Baby/Sleep question

[Angie]

Listen, I completely agree with you here, but we are not a doctors webste passing out advice. It's a message board for, of all things, sports. As bad of advice as anyone could give here, I think it would be wise to point out that anyone coming here as their definitive source for all things child development is just as at fault for taking bad advice as anyone giving it. After all, it is a discussion forum. If you are involved in such discussions, you should always seek the advice of professionals over something you read on Cyclone fanatic.

I just point this out to say that we really shouldn't be all to harsh on each other here for something like this considering it's as much the fault of the OP as it is of anyone who responded with their personal experiences. Which, imo, is what you are going to get from a sports messag board.

I agree - the only reason I'm harsh with this particular piece of advice is because it can kill children. Extinction methods of cry-it-out and withholding night time bottles at this age can cause failure to thrive and dehydration. Unfortunately, some people are dumb enough to take advice from random strangers on the internet without researching first. :(

While I don't agree with cry-it-out at all, I wouldn't have been harsh at all if it were recommended for, say, a six-month-old, and if it followed the standard advice of graduating up to higher amounts of time being absent each night.

[Tedcyclone]

Here is what has saved us. and our daughter has slept 10 hours a night since she was about 4 weeks old.

1. sound machine in babies room, just put it on white noise
2. keep the exact same routine every night, always, no matter what. even if it means your life sucks. as nothign sucks worse than a baby that doesnt sleep.
3. We give her a bottle every night before bed still and she is 15 months old. and still put her in a sleep sack.. its her routine and she actually asks to go to sleep now.
4. its hard a first, but let your baby cry for 10 minutes, go back and dont talk to them, just pick them up and hold him/her until they relax or go back to sleep and then place back in crib... go back at 15 min, repeat if needed. hopefully that works. I wouldnt suggest the cry it out, just let them cry for a bit. but if after 15 min, and then consoling, and then 10 min and consoling they are still really upset, then you just need to rock with them all night long :) good luck.
5. i would never withhold a bottle at night, that is just plain silly. Routine is the biggest thing to remember, routine, routine, routine... and food. if they are hungry they wont sleep. bottle and routine, got it.

[CRcyclone6]

Here is what has saved us. and our daughter has slept 10 hours a night since she was about 4 weeks old. 1. sound machine in babies room, just put it on white noise2. keep the exact same routine every night, always, no matter what. even if it means your life sucks. as nothign sucks worse than a baby that doesnt sleep.3. We give her a bottle every night before bed still and she is 15 months old. and still put her in a sleep sack.. its her routine and she actually asks to go to sleep now.4. its hard a first, but let your baby cry for 10 minutes, go back and dont talk to them, just pick them up and hold him/her until they relax or go back to sleep and then place back in crib... go back at 15 min, repeat if needed. hopefully that works.

this has worked for our 3

[Angie]

Here is what has saved us. and our daughter has slept 10 hours a night since she was about 4 weeks old.

1. sound machine in babies room, just put it on white noise
2. keep the exact same routine every night, always, no matter what. even if it means your life sucks. as nothign sucks worse than a baby that doesnt sleep.
3. We give her a bottle every night before bed still and she is 15 months old. and still put her in a sleep sack.. its her routine and she actually asks to go to sleep now.
4. its hard a first, but let your baby cry for 10 minutes, go back and dont talk to them, just pick them up and hold him/her until they relax or go back to sleep and then place back in crib... go back at 15 min, repeat if needed. hopefully that works. I wouldnt suggest the cry it out, just let them cry for a bit. but if after 15 min, and then consoling, and then 10 min and consoling they are still really upset, then you just need to rock with them all night long :) good luck.
5. i would never withhold a bottle at night, that is just plain silly. Routine is the biggest thing to remember, routine, routine, routine... and food. if they are hungry they wont sleep. bottle and routine, got it.

We LOVE this sound spa:

Amazon.com: HoMedics SS-2000 Sound Spa Relaxation Sound Machine with 6 Nature Sounds, Silver: Health & Personal Care

[hoopitup]

My little guy is now one year old and still not even close to making it through the night on his own. Tonight we start the no tears method...say a prayer for the sleep deprived.

My question would be why is he crying? Is he hungry or just want to be held and know you are near?

If it is hunger, we had the same problem several years ago. No sleep for months, waking up every hour or 2. I was looking for a solution and ran across one that I thought had merit. Here it is:

For 3 nights give him his normal bottle. For the next 3 nights, decrease the amount of baby formula you add by a little bit - so he is still getting the same amount each of the 3 nights, but it is less than the first 3 nights. The next 3 nights, decrease again by a little bit - again, giving the same amount each of the 3 nights, but less than the 2nd set of 3 nights. Same for the next 3 nights until you are just giving him water. If memory serves, we were decreasing the amount of formula by like a 1/4 of a scoop (or something like that) every 3 nights. Anyway, the key behind it is you decrease the formula in 3-night intervals until they have just water in the bottle. By the time we were finished adding any formula, we were down to 8 oz of water. Do this for 3 nights, then go to 6 oz. for 3 nights, 4 oz. for 3 nights, etc... This worked really well and I think once we got to 6-8 oz of water, he was sleeping through the night, which is normal for this method.

Again, though, it depends on why he is waking and crying. Good luck - I know the feeling.

[rebecacy]

With E we found a tight swaddle worked wonders. fwiw.

[jbindm]

My question would be why is he crying? Is he hungry or just want to be held and know you are near?

If it is hunger, we had the same problem several years ago. No sleep for months, waking up every hour or 2. I was looking for a solution and ran across one that I thought had merit. Here it is:

For 3 nights give him his normal bottle. For the next 3 nights, decrease the amount of baby formula you add by a little bit - so he is still getting the same amount each of the 3 nights, but it is less than the first 3 nights. The next 3 nights, decrease again by a little bit - again, giving the same amount each of the 3 nights, but less than the 2nd set of 3 nights. Same for the next 3 nights until you are just giving him water. If memory serves, we were decreasing the amount of formula by like a 1/4 of a scoop (or something like that) every 3 nights. Anyway, the key behind it is you decrease the formula in 3-night intervals until they have just water in the bottle. By the time we were finished adding any formula, we were down to 8 oz of water. Do this for 3 nights, then go to 6 oz. for 3 nights, 4 oz. for 3 nights, etc... This worked really well and I think once we got to 6-8 oz of water, he was sleeping through the night, which is normal for this method.

Again, though, it depends on why he is waking and crying. Good luck - I know the feeling.

He's usually hungry when he wakes up, so we do a small bottle of milk and formula combined. After that we hold him for a few minutes and e falls asleep, but he wakes up as we're lowering him into the crib and immediately starts screaming and crying. I'm not interested int rying the CIO method, but we are going to try this at first:

1. Let him cry for 5 minutes.
2. Come in and hold him until he calms down, and then lay him back down.
3. Gradually increase the time we let him cry up to 20 minutes.

I'm hoping that after a few mights he'll learn to calm himself down and go to sleep, but we'll see. From what I can tell in my limited research, every child is different and there is no surefire technique. And I'm well aware this is a sports fan message board, but this is the off topic forum, and I enjoy getting feedback from a lot of different people.

[4Cyclones]

With E we found a tight swaddle worked wonders. fwiw.

This.....for 2 boys

and background noise, spinning music box thingey, nightime star maker on ceiling, but both of our boys we good anyway

[CycloneYoda]

My son is pushing 6 months, and for about 3 weeks now he has been rolling over at night, then freaking out when he can't get back over, something he has no problems with awake.

This is hell. Finally let him cry himself asleep, and checked on him when he finally dropped. He was fine.

Now, if he wakes and won't go back to sleep, he gets shoved downstairs while the rest of us turn on our fans.

Harsh, but if I don't sleep soon, I'm going to eat the little dude.

[CySmitty]

Interesting thread. I have a son about 15 months old but was born early so when he came home slept a lot for the first three months. For some reason he would sleep all day and then be awake from 2-5am. It was a rough first month. We found that he would always wiggle out of a swaddle and then once his arms got moving he would wake up screaming. A tight swaddle would work for about 15min and then he would be out. Thats when we discovered the super swaddle.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaB63OMf-sU&feature=related]Super Swaddle System - YouTube[/ame]

This is really close to what did. Basically just take a small receiving blanket and tuck it over their arms and below their back (should not be tight on the arms) and then swaddle them. The first night we did this we woke him up at 2 to feed him and then swaddled him back up and he was out. It was like magic. Of course only advisable until they can roll over then no more swaddling.

[cyrevkah]

I am torn between being thankful this thread showed up today (and I saw it) to dreading September and fall for lack of sleep :)

[CyBer]

Why did no one consult the baby in this situation?

[Cybirdy]

For me, 7 weeks is too young to CIO. Like a pp mentioned, they are too little to "manipulate" you for their needs at that age. They were in a cozy womb for 40 weeks; he's only been out in the real world trying to figure things out for 7 weeks.

With our first, she would. Not. Sleep. She was a fussy baby and looking back on things now, she probably had some reflux issues. Anyway, we were visiting my Mom when she was just over a week old and she suggested we put her on her tummy. Once we started her tummy sleeping, we got some longer stretches of sleep. Granted, she didn't sleep through the night until 18 mo old. ;)

Second baby came along (full term) and she was in the NICU for 6 weeks. When she came home she had a feeding tube and got a drip of milk all night--she slept well since she never got hungry overnight. Once she was off the feeding pump she was a swaddle lover and swaddled until she was 6 mo. She slept through the night around 1 year.

My youngest is 11 mo. She had some stretches early where she slept 6-10 hrs overnight. Same parenting, different child--no 2 children are the same. We swaddled her when she was really young, but she didn't swaddle long. She was another tummy sleeper. I know, it is drilled into our heads that it is evil but if you have a tight crib sheet, nothing else in the crib, and invest in an Angel Care monitor I feel okay with it. Flame me for my parenting choices if you disagree, but it gave us some sanity for babies #1 and #3. She started sleeping through the night around 9 mo.

Two things that also "helped" mainly as theories about development and sleeping were The Wonder Weeks and The Period of Purple Crying. I don't subscribe to and follow one particular parenting "style", but these 2 theories at least put a developmental spin on why babies cry/don't always sleep consistently.

Best of luck to you!

[Angie]

For me, 7 weeks is too young to CIO. Like a pp mentioned, they are too little to "manipulate" you for their needs at that age. They were in a cozy womb for 40 weeks; he's only been out in the real world trying to figure things out for 7 weeks.

With our first, she would. Not. Sleep. She was a fussy baby and looking back on things now, she probably had some reflux issues. Anyway, we were visiting my Mom when she was just over a week old and she suggested we put her on her tummy. Once we started her tummy sleeping, we got some longer stretches of sleep. Granted, she didn't sleep through the night until 18 mo old. ;)

Second baby came along (full term) and she was in the NICU for 6 weeks. When she came home she had a feeding tube and got a drip of milk all night--she slept well since she never got hungry overnight. Once she was off the feeding pump she was a swaddle lover and swaddled until she was 6 mo. She slept through the night around 1 year.

My youngest is 11 mo. She had some stretches early where she slept 6-10 hrs overnight. Same parenting, different child--no 2 children are the same. We swaddled her when she was really young, but she didn't swaddle long. She was another tummy sleeper. I know, it is drilled into our heads that it is evil but if you have a tight crib sheet, nothing else in the crib, and invest in an Angel Care monitor I feel okay with it. Flame me for my parenting choices if you disagree, but it gave us some sanity for babies #1 and #3. She started sleeping through the night around 9 mo.

Two things that also "helped" mainly as theories about development and sleeping were The Wonder Weeks and The Period of Purple Crying. I don't subscribe to and follow one particular parenting "style", but these 2 theories at least put a developmental spin on why babies cry/don't always sleep consistently.

Best of luck to you!

Another fan of the Angel Care monitor! There's also something called a Snuza that attaches right to the baby's diaper that also monitors breathing. It can be used in the car seat, etc. - I'm curious about getting one if/when we have another child.

[Clonefan94]

I agree - the only reason I'm harsh with this particular piece of advice is because it can kill children. Extinction methods of cry-it-out and withholding night time bottles at this age can cause failure to thrive and dehydration. Unfortunately, some people are dumb enough to take advice from random strangers on the internet without researching first. :(

While I don't agree with cry-it-out at all, I wouldn't have been harsh at all if it were recommended for, say, a six-month-old, and if it followed the standard advice of graduating up to higher amounts of time being absent each night.

As I said, I agree completely with your post. I just felt your post was a good one to quote to emphasize my point that if you are really concerned about your baby, please seek the help of a medical professional. For something as serious as a baby crying all night long, there could be underlying issues that aren't going to be solved by advice on a message board. I was really trying to emphasize that to the OP more than hack on your comments.