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| infant wont sleep still!!! |
| My youngest is 2 months old and still wont sleep well.... He goes to bed around 7-8 but by 11 he is up and every hour wants to be up and eat, i feed him cereal before he goes to bed and put cereal in all his bottles cause he has reflux, but he still always seems hungry. And he is up all nite, he doesnt even sleep much during the day either!
I cant nap during the dday because i have a 20 month old running around and when they nap its always at different times, how do i get them both on a better schedule?
any tips |
| See also: need help, need support, need advice |
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| Answers: |
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Amanda,
I understand where you're coming from. My oldest was 22 months when her baby sister arrived. My youngest had colic and reflux and it was indeed a trying time for my husband and me. Hang in there it will get better but maybe not right away.
At about 5 months my youngest settled into her evening sleep routine, but she's 7 months now and we're still working on the daytime nap routine. Our pediatrician says a lot of infants take cat naps during the day instead of the 1-2 hour sleepy parents long for them to take. She believes that she'll eventually settle into a daytime nap and as I said, I'm just now starting to see that happen. Until that happens, you probably won't get them both to sleep during the day at the same time.
One thing I learned to do with both children is to look for signs of tiredness (rubbing eyes, fussiness, the glazed over look, yawning, etc.). As soon as I saw these signs, I began the short and simple nap time routine (change of clothes, story, and soothing music, etc.). However, if the children demonstrated excessive crankiness, I abbreviated the routine so I wouldn't lose the window of nap time opportuntity. Eventually I found that routine naps during the day contributed to better sleep at night.
But thee one thing I have found to be most helpful is to maintain a routine time schedule for BOTH children during all aspects of the day. My youngest would sometimes awake at 6:30 am, while at other times she'd sleep until 8:30 am. Now both girls get up at 7:45. I've also matched their eating routines (3 meals and 3-4 snacks for the oldest and 3 cereal feedings and 3-4 nursings for the youngest). Now I'm slowly incorporating the youngest's nap time into the oldest's current nap schedule. These strategies have helped the younger one begin to assimilate into the older one's schedule.
As far as the reflux is concerned, try to keep baby comfortable and perhaps he'll sleep a bit better. We found small improvements when we kept the baby upright for at least 1/2 an hour after meals. We were trying to lay her down to soon and didn't give her food a chance to begin digesting. Also, we elevated the baby's her head while sleeping by keeping a rolled towel under one end of the mattress. We also switched to shorter more frequent feedings as too much food too soon caused problems.
These two techniques (complete schedule match plus reflux comfort strategies) have helped make things better for me. Last week, I was able to get both girls asleep at the same time TWICE! The youngest did wake up after a 1/2 hour, but it's a start. I'm confident as she gets older she'll sleep a bit longer.
Others may disagree, but this is just what has worked for me. Best wishes and hang in there!
Andrea
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| posted by Renee on 04/08/2007 |
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