The past two days have been good learning experiences for me. Blake has had a weird schedule this week. He seems to be hungry every 2 hours, which seems abnormal since he usually eats every 3-4 during the day. He also hasn't been napping very good, but I think part of that is my fault. I said I was doing the Babywise method, but I haven't been good at it the past week. I've been feeding him and then playing with him and then he falls asleep for about 45 minutes, and when he wakes up crying I think he's hungry so I feed him again. Really I think when he wakes up, he doesn't mean to and he really just wants to get back to sleep. On Monday I think he slept around 1 1/2 hours the whole day! That's not much. Tuesday he slept a little more, and yesterday only a couple.
I started reading this other sleep book from a friend. It's called Sleep Sense. I've only made it a little way through, but I realized I haven't been putting him down for naps in consistent places. Sometimes it's in the bouncy chair, sometimes the swing and sometimes the car seat. The book said that the crib should be the only place they sleep (there are always exceptions though), and that naps and bed time should both be in the crib. Also it talked about "cry it out." Their view is kind of cry it out, kind of not. Basically he starts crying and I check to make sure everything is okay, pat him on the back or cheek and calm him down then walk out again. So far he hasn't cried or fussed more than 5 minutes before falling asleep. The book is a big advocate of letting babies fall asleep on their own. I haven't been very good at that. But Blake doesn't seem to be struggling too much.
So last night he ate around 6 pm. We laid him in the crib for a nap. He slept around 45 minutes and Scott got him up. He wasn't hungry but he was a little fussy. We got him calmed down and eventually we put him back in the crib, not swaddled, to see what would happen. He laid there and kicked and wiggled and cooed for over an hour!! I'm quite sure he was very tired because he hadn't slept much that day. Finally around 10 pm he started fussing and acting hungry. I fed him, swaddled him up and laid him down. He maybe fussed for 1 minute and then he conked out and slept until 5:15 am. Poor guy was exhausted!!
So today I have followed more of a pattern. He eats, I burp him and play with him for just a minute, and then swaddle him and put him in his crib. The first time he fussed and cried a little bit, but nothing I couldn't calm down. Then he fell asleep. 45 minutes later he was crying and awake. I let him whine and work things out. After about 5 minutes he was out again for a little over an hour. Then he woke up, ate, burped, played for a couple minutes and I put him down again. This time he fussed even less, worked things out and is sound asleep. The only problem is I have a doc appointment today which will mess things up. Oh well.
I think babies need to have good naps in the day to be able to sleep better at night. I have been misreading his crying and feeding him instead of letting him sleep. He can't fall asleep without being swaddled either. He doesn't like it that much, but without it he will stay awake forever just kicking and moving until he starts crying again, so he likes it a little I guess. We'll see what happens tonight with his sleep. It'll be interesting to see.
And I'm horrible at posting pictures! It's because it takes forever and it seems like such a hassle. I can upload them but only 5 at a time and then I can't rearrange them in Chrome, so I have to open Explorer and it just takes forever. How does everyone else do it and have it look so good?
p.s. This warm weather is ridiculous! Almost 75 yesterday, around 70 today, sunny, etc. It's crazy and feels awesome!
I'm am the sleep nazi! I only lived because I got the twins on a very strict napping and sleeping schedule. The book I used was called , Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (if you get stuck and need a new idea). I know you just need to get a schedule and stick with it because it depends on the baby, but I totally believe in a few things:
ReplyDeleteNo baby should be awake longer than two hours (especially when they get to be a bit more predictable at 3 months) and sleeping makes more sleeping, and babies can most definitely be trained!
Call me if you ever want or need to talk something out. Sometimes it helps me to say it outloud! Sounds like you're doing an amazing job Karissa!
I am also a sleep nazi! I agree with Kathryn that sleep is so important for babies (and kids)! The better they sleep during the day, the better they will sleep at night. Having a routine is really important. You're doing great to be so aware of this and to try to create a good routine for yourselves.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the routine can become stifling. It is hard to go ANYWHERE if you're sticking to a rigid schedule. I feel like I live my life around nap time, but it has been worth it to me. I try not to over-stress about morning naps and I will run errands or schedule appointments always in the morning. I keep at home a lot too, but I try to never be gone in the afternoon. I am always home after lunch during afternoon naptime and it has been a good routine for my kids.
It sounds like Blake is a real champ and you are doing a great job creating a routine for him!
Sounds like you are going through what every mom has. Grant did that too about not sleeping well for naps. I decided to just deal with the short naps and make them frequent but he only fell asleep when he was in the stroller. Once we moved around 6 months old his sleep routine was the same but we transitioned to the crib and he did great! As far as pictures go, I think you just need to get the newer version of blogger photos and videos on. My sister updated mine and I can upload as many as I want at a time and add captions, change the size, and re sort them really easily.
ReplyDelete