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Re: Another bad sleeper-Help!

Posted by Jack's mum on February 01, 2001 at 05:44:48:

In Reply to: Another bad sleeper-Help! posted by Emmitts Mom on January 31, 2001 at 14:38:55:

Dear Emmitt's mum,
I liked your reminder to us all to count our blessings - we were also reminded of this the other day when we met a woman with a triple pushchair, all 3 babies the same age - it put our sleep deprivation into perspective!
Our (gorgeous) little boy is 18 weeks old and has never been much good at going to sleep or staying asleep, with his best phase being one night time stretch of 5 hours then 3 hours. A couple of weeks ago he completely lost it, and was waking every hour after about 2-3 am. I would go in as soon as I heard him (I couldnt bear to hear him cry), and hold his hand or soothe him to sleep, or feed him if this didnt work. Complete exhaustion.
We read a book by Dr Brian Symon called Silent Nights all about sleep, and sleep training, and although I dont agree with everything he says, his description of the over tired baby fitted Jack perfectly. Clingy a lot of the time, with happy times short, difficulty falling asleep.
So we started a bit of gentle sleep training, doing a routine before sleep, talking to him and telling him its time for sleep. We gave him a little soft sheet as a soother/cuddly, and then left him on his own. The first night he cried for about 15 minutes then fell asleep (we went in after 5 and then 10 minutes to tuck him in again and reassure him we loved him ), same again a couple of times in the night. And that was all it took for him to learn to fall asleep on his own. The second night was better and the third night better still. This also means that when he has a light period of sleep at night and needs to fall back to sleep, most of the time, he can. He still needs 1-2 feeds in the night, but I know that if he wakes 1 hour after a feed he cant be hungry and can go back to sleep by himself.
Basically, I think they need to LEARN a way of going back to sleep without a boob in their mouth. They'd probably prefer the boob, who wouldn't, but he would probably prefer a mummy who was less tired and had more energy to be fun and loving during the day.
During the day, I put him down for a nap when his 'happy wake time' runs out, and he becomes grumpy again, and I know he's not hungry, and now he goes straight to sleep on his own without crying, something I would not have thought possible 2 weeks ago. He sleeps about the same as your little one - roughly 3 naps of 45-60 minutes each.

I'm not saying sleep training would work for all babies, but we were desperate, and its transformed our lives.

You dont say whether he's always been like this, because the other thing that at this age seems to disrupt babies sleep patterns is the need for solid food. You might want to chat with a health professional about that, and think about starting the occasional spoonful of baby rice or fruit puree.

He's just woken up so gotta go,

best of luck, let me know how it goes.

Jack's mum

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Archived Infant Sleep Forum3 viewing only. To post a new topic go to the Infant Forum Homepage.
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  • Sleep Deprivation due to Sleep Apnea and insufficient sleep are common and can present as insomnia, narcolepsy, or idiopathic hypersomnia. In infants and children sleep problems commonly present themselves as ADD or ADHD.


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