I need to stop being a pacifier overnight?
BySeriously. No judgement. I really need the non-nutrition based overnight feedings to stop. My daughter is waking up 3 times a night out of habit and refused to go back to sleep without nursing. Now I used to be able to handle 5-6 hours of broken sleep with a pot of coffee, but I’m pregnant again and I feel like I need 18 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I’ve tried cosleeping, she crawls out of bed even if she’s still tired. I’ve tried throwing a mattress down on the floor and sleeping there, this worked for a while but isn’t anymore. Anyone have ideas? She’s 15 months and nursing 7-8 times a day, I want to keep nursing through the pregnancy, but I can’t keep doing 3 nighttime feedings anymore.
She’s still in her crib, and I keep a sippy of water in there, but when I offer it she just screams more. She also takes a paci, but if I try to shove that in her mouth she screams more too. The only thing that makes her quiet is boob and 20 minutes of rocking when she’s nearly asleep again. I have let her cry for ~7 minutes, but I can tell she is not settling and is getting more worked up. Also, my husband can’t help – he works so much he’s lucky to see our daughter or get 5 hours of sleep himself, and he needs a brain the next morning.
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3 Comments
April 28th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
as much as it hurts to see her cry you have to just let her cry herself to sleep. same concept about picking a young child up. if you pick them up all the time they will always expect it. other then that you should really consider switching to a bottle.
April 28th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
hmm. That is a lot for her age. There are several methods of sleep training you can do at this age. I personally let my kids cry it out a few times. They usually only cried ten minutes or so, and were good sleepers from then on. But I started that by ten months or so. She really shouldn’t need to be nursing overnight. She probably just wants the attention. If you let her get a drink of water and consistently take her back to bed, it might help. Is she already out of a crib? I’d put her back. She’s still a baby. You can get crib tents to keep older babies for climbing out.
April 28th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Stop letting her cry. Abandonment doesn’t usually work well to teach a toddler that she’s loved and cared for.
I know this article is written with a co-sleeping toddler in mind, but I bet you could adapt the advice a bit to fit your sleep situation. Read it and take it’s main principles and use those.
http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp