wakes at night every two hours - wants a nap every two hours
hi everyone... i'm new here... i read and read and read on this forum a couple months ago... i thought i got it all straight... and now... well... we are all loosing sleep...
a little background... i have three older children from a previous marriage... boy 13, girl 11 girl 10... and now, i have a nine month old son with my new husband...
i have always rocked to sleep at night and naps with babies, and would lay down with the children for naps till they grew out of them, and layed with them for bedtime for the longest time... i would even occasionally be asked by the oldest to lay with him at age eleven... all fine and dandy...
with my oldest son we slept together until he started rolling... i was unaware of co-sleeping at the time... at six months i believe i did what every parenting book says to do... let them cry it out in the middle of the night... needless to say, this was not as easy as the book portrayed... i was opposed to it, but thought it was the only way... i don't even remember what i did with my girls for sleeping through the night, as all my kids were little right on top of each other, and there were other very stressful factors at play in my life... like my husband sending me back home to live with my mom so he could "whatever" when i was six months pregnant with our third child... anyway
i didn't breastfeed past eight months with any of them... i rocked and sang them to sleep... whoever was the youngest got rocked while the others layed in their beds while i sang... then when the baby was asleep, i would take turns laying with the other two and would stroke their hair or whatever while i continued to sing...
so now, being much older and wiser, and having internet access, i know better (i think)... lol... we have our bed on the floor... sleep with our little one... nurse to sleep for all three daytime naps as well as most evening bedtimes, rocking and singing as well... sometimes he does not get all tree naps, sometimes he does... i remember my first son would take three naps a day and gradually moved to two, then one... thats all fine and dandy...
when we introduced more solids a couple months ago, our baby started to sleep longer, and one night slept a whole five hours, and another night slept a whole eight hours... yay!! no... teething interrupted all of that... he got eight teeth in a row without a break... much pain, much fussiness, much nighttime waking... it was in the middle of this mess that i did an online search and found this forum... i read and read... never posted as my questions were answered... we had some sleep issues also in relation to naps and such, as he seemed to always be overtired and was not getting enough sleep... i had been missing his window of opportunity' and bumped all naps and bedtime up... this worked well at the time even though it seemed he was sleeping way too much...
well, he still sleeps 14 hours a day... although, none of it very deep with how often he wakes... every 2 - 2 1/2 hours he will wake up... two of these times is before i even make it to bed myself... he will go back to sleep with rocking for the early wake up, but wants to nurse for all the rest... then, during the day, he comes to me sleepy and wanting me to do something about it every 2 1/2 hours on the dot... not always is he quite ready for a nap (i learned this by trying to catch him with nap at the right time and him not going to sleep and ending up with his tummy so full of milks with false start naps that life was not so sweet anymore), so i distract him to keep him up at least 3 1/2 hours before i nurse him to sleep... needless to say, occasionally he will take an hour and a half nap, most of the time it is an hour on the dot, and many other times it is only half an hour... rarely only twenty minutes, and when this happens i try to get him to go back to sleep right away for the rest of his nap...
so, he wants to go to bed at 6 pm.... we get him to sleep by 6:30 / 7 sometimes.... then he wakes around 9, and again at 11 and again at 3 and again at five or six, and then wants to stay up... exactly 2 1/2 hours later if he wakes up at the earlier time, he wants a nap, 3 hours later if he wakes at 6 or later... then i have tried to manage his naps keeping him to a three nap schedule of around 9:00, 12:00, and 3 when he takes shorter naps, and only a morning and afternoon nap when he takes longer naps...
i am exasperated, not only by the constant night waking, but the fact that he seems to want to sleep so much during the day as well... not only do i not get enough restful sleep at night, but i cannot go anywhere because i never know how the naps are going to work out during the day... i am arguing and being mean to my husband because of the lack of sleep and am snapping at my older children as well...
last night i was at my wits end when he woke up after only an hour and a half of sleep, i rocked him back to sleep, but apparently i did not rock him long enough and he fussed when i put him down... he fell asleep two different times and each time i attempted to put him down he phreaked.... my patience was all gone last night and my body was tired of rocking on the bed (i have been rocking him sitting cross legged on the bed, i don't have a decent rocker this time around)... so i just layed there with him, as sometimes he needs to roll around and grunt and groan a little before he gets comfortable enough to drop off... no, not this time... he cried and cried and crawled all over me pushing his little head on me, which is his way of saying, please rock me or nurse me, i cant do it... well, i couldnt do it and i just layed there and let this go on wondering if what i was doing was just as bad as leaving him alone in a crib to cry it out...
i was trying to deal with feelings of frustration and impatience as well as guilt at the same time... why couldnt he sleep more than two hours at a time?!?!?! i got so frustrated with the crying at one point i left him on the bed and went into the living room, which is right on the other side of our bedroom door... he kept crying, then phreaked, came crawling after me in a tizzy, and as soon as he came out through the door looking for me my heart melted and i swooped him up and gave in to nursing him to sleep...
this lack of sleep is impairing my judgement...
i don't know how to get him to sleep longer than two and a half hours...
i need some suggestions...
i don't have any knowledgeable support from family or friends for AP
a little background... i have three older children from a previous marriage... boy 13, girl 11 girl 10... and now, i have a nine month old son with my new husband...
i have always rocked to sleep at night and naps with babies, and would lay down with the children for naps till they grew out of them, and layed with them for bedtime for the longest time... i would even occasionally be asked by the oldest to lay with him at age eleven... all fine and dandy...
with my oldest son we slept together until he started rolling... i was unaware of co-sleeping at the time... at six months i believe i did what every parenting book says to do... let them cry it out in the middle of the night... needless to say, this was not as easy as the book portrayed... i was opposed to it, but thought it was the only way... i don't even remember what i did with my girls for sleeping through the night, as all my kids were little right on top of each other, and there were other very stressful factors at play in my life... like my husband sending me back home to live with my mom so he could "whatever" when i was six months pregnant with our third child... anyway
i didn't breastfeed past eight months with any of them... i rocked and sang them to sleep... whoever was the youngest got rocked while the others layed in their beds while i sang... then when the baby was asleep, i would take turns laying with the other two and would stroke their hair or whatever while i continued to sing...
so now, being much older and wiser, and having internet access, i know better (i think)... lol... we have our bed on the floor... sleep with our little one... nurse to sleep for all three daytime naps as well as most evening bedtimes, rocking and singing as well... sometimes he does not get all tree naps, sometimes he does... i remember my first son would take three naps a day and gradually moved to two, then one... thats all fine and dandy...
when we introduced more solids a couple months ago, our baby started to sleep longer, and one night slept a whole five hours, and another night slept a whole eight hours... yay!! no... teething interrupted all of that... he got eight teeth in a row without a break... much pain, much fussiness, much nighttime waking... it was in the middle of this mess that i did an online search and found this forum... i read and read... never posted as my questions were answered... we had some sleep issues also in relation to naps and such, as he seemed to always be overtired and was not getting enough sleep... i had been missing his window of opportunity' and bumped all naps and bedtime up... this worked well at the time even though it seemed he was sleeping way too much...
well, he still sleeps 14 hours a day... although, none of it very deep with how often he wakes... every 2 - 2 1/2 hours he will wake up... two of these times is before i even make it to bed myself... he will go back to sleep with rocking for the early wake up, but wants to nurse for all the rest... then, during the day, he comes to me sleepy and wanting me to do something about it every 2 1/2 hours on the dot... not always is he quite ready for a nap (i learned this by trying to catch him with nap at the right time and him not going to sleep and ending up with his tummy so full of milks with false start naps that life was not so sweet anymore), so i distract him to keep him up at least 3 1/2 hours before i nurse him to sleep... needless to say, occasionally he will take an hour and a half nap, most of the time it is an hour on the dot, and many other times it is only half an hour... rarely only twenty minutes, and when this happens i try to get him to go back to sleep right away for the rest of his nap...
so, he wants to go to bed at 6 pm.... we get him to sleep by 6:30 / 7 sometimes.... then he wakes around 9, and again at 11 and again at 3 and again at five or six, and then wants to stay up... exactly 2 1/2 hours later if he wakes up at the earlier time, he wants a nap, 3 hours later if he wakes at 6 or later... then i have tried to manage his naps keeping him to a three nap schedule of around 9:00, 12:00, and 3 when he takes shorter naps, and only a morning and afternoon nap when he takes longer naps...
i am exasperated, not only by the constant night waking, but the fact that he seems to want to sleep so much during the day as well... not only do i not get enough restful sleep at night, but i cannot go anywhere because i never know how the naps are going to work out during the day... i am arguing and being mean to my husband because of the lack of sleep and am snapping at my older children as well...
last night i was at my wits end when he woke up after only an hour and a half of sleep, i rocked him back to sleep, but apparently i did not rock him long enough and he fussed when i put him down... he fell asleep two different times and each time i attempted to put him down he phreaked.... my patience was all gone last night and my body was tired of rocking on the bed (i have been rocking him sitting cross legged on the bed, i don't have a decent rocker this time around)... so i just layed there with him, as sometimes he needs to roll around and grunt and groan a little before he gets comfortable enough to drop off... no, not this time... he cried and cried and crawled all over me pushing his little head on me, which is his way of saying, please rock me or nurse me, i cant do it... well, i couldnt do it and i just layed there and let this go on wondering if what i was doing was just as bad as leaving him alone in a crib to cry it out...
i was trying to deal with feelings of frustration and impatience as well as guilt at the same time... why couldnt he sleep more than two hours at a time?!?!?! i got so frustrated with the crying at one point i left him on the bed and went into the living room, which is right on the other side of our bedroom door... he kept crying, then phreaked, came crawling after me in a tizzy, and as soon as he came out through the door looking for me my heart melted and i swooped him up and gave in to nursing him to sleep...
this lack of sleep is impairing my judgement...
i don't know how to get him to sleep longer than two and a half hours...
i need some suggestions...
i don't have any knowledgeable support from family or friends for AP
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