BB teething + his sinus cold = I am going to die from sleep deprivation.
I fell asleep during the extraction portion of my facial today. Yes, the part where the esthetician digs blemishes out of my skin with sharp metal objects.
I intend to invite Dr. Fer*ber into our home in 10 days (after our weekend away). Good idea or not? Anyone have experience with the good Doctor? All I know is that Pant*ly isn't getting us anywhere, fast.
Talk amoungst yourselves. I'm going to sleep.
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8 comments:
Huh. I was just about to ask my general audience this very question....
See, my babies used to be very good sleepers, but i seem to have broken them somehow. Now they wake up every 2 hours screaming...out of phase, too, so someone is screaming every hour. Good times.
Asher is in the same boat... I FEEL FOR YOU!
You could try the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Mar Weissbluth. It's got combinations of methods, broken down by age in months and temperment.
Ferber is a great guide for sleep training. After successfully sleep training two kids, I can tell you that I have read all the books and tried all the methods and what worked for me is this: picking the things that worked for me from each of the schools of thought.
I could not deal with rocking or patting the kid to sleep for 20 minutes to a half hour every fricking time. I am too sleepy for that. However, I could not really deal with the screaming, pathetic cries that the babies can produce when they are so upset. There are methods that promote a compromise between those two extremes, and that is what I practice.
Decide how many times you want to feed baby during the night. Set a time that you won't feed him before. For example, if my baby wakes before 3AM, we don't feed him - we use the sleep training method below.
Start off small. When baby wakes, set your kitchen timer, which is by your bed, for five minutes. If he's still crying when it goes off, go into his room and get him re-situated the way he likes to sleep (on his back or side, with pacifier, etc) and rub his back and talk to him softly, but no longer than 2 minutes. Leave the room. Set the timer for ten minutes. If he's still crying when the timer goes off, repeat. Keep doing it but the longest you set the timer will be for 15 minutes, which means you might have to go in there every 15 minutes for a while.
The first night is a bitch and I am not using that word lightly. It's hard on everybody, but then the subsequent nights get easier and eventually everyone sleeps and you're all the better for it.
Things that interrupt this process: travel, teething, sickness, houseguests. With travel and houseguests there's not much you can do besides give the kid what he wants in order to preserve everyone else;s sleep if you so choose. With teething and sickness, it's just much better for the baby to comfort him.
After any of the above, just go back to the beginning of the training. He'll catch on quicker this time.
Disclaimer - everybody is different so it may not work for you but this is what worked for me, twice. I worried that the new baby would wake the toddler but that didn't happen - toddler is a great sleeper now and slept through it all. Baby was 4.5 months when we did it with him but he was already 16 pounds so the doctor gave us her blessing.
Baby wakes once per night for a feeding around 4 am. I plan to wean him from this over the coming weekend. Wish me luck.
I hate to recommend one more book but the one I used as a guide this time was "The Sleep Easy Solution." It's kind of a touchy feely Ferber.
Good luck to you. I think I'm going to copy and paste this comment into my new column on Parentricity.com. Hope you don't mind. I felt the need to share because you seem so desperate, much like I was a few months ago.
Ferber is a great guide for sleep training. After successfully sleep training two kids, I can tell you that I have read all the books and tried all the methods and what worked for me is this: picking the things that worked for me from each of the schools of thought.
I could not deal with rocking or patting the kid to sleep for 20 minutes to a half hour every fricking time. I am too sleepy for that. However, I could not really deal with the screaming, pathetic cries that the babies can produce when they are so upset. There are methods that promote a compromise between those two extremes, and that is what I practice.
Decide how many times you want to feed baby during the night. Set a time that you won't feed him before. For example, if my baby wakes before 3AM, we don't feed him - we use the sleep training method below.
Start off small. When baby wakes, set your kitchen timer, which is by your bed, for five minutes. If he's still crying when it goes off, go into his room and get him re-situated the way he likes to sleep (on his back or side, with pacifier, etc) and rub his back and talk to him softly, but no longer than 2 minutes. Leave the room. Set the timer for ten minutes. If he's still crying when the timer goes off, repeat. Keep doing it but the longest you set the timer will be for 15 minutes, which means you might have to go in there every 15 minutes for a while.
The first night is a bitch and I am not using that word lightly. It's hard on everybody, but then the subsequent nights get easier and eventually everyone sleeps and you're all the better for it.
Things that interrupt this process: travel, teething, sickness, houseguests. With travel and houseguests there's not much you can do besides give the kid what he wants in order to preserve everyone else;s sleep if you so choose. With teething and sickness, it's just much better for the baby to comfort him.
After any of the above, just go back to the beginning of the training. He'll catch on quicker this time.
Disclaimer - everybody is different so it may not work for you but this is what worked for me, twice. I worried that the new baby would wake the toddler but that didn't happen - toddler is a great sleeper now and slept through it all. Baby was 4.5 months when we did it with him but he was already 16 pounds so the doctor gave us her blessing.
Baby wakes once per night for a feeding around 4 am. I plan to wean him from this over the coming weekend. Wish me luck.
I hate to recommend one more book but the one I used as a guide this time was "The Sleep Easy Solution." It's kind of a touchy feely Ferber.
Good luck to you. I think I'm going to copy and paste this comment into my new column on Parentricity.com. Hope you don't mind. I felt the need to share because you seem so desperate, much like I was a few months ago.
Ugh. Sorry that showed up twice. Not sure what happened.
my vote is healthy sleep habits, happy child. i had triplets and i wish i read it sooner; hands down the best thing i read for them. they've been sleeping from 5pm-7.30am since 9 months old and they're almost 3.
good luck!
Hmmm, I found Ferber never worked while my kids were sick, so I gave up and waited for them to get well.
And then...they slept okay again so I didn't bother.
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