Ah, the nights of my baby sleeping sweetly for hours has come to and end. As with his sister, Atticus was an increasingly good sleeper as an infant- notching up a full night (well 8pm-5am) by about 3 months. However, yet again, here I am at 6 months with an otherwise settled and happy baby who wakes literally every hour throughout the night crying sadly. Is it separation anxiety? Teething? Increased mobility flipping him onto his face or back? I don't know and I don't know how to fix it.
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I do know what not to do. I am not nursing him every time he wakes, but do feed him when hungry (usually around 11pm, 4am and 7 am). Right now he is up for the 7th time in the hour since I put him to bed. It goes without saying that we are all shattered beyond reconition and ready to try almost anything.
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He has a beautiful bedtime routine: family dinner, bath, massage, song, breast, more songs and snuggles; and a regular bedtime. He loves his crib, and wakes up in the morning to gurgle and coo at the silk veils and rainbow mobile of paper cranes and his sister's face peeping in.
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He is feeding well during the day- both solids and breast-milk, and is otherwise thriving. I know that this is probably my doing somehow, and have always found sleep to be the hardest aspect of parenting my children, as the best of plans made in the light and logic of day can go out of the window in the somnabulic state of the early hours. I just hope I can find a solution that doesn't require crying it out for hours at a time.
1 comment:
Gosh Em, I feel for you I really do. We´ve had lots of sleeping issues with Alexander, mostly with napping and not with night sleeping. From 6 weeks old he´d go the whole day without a nap. I persevered with a strict regime of cycles - wake, feed, cuddle, play, alone time and bed and after a few days of this we found a napping rhythm.
Night time sleeping we´ve had a few bad nights but to be honest from about 10 months old he´s usually been so knackered he´s sleept the whole night. Now he´s nearly a year old we´re lucky if we can get him to take 2 mini naps in the day. It´s usually 1 nap of about an hour in the morning and that´s it till bedtime but he does usually sleep from 7 till 7.
None of this helps you though...
I would suggest checking out http://www.babycentre.co.uk/. They have a forum there and you may come across some helpful suggestions. Be prepared to give each idea at least 5 days of perseverence though. There is also my favourite for helping Alexander sleep through the night - the dummy. Although this can be a bit of a nuisance scrambling around at 3 in the morning trying to find the damn thing it always settles him right back to sleep. Worth a try for a decent nights sleep too......
Good luck!
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