Friday, April 13, 2007
Big Falls
I feel like a bad mother. Very early this morning Kaylin fell off the bed! And it's not even the first time--she fell off the bed about two months ago. She's fine (thankfully) but it sure gave Tim and me a scare! She's usually in our bed now, brought on by her second cold; she started waking up in the middle of the night, so I would bring her into bed to feed her, she would fall asleep, and usually she would stay there until the morning. If we tried to return her to her crib, she would wake up later and cry, so now she's usually in the bed after her first waking. It's not an arrangement that I totally like (I'm a light sleeper and she's always trying to breastfeed), but it allows the most sleep. We want to change it, especially after two falls now. So anybody else with similar experiences?
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3 comments:
Check out "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child" by Marc Md Weissbluth. It helped us a lot. We stopped letting Caedra sleep in our bed at a pretty young age, but she woke up to nurse twice during the night all the way until she stopped nursing at 15 mo. The only reason is that I was too much of a softy to let her just cry it out. When she stopped nursing I had to let her cry it out anyway. In hind sight I wish I had done it earlier.
At this point you're probably going to have to let her cry it out for a couple of nights if you want your bed to yourselves. I know, no fun.
Check out the book, though. He has a lot of great ideas.
First of all, it's okay to still nurse her before her naps and bedtime. Caedra still likes a cup of juice or milk before her naps and bedtime. A full tummy helps them sleep better.
Here is what Caedra's schedule was like at Kaylin's age. I didn't follow all the rules, but it worked for us.
She usually woke up at 7 or 8 am. Then I would put her down for her nap about 2 or 2 1/2 hours after she woke up. We would nurse, then I would give her her pacifier. If she was asleep I would just put her down. Usually she stayed awake and I would rock her and sing to her for a moment then put her down and walk out of the room. She would cry for about five or ten minutes (sometimes standing up in her crib), but then she would get tired and lay herself down and fall asleep. I would put her down for her second nap about 3 or 3 1/2 hours after she woke up from her first nap, with the same routine. Then bedtime was always at 8:00pm. We got her jammmies on, read books with daddy, turned out the lights, nursed, rocked with her pacifier, then I would lay her down. We were very consistant so she rarely cried at bed time.
It will probably take Kaylin about a week for her to get used to a new routine at this point, but she has to learn how to sleep in her bed at some point.
Good luck. Babies and sleep schedules are a frusterating thing.
Thanks Lara. We're working on things. It's definitely hard to break old routines (maybe more so for us moms). Yesterday and today i put her down for naps in her crib. She only stayed asleep for half an hour, but at least it's progress. I think she just needs to get used to sleeping without mom around. And I just need to learn to be consistent. And patient.
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