We've been having a hard time with Ethan sleeping through the night, so we took out his evening nap (from 6-7), hoping he'd be tired enough to not wake up in the middle of the night. So he's been sooooooo tired from about 6:00 on. We start his bedtime routine at 7:15 with a bath. Then at 7:30 he eats half of his bottle (which he almost always fall asleep during), then cereal, then the last half of his bottle. Then off to bed! He's been going to sleep great, but we're not seeing much of an improvement throughout the night. Sometimes he only wakes up twice, but we've still had one or two nights where he wakes up ten times. It is so frustrating. I'm just hoping we can get it under control before school starts, but that's not looking like it's going to happen.
Anyone have any ideas on how to get him sleeping through the night again?
Here's my sleepy boy:
This has nothing to do with sleep, but it's too cute not to share. He looks like a little boy, not a baby!
.JPG)
6 comments:
we are right there with you! we had 4 nights of 7 hours of straight sleep and now cole is up a million times a night again! maybe one day when they are 18 we will be able to rest. i love the pics by the way - they are too cute!
CUTE CUTE pics! He is getting soo big. Can't wait to see him in 1 week!?!?!?
So, the whole sleeping thing is exactly why our kids go to bed at 7 (even now). Very early on, we discovered that by 6 every night they were falling apart and I just couldn't take another minute of crying and whining. So, we would feed them dinner at 5and then bath and off to bed at 6:30... they would be up by 7 but slept thru the night and we all woke up happy! I know it doesn't work for most families b/c it kills any evening plans. We have sacrificed all evening activities for the past 6 years in exchange for a VERY early bedtime for the kiddos. You will find somethign that works... hang in there. Parenting is just one big process of elimination. Just when you solve one issue, another seems to creep up!
i know for a long time i tried to get Ben to take a nap around 5:00 just to help us make it to his 7:30 bedtime. He still occasionally wakes up sometime between 2-4. I would just make sure that Ethan is getting enough ounces in during the day, so you know he is not waking up out of hunger. I don't know what his feeding schedule is but if he ate at 3pm i would give him rice cereal at 5 and then his final bottle at 7. Thats what i do with Ben and it seems to work. hope you can get it all figured out! good luck!
Oh Margaret, I'm right there with ya! If you find out the answer will you be sure to share with me? I think you're on the right track with the cereal halfway during the bottle. Although Camden still gets up in the middle of the night at least once, and sometimes more than that, we have already discovered (with 1 month of him being on rice cereal) to try to stretch it out as late as possible. We try to not give him his cereal any earlier than 7:30 and we'd even like to shoot for 8:00 if possible. That way we can give him a bath and then his last feeding before bed and he's out cold hopefully by 9:00. I know that seems late to some, but if we do it any eariler he'll wake up. This way Camden holds off until about 4:00 in the morning which has given me many hours of sleep before I have to wake up. It helps and although he still doesn't sleep through the night it's better than him waking up at 12:00 or 1:00 in the a.m. during my precious rest! Hang in there, it can't get any worse, right?
Great Aunt Laura just has to weigh in on this discussion...multiple wake-ups in the night with infants almost never has anything to do with whether or not he is tired. There is probably another reason his sleep is being interrupted and it is only one of our greatest mysteries to solve as parents! If he doesn't seem too hot or too cold when he wakes, the temperature of his room probably isn't the problem.
Most likely, the problem is that he is hungry. Whatever his schedule is, when you add cereal, you usually can't eliminate a regular bottle feeding, but if he is eating his regular bottle amount and cereal in the same feeding, he may actually be causing his digestive tract to overwork and cause restlessness. If the 6 pm nap worked, (it's great to be able to eat dinner alone with hubby), I'd let him nap. After he wakes and plays a little, give him his cereal, the bath and top him off with a bottle right before bed. This will push his bed time back a little bit probably, but it will be worth it.
He's a fast-growing boy, and that makes for a hungry baby!
Sorry I missed you guys at my last visit. Give Ethan a hug for me!
Gavin's usual bedtime is around 9:00, but there are the busy days he misses a nap and falls asleep around 7:30. On those days I make sure to give him a bottle when I end up going to bed. If not he will wake up multiple times during the night. I keep the lights off and only give a diaper change if needed to make sure he goes right back to sleep.
Post a Comment