Are babies capable of having insomnia? If they are, my child has it. Unfortunately, I think it might be my fault. (Strike One)
The past two nights I've tried to put Caleb to bed around 9:30ish and fought him to sleep until 12:00 or 12:30. The problem isn't that he's not tired--oh, he's plenty tired. The problem is the minute I put him in his crib he wakes up and starts bawling. So, I wait a while and when I can't stand the crying any longer, I pick him up and walk him around until he falls asleep again. I do the swaddle thing and that helps, but lately, nothing I've done keeps him sleeping except one thing and one thing only--human contact. Correction: mommy contact.
I have nothing against co-sleeping but personally, I don't want to do it. When he sleeps with me on the couch, on the chair, or on the bed, he is out for hours and hours so its very-and believe me when I say very-tempting to do it all the time. But, like I said, co-sleeping isn't for me even if it is for Caleb.
Last night I was so frustrated with Caleb not sleeping, that I told Kyle I was going to do research on the sleeping habits of a 2-month old and how and when they should sleep. I came across this written by Elizabeth Pantley, author of "The No-Cry Sleep Solution~Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night".
In the majority of cases, a baby’s biological clock is preset for an early bedtime. When parents work with that time, a baby falls asleep more easily and stays asleep more peacefully. Most babies are primed to go to sleep for the night as early as 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. I often hear about how babies and toddlers have a “melt down” period at the end of the day, when they get fussy, whiny and out of sorts. I suspect that it’s simply a sign of over-tired children longing for sleep.
She also writes...
For babies, early to bed does not mean early to rise! Most babies sleep longer with an earlier bedtime. Many parents are afraid to put their baby to bed so early, thinking that they will then face a 5 a.m. wake up call. But keeping your little one up too late backfires, and more often, a late night is the one followed by that early morning awakening.
So--put him to bed earlier and at a specific time. Not 9 or 9:30 or 10 or 10:30 or maybe even 11. I usually put him to bed whenever I get to it.
At first, when Caleb was a newborn, I didn't want to schedule feedings, naps or bedtimes yet because he was so little and just needed love and care because he was still in a state of shock from being in a nice warm womb to a literally cold and crazy world. I still agree with that, but somewhere along the line I should have started to get into some sort of a pattern with feedings, naps or bedtimes. Yeah...that didn't happen.
I'd like to say, "I'm just trying to figure out how to wash my hair everyday. Gimme a break! You want me to start a routine too?" But deep down I know that a routine will help me so much more than hurt me any worse.
First I'm going to try and have Kyle give him a bath earlier, right after dinner. Then I'll feed him and rock him to sleep. (This is a picture of his bath last night; gotta love the arm chub.)
I had a dentist appointment today and found out I have 3 cavities and need a root canal. (Strike two)I know the cavity part is my fault but apparently my old denist did a terrible job of filling a cavity a couple years ago and my tooth has paid the price for shotty denistry. Now I need a root canal because of it. My new dentist told me, "I've seen fillings done badly from Mexico and from Russia, but this is worst I've ever seen. I've never seen anything like it."
He showed me how bad it was and I asked him to print it out for me. Here it is folks--shotty denistry at it's finest.
The two left blobs are normal cavity fillings but the one on the right is a filling on the farthest back tooth of my top left side. The top of the backwards "L" should be carved to look like part of my tooth but instead its a huge blob of filling that is wearing down my jaw bone. Lovely, eh?And finally, I'm still fighting a terrible cold that is in my throat, ears and sinuses. (Strike three)
The picture lady at JC Penney told me to dress up and wear nice clothes because they like the mother to be in a couple of pictures. I'll probably look a little something like this.
Speaking of pictures...I STILL don't know what Caleb is going to wear! Ahhhh! I think I might bring the most popular outfits and let the picture lady decide. Thanks for helping me what NOT to pick though! :)Hey, guess what!! I just realized it's 9:30 and I put Caleb to bed at 8:30 (since we are attempting to start an earlier bedtime) and he's STILL sleeping. Woo hoo!!
I'm back in the game! :)
1 comment:
Lori,
One thing that I've heard from other moms is that it is important for babies to learn to fall asleep on their own, not by their mommy rocking them or holding them, because what happens is they get accustomed to having mommy put them to sleep, and as they grow, they will depend on you to put them to sleep, even when they wake up during the night. Both of my boys have been very good about going to bed, and there are a few things I did when they were little which I think helped.
1) Crib toys...Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium makes noise, has a little light show, has moving fish, and my boys were fascinated with it. When they were little, I'd have to come back several times to turn it back on before they fell asleep, but once they reached about 5 months, they learned how to turn it on themselves. Sammy also had a mobile, that he liked watching, but the Aquarium is by far the favorite.
2) When my boys were a month old, I started doing a sleep and feeding routine. When nighttime came, sometimes they'd not want to sleep. I would put them in the crib, and let them cry it out for 5 minutes, then go back and reassure them, put the paci back in, etc. Then I'd leave again, and this time wait 10 minutes before coming back. Each time, wait a little longer. It's not quite like making them cry it out, and after I did this for a few weeks when they were little, they began falling asleep on their own quite well. It's hard for any Mommy to try to do ANYTHING while Baby is crying, but a little patience, and this seemed to do the trick for me!
All babies are different, so what worked for my two might not work for Caleb... too bad there isn't any one standard procedure to do everything. My Sammy, though, sounds more like your Caleb... he loved to be held all the time, and he loved to sleep with us. It took a lot longer to teach him to fall asleep on his own, but it was worth it. He's still not so good about naps though... Patrick use to ENJOY naptime, up until he turned two!!!
Hope the pictures go well!!!
~SARAH~
Post a Comment