Last night, when Airman put Aaron to bed, he wrapped Aaron’s legs up in a receiving blanket. (Yes, I know. You’re not supposed to do that; when I put Aaron to bed, I don’t do that.) During the night, Aaron rotated himself 180 degrees, and the blanket that had been over his legs was over his face. Needless to say, we were both pretty scared. Fortunately, Aaron is physically all right, but he’s afraid if I leave his sight, and now he’s afraid to go to sleep. He’ll fall asleep for short periods and wake up hysterically crying. I’ll soothe him and rock him back to sleep, but he’ll wake up again crying.
Hm, how old is he now? Sometimes sleeping trouble is just a coincidence with a traumatic event.
When my kids had problems sleeping, I just had to bite the bullet and wait for it to pass. I heard lots of advice- put them to sleep with their tummies full, give a bottle when the wake up, don’t give a bottle when they wake up, comfort them, let them cry, leave them in the crib, pick them up… you get the idea.
I just cooed to them and eased them back into the crib and to sleep. It can be hard to be patient and loving at 4:30 am when you’ve been up 6 times already, I know.
I sometimes find good ideas on Dr. William Sears’ website, you might try it. Good luck!
In fact, both his “topic of the week” and “Question of the week” deal with sleep issues!
Was he having problems breathing or hysterical when you found him? If not then he probably just picked up on your fear rather then actually being afraid himself.
You are probably doing exactly what you should do. Soothe him to sleep and then leave him alone. If he wakes up soothe him again. I bet he will be okay again in a day or two.
We didn’t use the blanket concept with Kate was that young. We had these PJ’s that allowed movement for the legs but really were just a bag to zip her up in. Her arms came out sleeves and her head out the neck. But from below the sleeves it was just a ‘baby bag’, if you get me.
Takes care of the blanket problem.
As for the sleeping issue? Kate had intermittent problems when she was small. At first we carried her but when she was sleeping through the night we’d just go into the darkened room and touch her, rub her back, talk calmly to her. Seemed to work well.
He wasn’t having problems breathing, but he was pretty upset. He doesn’t like having his clothes pulled over his head as it is, so I’m sure having the blanket covering his face like that wasn’t a lot of fun. (And he’ll be four months old next week.)
Thanks for the links.
Fortunately, he’s asleep now, and has been for almost an hour. Wait. I take that back. He was asleep for almost an hour.
That’s the problem, if you ask me. You’ve got him in the habit of expecting external comfort to get back to sleep instead of learning to calm himself down. I had similar problems with my son when he was about six months old–no blanket incident, just very demanding at bedtime. I talked it over with his pediatrician and she assured me that letting them cry it out will not scar them for life. She said to go ahead and give him a pat on the back for reassurance at half-hour intervals but otherwise to just let it ride. It took about a week of very traumatic and noisy bedtimes, but we haven’t had any problems since…
It’s not easy listening to them cry like that, but–for me anyway–it’s been very much worth it in the long run.
Good luck!
Aren’t hot water bottles supposed to calm babies who are having trouble sleeping? i know the Vermont Country Store catalog sells one with a lambswool cover - you might want to try it.
The baby could have picked up on your fear of the blanket being over his head. There are so many things that cause a baby to start not to sleep well. I am on my second baby and what works for her is to just leave her in the crib without picking her up. Talk, sing, pat his back to calm him down, but picking him up will only encourage him to keep crying. Its so hard to hear your baby cry, but it will make him a better sleeper in the long run.
Or you could co-sleep if that is your bent. I never bothered with making my kids scream to ‘self comfort’ 'cause that kind of logic makes no sense to me. If they were close to me, they felt safe and they slept. Wasn’t perfect sleep but then babies are not designed to sleep through the night, or at least bf babies aren’t. 4 months old is awfully young to be talking about self-comforting.
I’d steer clear of the hotty idea, no matter how comforting it seems. If they burst, the burns can be horrific. Maybe a wheat pack?
Good luck with whatever you choose!
The book “Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems” by Richard Ferber is very good. I don’t recall if it says anything specific about how to dress the baby for bedtime, but I think the above advice re: the “bag”-style sleeper (or when they’re older, a sleeper with legs, which they used to sell at Sears) is good.
My 3 year old still doesn’t like covers! That’s why they have footy sleepers. He looks like a Tele-Tubby at bedtime.
I co-slept with AJ until at least 4 months, maybe a little longer. But this time there was no problem starting him in the crib. I was prepared for a battle, because Zack did NOT care for the crib at all.
I tried the “cry yourself to sleep” thing but couldn’t keep it up. They eventually even out on their own. I kept reminding myself that he wasn’t going to be rocked to sleep the night before his high school grad, so who cares! This too shall pass, although it’s a drag right now.
Sleeping up till today was not a problem at all. He’d fight it for a few minutes, then pass right out and stay asleep. He’s also remarkably good with self-comforting and self-amusement. I usually don’t have to rock him to sleep.
Today, though, he seemed to be afraid to go to sleep. Finally, about 2 pm, he had a bottle and went to sleep for about four hours, woke up, had another bottle and his bath, and just went to sleep again. His mood seems to have improved tremendously since he took that nap this afternoon. I dressed him in a one-piece flannel blanket sleeper with feet, so there’s no reason for him to get cold.
The reason you’re generally not supposed to put a baby to bed with a blanket is to avoid precisely what happened to Aaron today. They can cover the baby’s face and suffocate them. Ideally, you’re not supposed to have anything at all in the crib with them except a mattress. No pillow, blanket, stuffed animals, nothing.
At this point, I think it was just a temporary reaction to a scare. Hopefully, he’ll be okay after tonight.
He’s fine. He slept through the night, as he almost always does and woke up in his usual cheery mood. (I swear, the kid does NOT get that from either me or from Airman.) He had his breakfast and is ready to start his day. I don’t think there was any lasting trauma from yesterday.
I do have one question, though. When I put Aaron to bed, I put him with his head facing one direction. When he wakes up in the morning, he’s almost always facing the other direction. Not flipping over onto his tummy, but “breakdancing” on his back so he’s about 180 degrees from where he started. Why does he do that?
I must confess, I have never before heard that you’re not supposed to put blankets on a baby. If that were the case, no child born in Canada would survive a winter.
By the way, Dr. Ferber (who developed the cry it out method) doesn’t recommend allowing a baby to cry unattended until at least 6 months (and longer for preemies).
So the crying it out idea doesn’t apply yet anyway.
Glad it is better. Active sleeper, huh? Gabe was, too. He’d jam himself into a corner, sometimes, head first. :shrug: If it continues, expect them to fall out of bed a lot in the first few years. Gabe did, even with a bedrail. He’d work his way down to the end of the bed, and slide off through the gap.
As for further scares, if he does get scared again, and flips out about the sleep situation for more than a day or two, try redecorating the crib. Gabe got tangled in a blanket once, too, and yes, freaked utterly (nap time, I wasn’t in the room but heard him from downstairs, so I know it was his reaction rather than a response to mine). He would freak again every time I put him back in his crib (even though he was a happy crib-sleeper most of the time). My mom finally moved the crib around, and threw a blanket over one end so the space looked different, and I put him down with his head facing the other end - he was fine that time and from then on.
Our daughter, Maeve, is a very active sleeper too. She’s fine in her cot because she’s too big to, as you put it so well, ‘breakdance’ her way around. We have a travel cot, though, that’s more like a playpen (kind of square) and she always manages to work her way around it. On colder nights in the travel cot she squirms out from under her blankets (every Irish child sleeps under blankets but need to be tightly tucked in) and wakes.
If the movement isn’t causing him to wake, there’s no problem. If it is, you might look at getting a cot that restricts his ability to move to that extent.