Sounds like you’ve got a live one here! He’s going to be a great little Doper I’m sure and following his progress is going to be fun (for us anyway).
Firstly, with teeth coming through nothing is going to make him as settled as he was before that, so set your expectations accordingly.
Secondly, I agree with the comment above about Orajel (and Tylenol and any other drug); lay off it unless you’re absolutely sure it’s needed at that time. It’s easy for you to become dependent on these to settle him, and unconsciously end up doing it for your benefit rather than his. This site points out that babies often get disturbed sleep around about the time they start teething, for completely unrelated reasons:
which sounds exactly like your little one!
Thirdly, your comment about leaving him to cry for as much as 5 minutes seems to be saying you’re usually not even leaving it that long. One site I found covers it this way:
So in other words don’t do it up to 5 minutes, but rather a *minimum *of every 5 minutes. Leaving him to cry when there’s nothing actually wrong does not make you a bad parent (heart-wrenching though it will be to begin with) - what will is getting exhausted to the point of distraction. You need your sleep to be a good parent!
We have all of these. Literally. Got the box set as a gift. Actually tried Van Gogh tonight. It was Zombie Child of the Borg. Kinda creepy actually. Got sucked right in. Then it ended, and my troubles began anew.
And now I feel guilty having drugged my 6 month old with a video.
Have you tried swaddling him? That worked well with my little brothers when they were tired but too stimulated to sleep. When their motion is restricted that way it sort of forces them to calm down and allows them to fall asleep.
Alas, this is normal. As babies get older, they sleep less and less during the day. You should not expect the baby to take two naps any more. He’s in a period of adjustment where he can’t quite make it without the second nap, but nonetheless his system doesn’t need that much sleep in daylight hours.
Try to put him down for his one nap of the day a little after lunch. Sometimes the fact that his food’s digesting will make him drowsy enough to nod off.
I went through this with my son, too. The problem was that maybe *he *didn’t need that second nap, but *I *sure did.
We are going through this with our little lad as well, and just as infamousmom said, he may not need the extra sleep, but we sure do.
Really, though, much is the same—teething woes (how the hell many teeth do kids need, anyhow)? Check. Learning new skills? Check. Waking himself up by crawling into a corner of the crib and then not knowing what to do? Check. Chewing on toes as an alternative to sleeping? Check. Mom who nearly goes nuts listening to 300 seconds of crying? Double check. I would say that the major difference is that my boy has a 2 1/2-year-old sister who twice this past weekend woke him from a much-needed (by everyone) nap by running shrieking through the house. Nearly shrieked herself out of the inheritance, that one. Good thing she’s so damn cute at other times.
Anyhow, I don’t know if swaddling will work for Tinkleberry at this point. He may just be too active. That was our savior right up until about a month ago. I will say, though, that the days when my guy tires himself out more by crawling, he does sleep better at night.
I guess I’ve added no value to this thread, but there is lots of empathy coming your way!
In post #21, askance talks about a sleep-training method that I used with all three of mine. Just a hint if you’re thinking about doing it: use a timer. When your baby is crying and you really, really want to go to him, two minutes is going to seem like ten! But I do recommend this sleep-training method. Worked like a charm for my kids.
Also, as someone else said (forgive me, I’m in a hurry and too lazy to look), this is a phase, and it will pass. Little Tinkleberry will not go the rest of his life without sleeping, although it may seem that way sometimes.
My ex-baby who is now 7 (and was the worst baby ever ™) used to sleep better following a new or novel experience. We felt that on the rare occasions when he took a nap, it was followed by either a develpmental leap or a trip to the Doc for some illness.
If he were mine, I would take a peek in his ears and then try a dip in the kiddie pool in the yard or give him a bucket of sand/beans/rice for him to feel.
It’s clear that no ONE thing will work on every child, but what I’ve noticed is that if they can be distracted long enough by white noise, they will fall asleep. Sometimes it’s a car ride, a fan, or a vacuum cleaner going. Even the stereo turned up to your favorite station while you clean will help, not only for you but if the baby hears it too. We’ve got 3 children 5 and under. This was a common routine; Feed them, bathe them, and then read to them (all tucked into our bed under the covers). If they weren’t asleep by this time then we would put on a video or the radio and leave them alone while we vacuumed and cleaned. Once asleep, we’d take them out of our bed and put them in theirs.
I also think that his sleep cycle is changing–he may only need one nap, after “lunch”. Maybe try that.
I vividly remember having my kids “cry it out”–and it is the most heartwrenching experience, really. I would rather have had teeth drilled sans Novacaine than repeat that.
but sometimes it’s the only way–and it won’t hurt tink . It is (or was for me) emotionally exhausting.
hang in there. I have a suspicion that several milestones will be gone thru soon and the dust will settle.
Re: the video–do what needs to be done. I doubt that you will ever park your kid in front of it out of laziness etc. You deserve a sanity break–what about a sitter, so that you can leave the madness for awhile. Even 30 minutes can make the difference, somedays.
I feel your pain, inkleberry! Starting about this time last summer my twins took turns having that kind of day, and it was miserable! From 4-7 months they were a true PITA, then it got better. Then worse. Then better. Then worse. Then better .
Mine did respond well to car rides, most of the time - that was my only way of getting an afternoon nap in. Unfortunately I was the one who really needed some sleep!
You might want to check out The No-Cry Sleep Solution. But I think the only real answer is time. I used to take my twins to places I wanted to go, like the Art Museum. Just a distraction for my own benefit. And the change of scenery seemed to do them a lot of good.
I never let mine cry for long periods, or did any training, but sure as heck took a bathroom break despite their wails (sometimes b/c I needed to pee, other times I just needed to hide for a few minutes!).
Also, don’t feel bad about using videos at that age - I don’t think they can even see it very well, they don’t have adult vision until 8 months or so. Anything that helps you get through a tough day is fair game. I think it’s when they’re older that you’ve got to be more careful - we were all watching one of those Nanny shows together, and my daughter started imitating the brats on TV! Just walked up and slapped me! We restrict their viewing very carefully, and minimize it as much as possible.
Yep, you’ve done it now. You’ve got him hooked on the boob tube. Soon he’ll be screeching for those sugar cereals and the latest cool movie tie-in toy from Burger King. He’ll never know the love of books or bird-watching. Tsk tsk tsk.
Seriously, m’lady, YOU’RE DOING FINE. He’s healthy, he wants to do things, and he’s just plain mad that he can’t. Sounds like you have one headstrong little boy there. I wouldn’t wait for two weeks before you see the doctor, though. Maybe they can prescribe something over the phone or offer some tips before your next appointment.
Trust me, they’ve heard it all before. Once, my MIL was changing my husband when he was a baby. As little boys do, he was rather excited at having the cool air on his nether regions. Well, he slipped off the changing table and suddenly he wasn’t so excited anymore.
My MIL called the doctor, frantic. She thought she’d broken her son’s penis. (Good for me, it’s in perfect working order.)
My son is now 10 months old and a few months ago he cut 4 top teeth all at once, so I feel your pain. It really is like someone took your happy baby and replaced him with a cranky screaming mess. Mr. Crab, as we referred to him, started waking up at night again and becoming clingy and fussy all day, which was not like him at all. Like your son he had been on a good schedule and was even sleeping 10-12 hours through at night. That all changed for a few weeks, and I have noticed an ongoing pattern of 2 steps forward, one step back in his development. As you pointed out they tend to hit transition phases as they learn new skills.
As soon as the teeth broke though we noticed his old self coming back. Oragel did not seem to help, we just kept giving him cool teethers and things to chew. It is a phase, they just have to get through it. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the bottom teeth that are scheduled next don’t give him as much trouble.
I have Baby Mozart and Baby VanGogh too, and like you I has hesitant at first to use ‘videos as a babysitter.’ As videos go though, I think these are pretty harmless. They are just looking at pretty images and toys, not learning bad behavior or anything. My kid watches one almost every day and I use the time to make dinner or get a few things done in one solid block of time. It is funny how entranced by them they get, but you are not killing his brain by letting him watch a video now and then, as long as he gets lots of personal stimulation and free play too. Everything in moderation.
Well, this isn’t going to be popular, but our pediatrician told us that at about 6 months, babies no longer really need the 3am feeding. She suggested letting them do the dreaded Crying it Out. Well, my daughter lasted about 30 minutes the first night and then about 5 minutes the next night. And the third night----nothing. She was up at 5 or 6, happy and smiling and never looked back. When my son turned six months we did the same thing and, again, it worked like a charm. (I think he lasted a little longer on the second day, but he’s like that.)
To this day they are both champion sleepers and rarely wake for more than a couple of minutes with a bad dream or something like that–even when they are sick. I believe they just had to learn to settle themselves down–and I also think that it carried over to napping. They learned they would get a song or two and a kiss, and then that was it. There were a couple of rough spots as they started to outgrow the morning nap, but that’s about it.
I’m sure not everyone will agree with this as a strategy, but it worked like a charm for us, with no physical or mental effects that I can see.
I am. so. very. sorry. And, will repeat that the offer to watch tink still stands. About the only thing that calmed down first born male child was frozen waffles. They were messy but at least he ate something, and it soothed his gums without me medicating the daylights out of him.
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