Sleep POLL

Ok, it's taking me about an hour to put him to sleep for nap times now,
and he doesn't stay asleep for even an hour any more. This wouldn't
feel so bad to me if I knew it was normal, so I am really interested in
what your babies to WRT sleep...

1. How old is your baby?

2. How does he/she get to sleep for naps?

3. How many/long are the naps?

4. Where and how do they sleep at night?

5. How many times do they wake over night?

6. Does your baby sleep the 'recommended' number of hours?

7. Should I stop reading books and just get on with it?


Thanks

Jo (Mum to Will, 5 months old - who is rolling rolling rolling!)

Jo wrote:
I guess i should answer this as well..


1. How old is your baby?

5 months


2. How does he/she get to sleep for naps?

At the moment, BF. But if not hungry, then rocking with dummy, then put
in cot almost asleep.


3. How many/long are the naps?

At the moment 20 min to an hour, sometimes more, but not usually every day.


4. Where and how do they sleep at night?

Go to bed in cot after shower, sorbolene massage, PJs and BF.


5. How many times do they wake over night?

From 18 - 3.


6. Does your baby sleep the 'recommended' number of hours?

Not usually, but sometimes.


7. Should I stop reading books and just get on with it?

That's for you guys to answer!

Jo

1. How old is your baby?

7.5 months

2. How does he/she get to sleep for naps?

I nurse her lying down and then transfer her to her crib when she is asleep

3. How many/long are the naps?

Two naps and it totally varies but usually one in the morning for 1 hour
(give or take some mornings it's only 20 min) and one in the afternoon from
1-3 hours (3 hours if she has only had a short or no nap in the morning, yes
sometimes she refuses to nap in the morning!)

4. Where and how do they sleep at night?

She sleeps in a crib right beside our bed and if she is really fussy at
night she sleeps with us. She is a very restless sleeper and I think I 'll
be moving her out of our room very soon.

5. How many times do they wake over night?

Sigh....3-4 times. I'm working on this! And once or twice a night she will
be up for 45 min to an hour at a time. I'm trying to get by with 3-4 hours
sleep a night right now and I'm not a happy camper in the mornings and
unfortunately I'm yelling a little more than I should at my 2.5 year old
(poor thing ( )

6. Does your baby sleep the 'recommended' number of hours?

some days yes some no

7. Should I stop reading books and just get on with it?

Reading books can help but you have to take what you can and adjust it to
work for you.

"Jo" wrote in message
...
Ok, it's taking me about an hour to put him to sleep for nap times now,
and he doesn't stay asleep for even an hour any more. This wouldn't feel
so bad to me if I knew it was normal, so I am really interested in what
your babies to WRT sleep...

1. How old is your baby?

5 months yesterday

2. How does he/she get to sleep for naps?

Rocking, either in the rocking chair or me walking around in the sling if
I'm busy - he refuses to nurse to sleep, though will sometimes suck my
finger or the pacifier.

3. How many/long are the naps?

He takes about 4 20 minute naps a day. Sometimes, I can get him to sleep
longer in the afternoon if DD also takes a nap and I can sleep in the bed
with both of them. VERY rare though. He did sleep this way for about 2.5
hours once, and I was pleasantly flabbergasted!

4. Where and how do they sleep at night?

I rock him to sleep after a bath PJs and nursing (the rocking generally
takes about 30 minutes or so), then put him in the cradle downstairs until
I am ready to go up to bed and I take him with me to our bed.

5. How many times do they wake over night?

2 or 3, though lately (past week) he's been waking about 5 or so times a
night. I'm not completley sure because neither of us wakes all the way up,
I just roll over, nurse him and we both go back to sleep.

6. Does your baby sleep the 'recommended' number of hours?
About 12 at night and an hour or two during the day. Don't know what the
recommended is for his age, but it seems about right to me.

7. Should I stop reading books and just get on with it?
Books have their place, but every baby is different, and *they* don't get
to read the book, lol!


Thanks

Jo (Mum to Will, 5 months old - who is rolling rolling rolling!) Mine
too!!

"Jo" wrote
Ok, it's taking me about an hour to put him to sleep for nap times now,
and he doesn't stay asleep for even an hour any more. This wouldn't
feel so bad to me if I knew it was normal, so I am really interested in
what your babies to WRT sleep...

1. How old is your baby?

5 months

2. How does he/she get to sleep for naps?

Nurses/in stroller/car

3. How many/long are the naps?

3 X 30-40 minutes usually, sometimes only 2 but one will be longer.

4. Where and how do they sleep at night?

In a cot wearing a sleeping bag. He does one long stretch of 4-6 hours and
then wakes up every 2 hours or so to feed. He usually just feeds and falls
back asleep again after about 30 minutes.

5. How many times do they wake over night?

Don't know - 3? I don't wake up enough to count.

6. Does your baby sleep the 'recommended' number of hours?

Don't know - he sleeps the number of hours he needs. I don't though, i
should go to bed earlier when he's having his long stretch.

7. Should I stop reading books and just get on with it?

Yes. Though i've stopped reading the books and still obsess about the
amount of sleep - that *I'm* getting .

Jean

--
DD - June '02
DS - May '05

1. How old is your baby? 16 wks


2. How does he/she get to sleep for naps? Change his bum, put him in
bag, put him in cot. Sit on bed whispering to him 'shh.., night night,
sleeepies' until he quietens down enough that I can leave him to nod
off.
This is only recent and it has taken a lot of effort to get it this
easy. Sometimes it takes a dummy (not always staying in but a quick
suck and spit calms him), sometimes a bit more shh..


3. How many/long are the naps? Needs 3 naps if nap 2 is 2 hours. If
nap 2 is only 45mins like the rest then he really needs 4 naps. Before
things improved he would never nap for more than 45 mins and always
woke grumpy.


4. Where and how do they sleep at night? In cot, in our bedroom. Bath,
bum, bag, boob, bed. He doesn't always feed to sleep but it gets him
there quicker than if he doesn't feed. Sometimes a dummy is required.
He always spits it after a max of 15 mins and doesn't need replacing
all night.


5. How many times do they wake over night? At the moment this is all
over the place. Usually it's bed at 7, feed at 11/12, feed at 3/4 then
feed and awake at 7am. Not sure how many of these count as night? His
snuffles and attempts to roll have bought about more wakings but he can
either be soothed or fed back to sleep.


6. Does your baby sleep the 'recommended' number of hours? He used to
sleep the right amount at night but is waking for an extra feed so it's
a bit less. I know he gets the right amount of naps now as his mood has
improved dramatically since he has been getting more and longer naps.


7. Should I stop reading books and just get on with it?

That's a hard one. On our case it was blindingly obvious his lack of
naps and the stress it took to get them was causing him to be seriously
overtired and miserable. He stopped feeding to sleep once his jaundice
went but just wouldn't fall asleep on his own so he was getting
overtired. By lunchtime he was miserable, by the time DH came home he
was, as someone once described, at meltdown. We had to do something
about it and after a *lot* of consistent routine of pat/shh, pick
up/put down etc. It has all been for the better.

I can only tell you that changing things (also being in a cot not a
basket, and in our bedroom in the quiet and dark, not the living room)
has worked for us. The problem we have now is that he still won't fall
asleep on his own unless the conditions are right, so having a nap when
he needs it when we are out doesn't happen. What we do about that I
don't know? But it is considerly less of a problem that his whole life
being unhappy because he didn't have enough sleep.

I did read Dr Weissbleuths book and briefly worried about ADHD and all
that, but to be honest if I thought his lack of naps wasn't a problem
at the time (ie if he had been happy without the 'required' amount)
then I wouldn't have done anything to change things.

Jeni

Thanks, CY! Seems we have very simillar babies - age and all. Yours was
a very reassuring post to read.

What is his DOB? I'm in Australia, and my DS was 5 months yesterday,
too, but is it the same date - 27th? What was his TOB? Will was born
at 0529

Thanks again,
Jo

Iuil wrote:



Don't know - he sleeps the number of hours he needs. I don't though, i
should go to bed earlier when he's having his long stretch.

I should do that too.. but then I like the few hours I get to myself of
an evening

Thanks for your post - another reassuring one "they" say that a nap
less than 1 hour doesn't count. At the moment there is NO way I can get
him to sleep longer than the first sleep cycle.



Jo

wrote:



7. Should I stop reading books and just get on with it?

That's a hard one. On our case it was blindingly obvious his lack of
naps and the stress it took to get them was causing him to be seriously
overtired and miserable. He stopped feeding to sleep once his jaundice
went but just wouldn't fall asleep on his own so he was getting
overtired. By lunchtime he was miserable, by the time DH came home he
was, as someone once described, at meltdown. We had to do something
about it and after a *lot* of consistent routine of pat/shh, pick
up/put down etc. It has all been for the better.

Jeni this is good to know. We used to have a good thing going with just
using tired signs - put to bed. Now though, the put to bed thing can
take an hour. We are starting to implement a bit of a routine,
sometimes he won't have it though, and won't relax and be rocked/fed
when he's tired and needs it. Sometimes the music works, and sometimes
it doesn't. The night time routine involves a shower, PJs, BF and cot
semi-awake. Shh and pat pat doesn't work at all for him. Sometimes
pick-up and rock doesn't either! Nor does feed if he's not hungry.
Sometimes we have to hold him really tight, especially his arms so he
can't swipe the dummy out, and just bounce up and down until he gives up
and goes to sleep! Poor little might. Why can't they just see sleep as
valuable as we do?

Thanks

Jo

Jo wrote:
wrote:



7. Should I stop reading books and just get on with it?

That's a hard one. On our case it was blindingly obvious his lack of
naps and the stress it took to get them was causing him to be seriously
overtired and miserable. He stopped feeding to sleep once his jaundice
went but just wouldn't fall asleep on his own so he was getting
overtired. By lunchtime he was miserable, by the time DH came home he
was, as someone once described, at meltdown. We had to do something
about it and after a *lot* of consistent routine of pat/shh, pick
up/put down etc. It has all been for the better.


Jeni this is good to know. We used to have a good thing going with just
using tired signs - put to bed. Now though, the put to bed thing can
take an hour. We are starting to implement a bit of a routine,
sometimes he won't have it though, and won't relax and be rocked/fed
when he's tired and needs it. Sometimes the music works, and sometimes
it doesn't. The night time routine involves a shower, PJs, BF and cot
semi-awake. Shh and pat pat doesn't work at all for him. Sometimes
pick-up and rock doesn't either! Nor does feed if he's not hungry.
Sometimes we have to hold him really tight, especially his arms so he
can't swipe the dummy out, and just bounce up and down until he gives up
and goes to sleep! Poor little might. Why can't they just see sleep as
valuable as we do?

I just wanted to say that DD2 went throguh a phase where she really
needed to be restrained to fall asleep. I'd lay on the bed, hold
her really snug against me, hold her arms down and wait. She'd fuss,
and scream and cry until she gave up. And it was right around when
we had to give up swaddling. She really needed her arms and legs still
to fall asleep, but we couldn't keep her in a swaddle.

It didn't last forever. She's 15 months now, and rarely nurses to
sleep (never really did, stinker). She'll nurse laying down and then
I just lay with her until she falls asleep. It does sometimes take
40 minutes, but often its faster. She wakes 2-3 times a night but goes
right back to sleep after nursing.

Mary W.