I haven't been posting much lately as there have been a few other worthy distractions to take my time - and what kind of blogger would I be if I spent more life blogging than living?
But I have a moment in time and thought to give a little update on our sleep situation, if nothing else but as an encouragement to the three or four other families in the world dealing with this issue. (That is sarcasm, by the way.)
In short, The Sleep Sense program works for one valuable thing: it gets The Caterpillar to sleep. Where we used to struggle for hours to see her snooze, it now happens in minutes if her routine is in perfect working order.
But here is where the program fails: the mid-night waking. The Caterpillar goes to bed around 7:00. Excellent. She then wakes at 9:00. 11:30. 1:00. 3:30. 6:00. Then, finally, is up for good at 7:30 AM until her 9:30 nap. Part of the problem is that every.single.time she wakes she needs a diaper change (last night we hit a record low of 3 diapers between 7 pm and 7 am).
Sleep Sense suggests allowing baby to settle herself back to sleep (cry it out) until eventually she learns that staying asleep is much more enjoyable than waking. What Obleman doesn't note is that when baby screams for an hour and a half because she is pissed right off about waking... picking her up, feeding her and putting her quickly back to sleep seems like a better option. And so this is the route we have chosen, to our demise: 2x night wakings have swiftly turned to 4x night wakings and the progress is a little resemblant of 2 steps forward, 1 step back.
So we're at a standstill. We hate to hear The Caterpillar screaming for hours, but getting no more than two consecutive hours of sleep is wearing on us. Changing her diaper so many times in a night disturbs her further, but she is wet so we can't leave her (I don't know where Pampers gets their 12-hour nighttime promise from).
Do you have any thoughts? We're at a loss and we have tried all we can. I want to get 6 hours of consecutive sleep. That's the goal. Only if for a night.
oh wow Lilian pees alot!! lol!! Penny isn't a hugely heavy wetter. Kirkland diapers are more absorbent than pampers, in my opinion...wish we lived closer because I have a ton and I'd give you a dozen to try!
ReplyDeletewe have a similar struggle. pen takes awhile to settle to sleep, although she usually has one long stretch.
keep at it girl! you're doing great!
some thoughts:
ReplyDeleteAre these messy diapers, or wet diapers? if it's pee, it won't hurt her. unless you're using cloth and she's wetting through them. In that case I'd suggest using disposables just for night time OR adding extra absorbancy. If it's poop, I see your point - she can't stay in that all night. If it's not, there are solutions :)
Also, 4x night waking is a LOT for her age. If it's more than a few days, you can count out "growth spurt" for a reason and go on to think of other reasons. Is she getting enough to eat before bed? Have you added rice cereal to her diet? Might help. If she is napping and eating enough during the day she shouldn't wake more than 1x per night according to Babywise (and our experience). Might be worth trouble shooting a bit...
Haha - this has been going on for weeks! She's been eating solids for over a month and we've tried a good variety of feeding times. The nap comment is echoed in Sleep Sense - better naps in a day = better sleep at night. She naps great in the day, about 3 hours total (which for a 7 month old works well), sometimes more. No issues there! I'm still confused.
DeleteI guess I should clarify.. this started just before solids and continued throughout so I don't think those are contributing, either.
DeleteHey Sam, I don't want to push our method on you at all, just wanted to share because I hope it's helpful to you :)
Delete3 hours total in the day is probably not enough... Babywise was strict on naps being no shorter than 1.5 hours and ideally 2 hours (though not longer). And several.
at 8 months, Lily would nap @ 9am, 1pm, 5pm (2 hours each), then go down for the night at 8pm for 11 hours.
Oli was less scheduled than her, and took only two naps, 9am and 1pm but went down for the night earlier at 6pm (and still does).
Maybe she needs more naps?