Post by gwenyvyre on Nov 25, 2011 13:10:48 GMT -5
I'm hoping that someone who's been-there-done-that can give me some useful tips about helping a 16-weeker sleep. Riley's got over his colic and is much happier now, but we're running into some serious sleep issues, i.e., he won't. He's stopped napping, he still wakes up at least twice a night and it affects his eating some days. It seems to change every day or two: one day he'll eat fine, play, take a few 30-45 min. naps and only wake up once at night, but then the next day he'll wake up, not want to eat, not be able to nap because he's hungry and wake up every 3 hours at night because he wouldn't sleep during the day.
I've talked it over with the nurse practitioner at his well-baby check but all she said was put him down when he's starting to get tired and that she was sorry she couldn't be more help. Most of the time when I do that he screams and wakes himself up. I can't just leave him there to cry for an hour, so I've been picking him up and walking with him or, when he's gone more than half the day without napping, I hold him til he falls asleep otherwise he works himself up to the point where he spends the rest of the day/night screaming. (I do wait on picking him up if he's just fussing, rather than crying, because he has occasionally put himself back to sleep that way)
Has anyone run into this before? If so, what did you do? Just wait it out and learn to function without sleep yourself, or was there some particular technique that seemed to work? I'll take any help I can get, no matter how little it may seem.
-Jenn
~Update~
I decided that it wasn't worth putting either myself or the baby through the stress of trying to put him down to sleep before he's ready so I've decided to just suck it up and let him fall asleep however he likes, then put him down. I mentioned it to my mother and apparently I was the same way, so I don't think it'll do any harm. He still wakes up for a feed between midnight and 2am, but we're trying to wean him off the 5am feeds. It's kind of an up-and-down process--he still wakes up at 4 or 5 and cries, but now he'll usually put himself back to sleep after about 15-20 minutes.
I did speak to our pediatrician who recommended we try starting him on oatmeal cereal and that seems to have kick-started his eating because he's worked his way back up to eating as much if not more milk as he used to plus a tablespoon or so of oatmeal per day. (I have decided that regardless of what anyone says I'm waiting til 6 months to start veggies/fruits though.)
Ended up having to use the fenugreek capsules to get my milk supply back to normal but I have to say, since I was afraid I'd have to wean him and switch to formula, that fenugreek worked fantastically. Plus, now I smell like maple syrup which is weird but not unpleasant (a side effect of the capsules). The only really unresolved problem now is his not being able to roll over yet but we're working on as much tummy time as I can get him to take. Thanks to everybody who offered advice!!!!
I've talked it over with the nurse practitioner at his well-baby check but all she said was put him down when he's starting to get tired and that she was sorry she couldn't be more help. Most of the time when I do that he screams and wakes himself up. I can't just leave him there to cry for an hour, so I've been picking him up and walking with him or, when he's gone more than half the day without napping, I hold him til he falls asleep otherwise he works himself up to the point where he spends the rest of the day/night screaming. (I do wait on picking him up if he's just fussing, rather than crying, because he has occasionally put himself back to sleep that way)
Has anyone run into this before? If so, what did you do? Just wait it out and learn to function without sleep yourself, or was there some particular technique that seemed to work? I'll take any help I can get, no matter how little it may seem.
-Jenn
~Update~
I decided that it wasn't worth putting either myself or the baby through the stress of trying to put him down to sleep before he's ready so I've decided to just suck it up and let him fall asleep however he likes, then put him down. I mentioned it to my mother and apparently I was the same way, so I don't think it'll do any harm. He still wakes up for a feed between midnight and 2am, but we're trying to wean him off the 5am feeds. It's kind of an up-and-down process--he still wakes up at 4 or 5 and cries, but now he'll usually put himself back to sleep after about 15-20 minutes.
I did speak to our pediatrician who recommended we try starting him on oatmeal cereal and that seems to have kick-started his eating because he's worked his way back up to eating as much if not more milk as he used to plus a tablespoon or so of oatmeal per day. (I have decided that regardless of what anyone says I'm waiting til 6 months to start veggies/fruits though.)
Ended up having to use the fenugreek capsules to get my milk supply back to normal but I have to say, since I was afraid I'd have to wean him and switch to formula, that fenugreek worked fantastically. Plus, now I smell like maple syrup which is weird but not unpleasant (a side effect of the capsules). The only really unresolved problem now is his not being able to roll over yet but we're working on as much tummy time as I can get him to take. Thanks to everybody who offered advice!!!!
