Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Help! I need your suggestions!

Any suggestions from you moms out there who have ever had a baby go from sleeping 1 1/2- 2 1/2 hour naps to only sleeping 30-45 minute naps? Seriously, I don't get anything done... come on, let's here how ya'll got through this! Anyone know why she might not be sleeping well? I had hoped it was just a growth spurt and she'd be over it soon, but we're going on a week now...How long does it last? How can I get her to go back to sleep if she wakes up so soon when she is wide-eyed and bushy tailed and not even drowsy? Help me out folks!

11 comments:

  1. Sorry, I have the same problem (and it has lasted longer than a week!) But I'm going to try out a white noise machine. I'll let you know how it goes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't remember the baby sleeping patterns. I just remember they changed so much - like every two weeks or so.

    I do know that white noise in baby/toddler/preschooler room has been awesome. My daughter sleeps much better when there's some other noise in there. And she's 3 1/2.

    I have a humidifier in Ella's room now, but before I had one of those music machines that attaches to the crib. She loved it going to sleep and we always knew she was awake when it turned on in the morning.

    I hope this helps.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd say maybe she's teething, but she's still pretty young for that, plus it would probably also interrupt her sleeping at night if that was the case. Sydney boycotted naps altogether for awhile, then I think it tired her out too much and now she's back to long afternoon naps. I'm not really sure what to say. Syd doesn't like noise machines (me neither). My advice would be to wait it out and not try to get anything done besides take care of Gwen. It's tough though, I know it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blah. I hear you. Davin is not a good sleeper. It could be that she is just hitting that magic age where they "wake up" and all of a sudden start sleeping less than in the newborn stage. Davin slept a lot as a newborn then all of a sudden started doing the 45 minute nap thing. I have tried everything. He has a white noise machine, but I'm not sure how much it helps. Right now I just put him back down because he woke up from a 45 minute nap competely unhappy. I had to let him scream for a few minutes, but i'm hoping he'll be down for another 45 minutes. We shall see. There is no set way to deal with non-sleepers, so good luck riding it out. I hope it improves and that you are able to adjust. Hang in there!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shane did the same exact thing at about the same age. What I think it is is that she is growing and getting to the point where she is ready for a little more time being awake during the day. Try keeping her awake a little longer before each nap. Start out with just 15 minutes and after a couple days or so you can try 15 more minutes. Take it slow because you don't want to run her ragged. It takes a lot of work at first because they will be cranky because they are used to going down for a nap earlier, but after couple of days or more her body will adjust. I did this with Shane and his naps increased to 2-3 hours. Course once we started getting into a nice groove again he decided to change things up on me. So always be ready for change.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's possible that you've been waiting too long to put her down. If you put a baby down for a nap when she's overtired (instead of, say, at the first sign of being tired), stress hormones have kicked in, which make it harder for her to get to sleep and stay that way.

    She should be in a pretty regular routine by now, too. Rebecca's naps are often all over the map because she's not in anything even close to a routine--her wake up and bedtime times can fluctuate up to two hours. But Hayden was a great napper once we had a set schedule--up at about 7, nap 9, up at 11, nap at 1, up at 3, nap at 5, up at 5:30, bed at 7. So you might also try adjusting her wake up and bedtime times.

    Another thing that seemed to help us for a while: blackout curtains. Oh, and we're too cheap for a real white noise machine--we use a fan in the hall outside the kids' rooms.

    Another thing you can try is listening for her to stir (before she wakes up fully) and try to help her resettle (when I'm really desperate, I nurse her to get her back to her nap).

    Oh, and books on sleep: I like Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West, and my friend just read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth (and it made a difference the very first night she tried it!).

    Also consider talking to her doctor. Like Cami said, if there's a physical cause, it'd probably be affecting her night sleep, too, but you never know. Rebecca cried basically all night long a couple weeks ago, so I took her in just to rule any physical causes out--and she had an ear infection.

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmm... well if there is one thing I have learned, it is that as soon as you get your baby on a schedule, they move on to a new stage of development and that schedule has to be adjusted, over and over (frustrating). That's how it is for me anyway. I could be wrong, but when they start doing that, I just start waiting a little while longer to put them down... and before long naps start merging together. Usually does the trick. She might just be ready for not so many naps. And like Shannon said, if they wake up cranky, they're not rested enough and sometimes if you're lucky you can get them to go right back down. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sadly even Logan still goes into that phase every once in a while. Logan did this for what seems like a couple weeks in a row, and then throws in a day every once in a while when he just sleeps for a half hour each time. At first I allowed it to really stress me out ... but that definitely did NOT help the situation. Yes, it's extremely difficult to get anything done. Yes, you feel like you never get a real break. Yes, you are trying everything you can think of to help the poor kid and they just refuse to sleep! Just do whatever you can to survive and still be positive. Maintain your sanity by doing whatever it is you feel is most important. Survival mode is key - since Gwen won't be giving you time for much else ... but also do whatever you need to be happy!!! My only advice would be consistency. I love the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book - but I won't say it's an end-all-be-all solution. Good luck - and let me know what you find ... I could use some pointers too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm glad you did this post, b/c my little peanut does the same thing.. all the time. This morning.. down for 45 minutes.. and back up again! It's rough. I figure that they just go through these little phases. Why can't babies just be predictable? I also like the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." It helped me realize that Whitney needed to go down a lot sooner than I thought she did. Now she goes to bed for the night between 6:30-7:30 pm. It's lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Some babies just DO that! Jacob did that for a while. A LONG while. Just keep stretching for that long nap. If it's really driving you nuts, leave her in her crib for while. Who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky and she'll fall back asleep? Then again, maybe not...

    ReplyDelete
  11. sorry girl, some kids just don't like to nap! Asher only naps for 30-45 min. twice a day and still doesn't sleep through the night (and he's almost 8 mos). Jacen took two two hour naps...so it just depends on the kiddo!

    ReplyDelete