More sleep help needed

Sydnie will nap no where but my arms and on no particular schedule. We let her wake up when she wants so every day is different but when we tried a schedule @ 7 weeks it didn't work. I do try to keep her nighttime routine the same though. It starts at 7 but sometimes she's not asleep til 9 or later. She used to go lay in her crib content after her 7:30 bottle and would eventually fall asleep but then it became hysterics when the nuk fell out and now she just cries as soon as I lay her down. I can't take it and I am tempted just to do whatever it takes to soothe her but I am so afraid of starting really bad habits. I didn't like "Healthy Sleep Habits" now I have "Happiest Baby on the Block" but none of these books seems to be helping me. I get very flustered when she's crying and I lose my composure and I have not been consistent with doing anything. Sometimes I let her cry for 2 minutes, sometimes I soothe her w/o picking her up (that's not working anymore), and now lately I've just been picking her up

Any suggestions as to what might work for us? She's 11 weeks old now and we're going backwards

Re: More sleep help needed

I rocked my dd to sleep for the first 12 months

I look back on that time and miss it so much....I would enjoy this time with her, as hard as it is to get things done

Re: More sleep help needed

I rocked Jack to sleep for the first six months - and then I had to do CIO because he was simply too heavy (over 22lbs) -- I think that early on rocking them to sleep is really normal!

Consistency is the key though. Stick to the bedtime routine - do everything the same -- it won't really make much of a difference now - but a few months from now it will make your life a helluva lot easier!

Re: More sleep help needed

have you tried the miracle blanket? my son would only nap on me, as soon as i moved him from my body, his eyes would snap open....with the miracle blanket he still felt warmth...

Re: More sleep help needed

IMO She's still pretty young so don't freak out about starting bad habits.

I also get flustered when dd cries but only with other people around. When we're alone it doesn't get to me as much. But being consistent is important.

The bedtime routine can be really helpful. We do bath, pj's, book & bed but that little I skipped the book. It was to stimulating for her.

Give yourself a schedule and stick with it. Things will fall into place.

I would let dd cry for 10 minutes and then give her the bink. The next time I'd wait 15 minutes and so on. dd never went more then 20 minutes.

I feel like everything takes 3 days. Try a technique that works for you (even if you modify one in the book) for 3 days and see where you are.

Good Luck!

P.S Swaddling worked wonders for us. She was swaddled until 5 months!

Re: More sleep help needed

I don't have a whole lot of advice since DS is a mess with sleeping as well.

The only thing I can say, is the better he sleeps during the day, the better he is at night.

Re: More sleep help needed

At that age we rocked DD to sleep. We put her in her stroller - actually at that point it was the infant carrier and snap & go frame - and rocked her until she went to sleep and then transferred her to her crib.

When I decided that I didn't want her to be rocked every night, we would put her in her crib and snuggle her - one hand holding her legs up in the fetal position, another hand holding her paci in her mouth because if it fell out before she fell asleep it was bedlam.. This was sometime after she was 12 weeks old.

After a few weeks of that I started putting her in her crib and walking away. She would cry for us about 3 times before finally falling asleep - and we went in each time to soothe her, but we would NOT pick her up. We'd rub her back, rub her head, etc. This was probably from about 4 months to 6 months.

At about 6 months she started to fall asleep within 5 minutes of me putting her down.

The key is to keep yourself under control. If you get upset DD will see that and she'll get upset too. I know it's hard to hear them cry but you need to learn how to tune it out to an extent. I used to cry when DD cried. Now, as long as I know she's not hurt I can tune it out and take care of business without getting upset. It takes time

Re: More sleep help needed

Would you try a sleep positioner? I've discovered that DS HATES to be flat on his back (he's 9 weeks, and still in the bassinette), so I picked one up at target last week and he's sleeping much better!

Re: More sleep help needed

At 11 weeks, we did whatever it took for DD to sleep. Sometimes she slept in the swing and sometimes the vibrating chair. Other time she slept with us.

Your DD is young to really establish a schedule so just do what you can. If you start to develop some habits, you can always break them. For all of those nights where we did get some sleep, it took us 3 nights to break the habits. We'll take 30 nights of rest for 3 nights of DD being fussy & waking often.

Re: More sleep help needed

as I was reading your post, I was rocking my DS to sleep, he is the same way, at almost 9 wks . he is getting heavy and killing my arms (almost 12 pds). he is finally sleeping in his swing

I think it's too early to let them cry at this point, at night time after his last bottle I swaddle him and rock him to sleep. what I've been trying to do is rock him for just a minute and then just hold him, and that's been working out pretty well. I also try to put him down just before he really conks out. sometimes he stays quiet, but if he cries I pick him up and try again. I know it's so tiring, and frustrating bc you feel like you can't get anything done. I lose my cool too, but I've been trying really hard to keep calm bc I see that it helps his situation