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Watch your baby, not the clock?

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12:05 pm
November 21, 2009

Ally

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Post edited 7:35 pm – November 21, 2009 by Ally
Post edited 7:37 pm – November 21, 2009 by Ally

My little girl is three and a half months, and is generally a happy, engaging baby. I am a stay-at-home mum. I believe she has started teething already, so this may be complicating her sleeping patterns.

I have tried to use the “watch the baby, not the clock” approach with regards to her sleeping, and until recently found it worked well. She levelled out at about three naps during the daytime (around 11, 1 and 4) , and one in the evening before coming to bed with us around 10-11 (we co-slept the first three months).

I am trying to transition her into her crib, and began by using her crib for her naps during the day from about two months. Sometimes she naps well in her crib, and not at other times. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason for this. This past week, I started putting her in the crib at nighttime, and sleep on the bed that is also in the room to be there for her night feeding. My husband has a long commute and needs unbroken sleep during the night, hence the co-sleeping – I could feed her quietly without waking him.

Now I am finding that she resists sleeptime at night, and it beginning to resist napping in the daytime as well. I am thinking that I need to determine a schedule that will provide her with the structure she needs, and help her accept the transition to sleeping on her own.

I have always rocked/walked or nursed her to sleep, and wish to 'undo' these sleep associations while she is still young. Like any mum, I am totally in love with my baby and just want her to be happy, but I also want what's best for her, even if that means letting her 'cry it out'.

Any advice or similar situations?

4:13 pm
February 6, 2010

fnygrl

New Jersey

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Hi Ally~

I'm new to this forum and I just read your post. I'm sorry that no one has responded with any advice, as I, too (like many mothers/parents) are in a similar situation. Has anything changed for you since posting months ago? Have you been doing anything differently?

I wish I had advice to offer, but all I can say is that it's good to know that there's someone else out there going through the same experience. We're in this together :)

Be and sleep well~

Lauren

9:52 am
February 4, 2011

Chant

Northern Canada

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Same question goes to both you moms…how are things going for both of you since your last post?

My son is 8 months old now, and I breastfed for the first 4 months, then he weaned himself off, and I went with his lead. By 5 months he was completly weaned, and for us, we noticed that this was a blessing in disguise for sleep associations. It seemed that my son too was using my breast as his sleep association; he would nurse to sleep for naps and bedtime, and then slowly I would either pick the swing (usually he would nap longer in it) or his crib (then he would wake up 30 minutes or less later and I would kick my self in the butt for having picked the crib). But it was a trial and error, and we stuck to our guns to putting him to sleep awake and eventually (with our guidance and support) he learned to fall asleep on his own. We're still working on helping him learn to put himself back to sleep once he wakes (a different skill as Kimberly has said in her post somewhere), but we're well on our way.

We don't have a "set" routine, it all depends on him, how his night was, what time he woke up, how he naped, etc., but it's give or take the 2 hours from wake up time, and then anywhere from 2-3 hours between wakefulness, and this seems to work well for him. I am too a stay at home mom, so we can work with this routine for as long as it works for him.

He has always done well in his crib because we helped me feel safe in there; he has a white noice machine (we tried a CD but music didn't seem to help); and he has two favorite teady bears (a mama bear and a dada bear) which we often speak of (i.e. is mama bear tired, it's ok, dada bear is with you, etc.) and we don't let him cry it out, we don't rush in either, we go in when he needs us and reassure him, yep we even pick him up to walk around the room or rock until his breathing gets back to normal and then we try it again until eventually he's sleeping soundly…and we've been doing this since he was about 4 months of age.

Hope this information helps you mum's out there…

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