Last night was the first night of my latest attempt to train 13 month old Lil Neville to go to sleep without nursing to sleep. I’m using the Sleep Lady method. I got her down without too much trouble. But then she woke up around midnight and WOULD NOT go back to sleep. Finally got her back down at almost 3am. She woke up at 6 and I nursed her, figuring she probably was pretty hungry by then.
I’m feeling guilty about not nursing her when she wants to nurse. She had trouble getting the hang of breast feeding at first (she nurses well now), and she’s been very reluctant to accept solid foods. But I wonder if some of the reluctance to take solids could be because she can get what she’s used to and prefers, around the clock. I want to wean her entirely, so I can go back to work without having to deal with nursing, and so I don’t have to restrict my diet any more.
Paradoxically, I’m also feeling guilty for not getting her to sleep through the night by now. She did sleep through the night, but when she started crawling in March, she stopped, and hasn’t gone back to it.
The immediate precipitating event was a really awful night the night before last. It was pretty similar to last night, actually, only I tried and failed to nurse her to sleep. Somebody please tell me it gets better…
Anyone else done Sleep Lady? Cry it out methods are not on the table for us, because Lil Neville will cry till she vomits. Cleaning up vomit every night would be worse than what I’m dealing with now, so that’s not an option.-
I should clarify- Sleep Lady’s approach is to get the baby to a drowsy state, put them down in the crib, then sit nearby until the baby falls asleep. Eventually, over several nights, you move farther away from the crib while the baby’s falling asleep, until you’re not in the room any more.
Our biggest problem is that Lil Neville likes to crawl and stand in the crib if she’s not asleep. If she’s not tired enough when I put her in the crib, she pops right back up. Sometimes she cries, but sometimes she just stands, unless I leave the room- then, she cries. Anyone else dealt with this kind of thing? What I’m doing for now is picking her up and holding her (but not rocking or nursing her, as I used to do) if she cries, waiting till I think she’s drowsy enough, then putting her in the crib.
One problem I’m having is that it’s hard for me to tell when she’s asleep, especially when the room is dark. Any hints?
Growth spurt. you get them all set and on a sleep schedule and then POW! They start waking up absolutely starving hungry again.
I found that a serving of sweet potatoes + a slug of protein (chicken or eggs usually) was optimal for keeping her asleep. During these spurt fazes I would also add a calcium supplement to the sweet potatoes. (Celtling is a crazy fast growing girl - always in the 90th+ percentile for height.) There was just no getting enough calcium into her by normal methods, but the supplements helped immensely.
If she gets back into the habit of being hungry then, start giving a bottle so that you can add water a bit at a time. Just a little each day until her body gets the message not to ramp up the insulin at that time each night.
Hope that helps!
In the end, I was just buying the adult calcium+Vitamin D capsules and sprinkling them into pretty much everything - scrambled eggs to the aforementioned sweet potatoes.
If all else fails, then there are sleep trainer services or sometimes called Sleep Coaches. Some of the night nannys offer the service too.
The advantage is they have a different relationship with the baby. They aren’t seen as the person that feeds them. Sometimes they have better success getting sleep schedules to work.
If you’ve tried yourself numerous times then it might be worth checking to see if someone offers that service in your area.