From the very beginning…
Sleep Wanted!
I know I know, Ian is a newborn and sleep is now a luxury. However, Ian is getting so much sleep right now you would think Jesse and I would be able to get some. Before Ian became sick, we were able to sleep, but now, Ian is having a hard time sleeping in any position but on either mama or daddy. Needless to say, Jesse and I have been staying up the last couple of nights holding him while he sleeps, which means we can’t get any sleep. We need to get him to sleep in his bed again.
So, if anyone has any suggestions, we’re all ears. This is what we have tried already:
- Feeding/Burping/Changing – This is part of his routine. We do this every time.
- Rocking – I don’t think it really calms him that much. It does put him to sleep, but the moment you stand up, he wakes up.
- Holding him – Then after a few minutes of him sleeping, we’ve tried gently putting him in his bed, which ends up waking him up.
- Ambient sounds – We have a machine that will do heart beats, rainfall, ocean waves, and a lullaby – all to no avail, I think. We just got it so who knows.
- Baby Einsteins Classic Lullaby CD – I really can’t tell if this is working or not.
- Tilting the bed – We propped up a side of his playard so that there is a slight incline. We thought this might help with his congestion too.
- Car seat – One doctor said we could let Ian sleep in this if it helped; but a nurse practitioner said we shouldn’t. If Ian moved his head a certain way, it could be bad. Either way, if we do let him sleep in it, we still have to supervise, so still no sleep for us.
- Bouncer – Yeah, Ian hasn’t taken to this since he’s been sick. It even vibrates and has sounds attached to it.
I want to say we’ve tried some others, but I’m too sleep deprived to remember them. We’re hoping this is due to him being sick, but we’ll find out in a couple of weeks when the RSV has run it’s course.
[…] The only true problem with this resolution is that I’ve been up since 1am and I won’t be able to get some sleep until after Jesse is home at 6-6:30 tonight. We need to get Ian back to sleeping in his bed. We’re hoping that this is just a phase due to his RSV, because if it’s not, we’re going to be in trouble. If anyone has any suggestions, let us know. We’re willing to try anything, although we have already tried a lot. […]
Have you tried the clock trick? Take an old fashioned clock and wrap it with a towel. This will mute the ticks and sound a bit like a beating heart. I bet somebody sells something that makes that noise too.
1. If she’s nursing, my kids would settle down if I held them in that position.
2. We also had white noise or music going so the environment was the same as in the womb. Hope it helps.
3. If in a crib, my lactation consultant (I did this & it worked) said to put a dirty (worn) shirt that has my sent and maybe even milk on it. It still gave them the sense of being held by mom.
4. Lastly, we bundled them up super tight. This worked very well with my fussy one (not really colic but darn close!)
We have been dealing with this a lot with Reece! I would recommend using saline spray and possibly the syringe and just elevate his bed more. Sleeping in the car seat isn’t that bad at his age, they should just make sure his head is secure enough not to flop around. There really isn’t much else to do at his age. Do they have a humidifier set up yet? That is one thing the doctor will tell them to get if they don’t. It’s o.k. for them elevate one end of his bed more than what they probably have; we put an entire pillow under the one end of Reece’s bed or he sleeps in his pack ‘n play.
I talked with the Mother Baby Unit at the hospital and they told me something I wasn’t aware of. Ian might not be sleeping as well because we have him too warm. Basically, the nurse said that if we’re comfortable, than so is he; and if we’re wrapping him up too much at night, that could be making him fussy, which means he won’t sleep as well. So we’ll try fewer blankets tonight for sure.
We’ve also bought a sleep positioner that will hopefully help him from moving too much at night while not being covered as much.
I LIVED by the techniques in the book “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child”, it worked for my kids for sleeping and it was great.
As part of his bedtime ritual try a wamr bath and then follow that with a soft and slow baby massage with lotion. You’ve tried all my other suggestions, I wish I lived closer so that I could relieve you and stay up with Ian so that you could get some sleep Jackie.
SO two books have been recommended to me now – On Becoming Babywise (ISBN:1932740082) and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night’s Sleep (ISBN:0345486455). I have purchased both of them and hopefully will have them this weekend. We’ll see if they’ll help.
Try running at cool mist humidifier in the same room that Ian sleeps in. Sometimes between the noise and the mist it helps with not wanting to sleep and the congestion.
The sleeping is always tricky, both for the parents and the baby. We really had a problem when Norah was about a year old and we had let her get into the habit of falling asleep on us. Unfortunately this meant that if she woke up in the night she screamed for us. In the end we had a week or so (if I remember right) of putting her down for bed while she was awake. She would scream and we would go in and comfort a bit at increasing intervals. Worked great.
Oops, forgot to mention that I’m not sure if that is appropriate for a month-old… more of a reminiscing than a suggestion. Best wishes.