Moms- is your kid a restless sleeper? Need help

MrsMBW

For the moms- my little guy is a very restless sleeper.  He wakes up almost every 2 hrs during the night- not fully awake but tossing and turning.  And he's not able to settle himself back to sleep so DH or I are constantly going over to settle him back down.  He is usually moving his arms around his face, so we hold his arms down so he stops hitting himself in the face until he settles down (usually a few seconds) and give him his pacifier back.  This will keep him settled for another 2 hrs or so.  Then it's the same routine all over again.  He's been doing this for months.  Some nights are better then others.  He shares a room with DD so I guess I run over to settle him quicker than I would if he was in his own room.

 Has anyone dealt with a restless sleeper?  DD was never like this.  At this age I could put her down and not hear from her for 12 hours.  Any advice??

MsKellDel

Anna has been like this the past month and she also shares with her brother so I understand, the only thing worse than one cranky kid at 2 am is two cranky kids that need sleep. Now that she is getting over a cold shes had we decided its time for the dreaded CIO process to begin. We're starting tomorrow night since neither have work all weekend and we can do without some sleep if need be. We are also moving t2 into another room to sleep while we do this. I'm praying she gets in a few nights because it's going to kill me

MrsMBW

oh ugh!  CIO.  i am not ready for that (again)   I think he's too young for that yet.  Good luck this weekend!  I hope it goes well for you.

ColRan2010

My son is a restless sleeper too. I feel your pain... He used to do the same thing with his hands. Especially when we stopped swaddling. He was at his worst right about 7-8 months. He improved when he was able to sleep with a silky blankie/lovie. Have you tried a sound machine... That also helped a lot... We have one that plays continuously. Good luck!! 

rumdrinx

i swear by the wubbanub pacifiers.  easier to find and the plush animal guy is awesome.  She's only had them in her crib (the wubbanubs, she has a pacifier for traveling) and they "live"  there.

also, he is 6 mos?  Just about ready for sleep training.  my read is that since you are constantly going in there, he knows this and will keep on doing it. 

MrsMBW

I haven't tried a sound machine.  we've had the humidifier on a lot lately - both kiddos were getting over colds - and that didn't really seem to help at all.  but maybe it's worth a try.  i hope he outgrows this soon.  he has a drs appt next week so i'll mention this to the pedi to see if she has any advice. 

ibekatieg

Yes. He still is a restless sleeper but we no longer have to go in. If you think about how you sleep, you're likely to wake a bit when you roll over or readjust. Sometimes you're aware of it, sometimes not, but you can fall back asleep. Same happens with babies, but the key is he has to learn to put himself back to sleep. DS only uses a pacifier for sleep and we found this helped immensely. I also keep him in a sleep sak (with feet) and a lovey. Now when he wakes, he fusses, looks for a paci or lovey and falls back over.  If you haven't introduced one of these, I recommend doing so and allowing him to fall back asleep without going in. It may take a few nights and I never let him cry, but he never got to that point. Some fussing and within 30 min he was back out. Now his awake time is much much less. GL.

rumdrinx

just a thought - can bridget sleep with you guys for a few nights while you sleep train him? is that unheard of?  I have no idea

MrsMBW

rumdrinx:

i swear by the wubbanub pacifiers.  easier to find and the plush animal guy is awesome.  She's only had them in her crib (the wubbanubs, she has a pacifier for traveling) and they "live"  there.

also, he is 6 mos?  Just about ready for sleep training.  my read is that since you are constantly going in there, he knows this and will keep on doing it. 

good to know about the wubbanubs since i'm constantly storing pacifiers on my nighstand bc 1) i cannot see them in the crib at night or 2) he throws them out of the crib.  maybe the wubbanubs would help.

and yes- he's just turning 6 months.   maybe it is time to start sleep training.  i guess it seems soon for me since i didn't have to sleep train with dd until she was older.  i'll ask the pedi about this next week. thx!

MsKellDel

Anna is almost nine months old and she can stand in her crib and walks all around it when she wakes, i kind of wish i would have done it sooner because I think the fact that she can get up makes her less likely to fall back asleep on her own

MrsMBW

i'll have to try letting him settle himself more.  i know i'm too quick to go in there but he's not at the point where he can find the pacifier and put it back in his mouth on his own yet- so i have to help him.  maybe a lovey would help. 

as far as bridget sleeping with us- i'd probably just switch spots with her while we sleep train.  she'd sleep in my bed- i'd sleep in hers.  but that's a good suggestion so she isn't up all night too.  thx- i didn't think of that.

rumdrinx

they also make glow in the dark pacis!  (if you aren't going to get a wubbanub). no idea if they work.

plus F wouldn't take any other paci other than the Soothie ones (which are attached to the wubbanubs)

I love the mango monkey wubbanub. it is just too cute. she also has a Clifford-looking one (but I don't think is sold as "clifford"  due to trademarking.)

lastly look up Mary Meyers wubbanubs. she makes limited edition cute ones.

MrsMBW

MsKellDel:

Anna is almost nine months old and she can stand in her crib and walks all around it when she wakes, i kind of wish i would have done it sooner because I think the fact that she can get up makes her less likely to fall back asleep on her own

 good to know- i'll talk to my pedi for advice but looks like i'm headed down the dreaded CIO path sooner than i'd like. 

MrsMBW

rumdrinx:

they also make glow in the dark pacis!  (if you aren't going to get a wubbanub). no idea if they work.

plus F wouldn't take any other paci other than the Soothie ones (which are attached to the wubbanubs)

I love the mango monkey wubbanub. it is just too cute. she also has a Clifford-looking one (but I don't think is sold as "clifford"  due to trademarking.)

lastly look up Mary Meyers wubbanubs. she makes limited edition cute ones.

thanks! we have the glow in the dark ones but it has to be super dark for it to work. dd sleeps with a night light so they don't work as well with the night light on.  i usually know if it's in his crib or on the floor b/c most of the times i can hear him banging it against the rails (as if he's in jail) and then- thump- pacifier is overboard.

so he tends to have atleast 2 pacifiers in his crib at all times

MsKellDel

Rum- when did you start using the wubbanub? I am going to look into one for her since she too only takes the soothies

rumdrinx

um...she had them in her crib i think after 4 mos?  maybe?  or 5?  yeah, like;y after 5  mos since I think we started to leave her hands free of the swaddle around then.

She loves her guys, and yes, when she wakes, they both go overboard (and she keeps the singleton Soothie in her mouth...and chucks everyone else overboard too - a couple of lovies and a rattle thingy).  But all these guys help her get to sleep especially at nap time since it takes her longer to get to sleep during the day as opposed to night. 

larrysdarling

Do they make wubbanub for older then 6 months? The ones we had said to get rid of them after 6 months b/c they're too small. My kid tried to eat the whole damnn thing and I had to take it away for good. She's a thumbsucker now.

I'd second a lovey. We've had a small taggy blanket in her crib since 7-8 months. She also has the FP glow seahorse and she loves it.

 

MrsMBW

i'll try a lovey.  i have no idea what to get him.  he's had a dog- blanket thing (head of  dog - body is a blanket- it's small) but it's ended up over his face sometimes when he holds it.  so i'm paranoid and won't let him have it to sleep with.  i'll have to find something that he can't put over his face. 

Shannon1110

larrysdarling:

I'd second a lovey. We've had a small taggy blanket in her crib since 7-8 months. She also has the FP glow seahorse and she loves it.

 

We're on our second glow sea horse because he loves it and uses it so much he wore the first one out.  He wakes up in the middle of the night and presses the glow horse and puts himself back to sleep.  He also will turn his sleep sheep on in the middle of the night too.  Unless he's teething or sick, I rarely have to go in there.  Good luck though, I know CIO is rough. 

eSynergy

Oliver was like this too. I believe we did a combination of:

- putting several pacificers in the crib so he could always find one (never heard of the ones Rum is talking about but they sound amazing)

- sleep sak (so he doesn't get cold)

- white noise

- waiting 5-10 mins before we went in to check on him unless his scream was unusual (we didn't really CIO until he was much older though).

- introducing a lovie. we have this one from giggle.com. He loved to chew on the little knots when he was teething.

  

MrsMBW

thanks for you advice, everyone!  i will take it all into consideration when it's 2 am  and i'm exhausted.  i keep telling myself that this is a phase and he will outgrow it.....

MsKellDel

if you are still around, wanted to tell you we started night one last night and it was hardly as bad as I thought. She was asleep within a half hour, lets see what night 2 brings

MrsMBW

great, kelly!  glad it went well for you.  i actually tried cio for naptime yesterday.  also took about a half hour.  nightime is still my big challenge though.  good luck with the next few nights!