To all the mothers of 5 1/2 month old babies who are sleeping through the night - I envy you, am so jealous of you, want to be you, am mad at you :) Pre-Fox I used to sleep 10 hours a night. I'm a sleep snob. But I have literally not slept in longer than a 5 hour stretch since Fox was born, and that was months ago because his sleeping habits have been getting worse and worse as time goes on. I knew I wouldn't have a good night's sleep after having a baby, it's just one of the things you sacrifice to start a family, but now that I'm hearing about all the babies Fox's age (or younger) sleeping 8, 10, even 13 hours a night... oy vey. I'm thinkin' it's about time we figure this thing called "sleeping through the night" out.
Fox used to go to bed around 9pm, wake up at 2am, and then at 6am, so I just had to wake up from my deep sleep to feed him once at 2am. But for the past two months or so he's been going to sleep between 6 and 8pm, waking up at 10pm, 12am, 2am, 4am, 5am, 6am 7am.... OMG. Every hour or two hours. Let's just say both Chris and I have been a tad on the grumpy side as of late.
I don't know what we've been doing wrong to make Fox have such horrible sleeps, but two nights ago we decided to let him cry it out when he woke up at 11pm. It was soooo hard hearing him cry so loud and so long. I was literally nauseous and felt like I was going to throw up because the pit in my stomach was so big and hurt so bad hearing him suffer. But eventually he stopped crying and fell asleep on his stomach. That made me nervous cuz babies aren't supposed to sleep on their stomach so even though he was sleeping peacefully I still got up every hour to make sure he was alive.
Last night he hard a hard time even falling asleep which is unusual, he usually falls asleep on his own quite well, I think he knew what was coming. He went to sleep at 8pm and then woke up at 10:30pm. We let him cry for 3 minutes then went into his nursery to pacify him. He kept crying so we let him cry for 6 minutes then went in to pacify him. He still kept crying and we let him cry for a half hour before I finally gave in and nursed him back to sleep. I believe he woke up at 2:30am and cried for a little bit, but he must have fallen asleep on his own because next thing I know it was 5am! So he slept from 11-5! Woo hoo!
I know it may have been a fluke to get that 6 hour stretch on only our 2nd night of "Ferberizing", but everyone I've talked to says crying it out works so hopefully sooner rather than later I'll be back to my 10-hours-of-sleep-a-night-sleep-snob self :)
Good thing I find him super duper uber cute and love him to pieces!
Fox used to go to bed around 9pm, wake up at 2am, and then at 6am, so I just had to wake up from my deep sleep to feed him once at 2am. But for the past two months or so he's been going to sleep between 6 and 8pm, waking up at 10pm, 12am, 2am, 4am, 5am, 6am 7am.... OMG. Every hour or two hours. Let's just say both Chris and I have been a tad on the grumpy side as of late.
I don't know what we've been doing wrong to make Fox have such horrible sleeps, but two nights ago we decided to let him cry it out when he woke up at 11pm. It was soooo hard hearing him cry so loud and so long. I was literally nauseous and felt like I was going to throw up because the pit in my stomach was so big and hurt so bad hearing him suffer. But eventually he stopped crying and fell asleep on his stomach. That made me nervous cuz babies aren't supposed to sleep on their stomach so even though he was sleeping peacefully I still got up every hour to make sure he was alive.
Last night he hard a hard time even falling asleep which is unusual, he usually falls asleep on his own quite well, I think he knew what was coming. He went to sleep at 8pm and then woke up at 10:30pm. We let him cry for 3 minutes then went into his nursery to pacify him. He kept crying so we let him cry for 6 minutes then went in to pacify him. He still kept crying and we let him cry for a half hour before I finally gave in and nursed him back to sleep. I believe he woke up at 2:30am and cried for a little bit, but he must have fallen asleep on his own because next thing I know it was 5am! So he slept from 11-5! Woo hoo!
I know it may have been a fluke to get that 6 hour stretch on only our 2nd night of "Ferberizing", but everyone I've talked to says crying it out works so hopefully sooner rather than later I'll be back to my 10-hours-of-sleep-a-night-sleep-snob self :)
Good thing I find him super duper uber cute and love him to pieces!
Look at him sitting up! What a darling :)
ReplyDeleteI remember going through those nights, complaining to my sister that I was sleep deprived and her insisting that some day I'd miss it. Now that my youngest is 8...I do miss the feedings, the rocking back to sleep! I just hate it when she is right! LOL
Mine have never been good sleepers- Stanley didn't sleep a full night until he was 18 months and to make it worse leaving my children to cry never worked- they all got themselves into such a state that they puked-
ReplyDeleteWell Paige, I hate to tell you... but my son did not sleep all night until he was 8 months!! OMG I wanted to cry with relief when he slept all night... I feel your pain...
ReplyDeletePaige, has he been drooling alot? He might have a tooth coming through... it's awful when that first comes... you usually know the difference in cries... if something is wrong or if he just wants to be held... Mine would sleep 7-11, 11:30-2:30 and then up between 5:30 and 6 am. Gosh, thinking about those days makes me nauseous but I also miss rocking him :( Just know that it won't last!!! I promise you it wont. Do you have a routine every night? That way Fox knows it's nitey nite time?
ReplyDeletePaige, I understand!! "Crying it out" is so hard, especially in my situation where the crib is in our bedroom. It's hard :( I don't think you need advice, but my sister recently was in the same situation. She realized that it was hard for her baby to sleep through the night because she was sleeping a lot during the day!! She monitored the naps a little more closely so that her baby would be tired around 8-9pm. It seemed to work for her. Good luck. He's a cutie :)
ReplyDeleteAt least he's cute! :)
ReplyDeleteThis better be over by the time the reunion comes!!!! My baby, of course, will be perfect and my mothering, of course, is perfect. :)
ReplyDeleteIf he is not already eating cereal...time for it...once my kids ate at night, they were great sleeping through the night...Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! Harrison would want to eat every 1 1/2 hours, but he wouldn't be full, just want to snuggle. As soon as I laid him down he would cry. So, our routine was feeding, bath, song, more feeding and crying it out. I agree with just a simple gal, he may be teething. We also had a friend who used infant massage to help her little one fall asleep. It worked pretty well. I've also heard chiropractic care does wonders for them. The best thing to do is keep calm (hah, ya right!) and be diligent in whatever methods you choose. But seriously, they can sense your stress, it's unreal. Good Luck!!
ReplyDeleteIf you want advice, i promise I have it. I was doing the EXACT same things until Kenslee was 6 months old. finally one day I just said I was done. I shut her door and shut my door so i wouldn't hear her cry and just said I wasn't going back in there. It probably took 3 nights...and she sleeps 12-13 hours a night now. If your going to let him cry...you have to stick to it. don't go in there to give him his pacifier or anything! All I can say is you will do it when you are ready...(or tired enough :) Everyone told me the same...let her cry, and I couldn't do it until one night I was BEYOND exhausted...and ever since then she has been sleeping so much better. But you have to promise yourself you will not go in there. Even if you go in there once, it will ruin it. Oh and sleeping on his stomach is ok. As long as he got there himself, my dr said that is just fine. I'm sorry. I really know what you are going through. It will get so much better. BE STRONG! :)
ReplyDeleteHey Paige - we did the 'letting them cry it out' thing with our kids too and I have to say, we had two or three rough nights of listening to them cry and feeling HORRID and then soon they were both sleeping 8 hrs., then 9 hours, then 12-13 hrs. every night. I don't know, but it sure worked for us!! Good luck - I know how the sleep deprivation gets to ya!!! :-P
ReplyDeleteoh wait, also, I found out that mine was afraid of the dark!! Once I put a night light in his room he was good!! And I nursed and sometimes I wasn't giving him enough... I would supplement my milk with some formula. And you might want to try rubbing some orajel on his gums when he starts that piercing screaming. Top and bottom. It might be his gums. I'm no expert... Edward is my first and I am learning but these are some ideas that have helped me.
ReplyDeleteHey Paige, been there done it....still doing it actually, Best advice I got came from a good friend who said let em cry, it will not hurt them. it hurts you more then them. i let my kids cry 10 min then 20 then30 ..you get the point, it could go on like that all night (never has happened to me before) but i promise they will sleep unbelievably well the next night...it is fun to nurse them but at some point you just gotta let me cry!!
ReplyDeletePaige, YOU are a "Ferberized" baby. Be strong. Don't give in. I know it hurts more than anything and you'll remember the stress and agony for a long time to come. Fox, on the other hand, won't remember it one single bit. He needs sleep and so do YOU. I will keep my phone by my head if you want to text me during the night. I'll support you and remind you that it's a good thing. Everything will be okay but you have to be strong.
ReplyDeleteAwww. I hope this works for you guys! I'm so sad that you guys are so tired. :-( I know a lot of babies benefit from the CIO method. Seems like it's working for him, which is great! I'm sure he'll take better naps during the day too!
ReplyDeleteHang in there, Lovely! You're doing an awesome job! :-D
Paige, I can still remember the book I tried to read and the cd I listened to with my headphones on while laying in bed while you tried to cry yourself asleep (or awake?). After a night or two, it worked! But what would happen is you'd get sick months later, that would throw off your sleeping schedule, and then we'd have to start the whole process over again at step 1.
ReplyDeletestick to your guns girl! with sleeping it's all about consistency, and I nixed the monitor at night (our parents didn't need them and who wants to hear every.single.grunt/whine? makes them better independent sleepers. You'll hear them if they cry loud enough for you). If they're not sick, teething or hungry they can go back to bed without you. Teething- tylenol and hylands teething tablets. And my rule of thumb is if they are fine and cheerful during the day they should be just fine without you at night! Good luck girl, you can do this!
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