), but she would squeeze out of the cotton one so fast! we did the gradual CIO method. i let her cry for 10, minutes, go pat her, 15 minutes, go pat her, then 20 minutes. if she was still crying after that, i held her and rocked her for a few minutes until she calmed down and put her back down. i think it took 4 nights. i didn't have to do it very long because i ended up nursing her to sleep again after about a month. but now that she's weaned, she goes to bed and is fine...she's almost 18 months though. good luck...i remember how hard it all was!
Well, we're in about the exact same spot right now, Josh has yet to sleep through the night since his birth. And it seems like the last month or so he's been getting up even more. With Katelyn I know we did the cry it out method...she'd wake up and I'd let her cry for about forty minutes (because that was about all I could stand) and then I'd cuddle her and rock her. After about three nights she would only make it to thirty minutes, etc. and by about two weeks, she was sleeping through the night. We did it at about four months. And we made lots of baked goods for the neighbors to apologize. They swore they couldn't hear her, but I know they were lying because I could hear other people's babies.
Anyways, we're gearing up to try this again with Josh and though the prospect of sleeping through the night tantalizes me, I cringe when think of the crying part, it kills me.
We still swaddle Josh, with a bunch of thin flannel blankets that I made so that they would be huge. And that is part of the problem, when his arms escape (which they always do) he eventually wakes himself up. I don't remember weaning katelyn off of the swaddling, but it must have happened.
Why can't they just learn to sleep through the night on their own? I pray for it every night.
Good luck and know we are right there with you. I hope you get it figured out soon. ps. this is Kristy and not Peter.
I am so with you right now!! Brynnli still hasn't ever slept through the night, but until this month just went to sleep on her own when I layed her down (because of the swaddle). Now that she rolls out of it, I"ve started letting her cry to fall asleep like I did with Carson around the same age. I can't do the crying until they fall asleep thing though, so I let her cry for 5 minutes, go in and pat her and give her a paci, and then wait ten minutes, then twenty, she has been doing pretty well at it. It took Carson awhiel though and he cried much longer. It comes eventually... I will cross my fingers for both of us:)
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