Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Moms of bad sleepers and/or BFing moms
I need tips. I pride myself on being a sleep nazi - seriously, naps and bedtime always get the exact same routine. After trying a few methods we did Ferber with her in November, which took like 1-2 weeks to fully work. It was going well for a while then the top teeth came in, then daycare, now another cold. And the separation anxiety. Ugh.
I don't know what else to do. Last night she went down at 7:30, awake at 9:00 and I couldn't get her down - no crying, feeding, rocking, nothing worked until she finally passed out at 11:30pm. She's not getting enough sleep like this. Last night she just wanted to walk. Some nights she just wants to sleep on me.
I put her down awake, we keep trying CIO (last night it was over an hour before she finally fell asleep but she didn't want to eat, rock, sleep on me, nothing). I tried to even bring her to bed with me earlier last night and she was not happy.
I'm at my wit's end with this girl. If we hadn't already made the decision to not have more kids this child would have made it for me.
I'm also petrified because I'd really, really like to wean her starting at 12 months, which is a month from now. But she is NOT interested, and I can't start milk with her until we see the doctor because of a possible allergy. I don't want to breastfeed forever. That may sound awful but I don't. I want to be done now. I want a break from doing bedtime every night, being the only one to feed her (she has refused bottles for over 4 months now)... I'm tired!!!
Thanks for letting me vent ladies. It's been a rough few weeks and I'm almost as sleep deprived as I was with a newborn, which is just not fun anymore at 11 months old.
"It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." - Alex & Ani bracelet
My blog: Dodging Acorns
Re: Moms of bad sleepers and/or BFing moms
Eeek. Unfortunately, what you are going through sounds like what happened with my Maddie when I went back to work. She was actually a fantastic sleeper at 8 weeks old... she would wake up once or twice to nurse. It was great. But, she was also not good at taking bottles for a LONG time. She wouldn't take much at all for DH during the day when I was working. Because of this, she would want to nurse a lot during the nights and I was up with her 3+ times nursing her. Since she wasn't taking her bottles and she was on the smaller side, I felt bad and continued to nurse her in the night until she was 9 months old.
At that point, we did CIO and she has more or less been STTN since then.
I don't have much advice for you. the transition to daycare is probably messing with her a bit, and the teeth/colds don't make it easy either!! I'm sorry. I hope she's back to sleeping better for you soon.
Oh, and I don't see anything wrong with weaning her at 12 months if that is what you want. She'll manage just fine. My friend's daughter has a milk allergy as well, and for a while her DD refused the special formula when she weaned at 12 months - but now she's taking it just fine. Good luck!
I could have written so much of this post (except the bottle part - thankfully G takes that fine!).
No matter what we do she wakes at night. I've been attempting to curb the night feedings and I"m down to 1 some nights. Seems like every since I tried cutting back and starting mixing milk into her bottles it's worse and she's cut 4 teeth in the last 2-3 weeks.
The past two weeks, she has crazy sep anxiety at night - so I have to be in her room until she falls asleep - she won't fall asleep in my arms, but I have to be in the room or else she freaks out and CIO doesn't work - we went through 2.5 hours one night, over 2 hours another night, and I finally just sat next to her crib and w/i 5 minutes asleep - she just wants to know I'm there I guess.
I feel like since I've started trying to mix milk in her diet and cut down on bfing, she wants to nurse MORE. I'm hoping to stop pumping during the day and just bf at morning and night for a bit before I totally wean (I'm so scared I'll miss bfing and I don't knwo if we'll have another), but we'll see - so far I'm up to like 1/3 to 1/4 of her bottles being cow's milk. Today I didn't get a lot when I pumped, so tomorrow we might be making the jump to 1/2 of her bottle being cow's milk.
She's slept through the night like 5 times in her life - it's crazy.
We've been pushing G's bedtime back at bit from 7-730ish to more like 8-830ish and that's helped a lot. Maybe she's getting to where she needs less sleep? Or maybe it's more sleep she needs? G started taking longer naps during the day, so pushing her bedtime back curbed the 2 hour night time wake up thankfully. At least she's down to 1 wake up for 10-15 minutes most nights unless her routine gets thrown off (like last night...ugh, don't get me started).
I thought about an ear infection but she's actually better today than she has been. And my fluid monitor thingy is showing green and no fluid (i know not totally reliable). She did spike a fever with her last ear infection.
Now of course I posted that earlier today and she's taken 2 good naps today w/o any crying at all.
Amber - maybe I need to try just staying by her side for a bit while she falls asleep at night. I think a huge part of this is separation anxiety. So not fun.
And thanks re: BFing - I'm guessing that if she has no other options she'll take the formula or milk (depending on what we find out in the next month or so) out of a sippy but it will not be pretty and I feel terrible making her miserable when I'm right here and capable of feeding her.
"It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." - Alex & Ani bracelet
My blog: Dodging Acorns
I'm so sorry that you are all dealing with this. I have no advice for you. Liza isn't a wonderful sleeper either, but I've mostly just tried to adapt to what she needs (even if it sucks for me, but I am also home all day and not working don't have another kid to take care of...so I know with my next baby things might not be so easy to adapt to) and it has helped her sleep longer and better.
I know you have done/are doing everything that you can possibly think of! I really hope you and Maddy find something that works for you both.
((Hugs)) and LOADS of sleep dust!
I feel like I'm in the same boat with Aidan, so not fun! He has been waking up in the middle of the night at least once since birth and I think we've tried everything. We cut out his nighttime bottle two months ago and just give him his binky and that was ok for awhile. Then Feb vacation I tried CIO and that worked a couple nights but now his two top teeth are coming in so he'll have a low fever some nights (no ear infections yet though) and I end up giving him Tylenol and putting him in bed with me. Sooo, basically I have no advice! We lucked out with E being such a great sleeper at an early age so I don't know how to get A to that point where he goes back to sleep on his own. I'll certainly let you know if we find a method that works!