Harper used to be a rockstar sleeper. We would put her to bed wide awake around 8:30-9pm, and she would sleep soundly until 5 am. Some days she would even sleep until 7 am. Once she started busting out of her swaddle, right around 4 months, we stopped swaddling her and started using sleep sacks instead. Still slept like a champ.
Then one night around 1:00 am, I woke up to her making noise, looked over and I see THIS.
“What’s up mama. I don’t like sleeping anymore!”
And she wasn’t kidding. Since that random night, nothing changing in her bedtime routine or sleeping environment, my kid stopped sleeping.Since she started rolling over and trying to sit up, we have since taken her out of the Nap Nanny as well. This causes her to wake up in the middle of the night, fling her paci out of her pack n play and onto the floor, and then lift her legs and SLAM them down on the mattress eight hundred times.. over… and over… and over… and over. We wake up and as soon as she sees us, she starts to laugh. Hilariously cute… but frustrating nonetheless.
Her bedtime routine looks like this:
8:30 pm – Bath, using lavender-this-smell-makes-you-sleepy scented bath wash
8:45 pm – Bottle, 8 oz. while being rocked in the glider
9:00 pm – bed, flat on back wearing a sleep sack, room temp at 73, fan on, dark room & noise maker
Putting her down isn’t even the hard part, she usually still goes right to sleep. It’s the middle of the night shitshow that we are struggling with. I typically end up feeding her once around 3:30-4 when she eventually starts crying her eyes out. But she literally won’t sleep for more than a solid two hours anymore. And she typically takes a 45-90 min. nap in mid morning and another in late afternoon for about an hour and a half to two hours.
If you haven’t read the book “Go The F*ck to Sleep”… it’s funny business. You must check it out! And NO, I don’t actually read it to her.
Suggestions are WELCOME! But otherwise, just here to vent. Luckily I actually survive okay on little sleep.. so it could be worse. Just wanted to share my experience, to let all you mama’s know that you’re not alone & motherhood is not perfect… although pretty close.
In fact, her lack of sleep, which has lead to my lack of sleep and therefore my brain capacity to run at half mass…. caused me to take her car seat out of the stroller BEFORE detaching my diaper bag straps from the handle bar, causing my full $3.70 Venti iced coffee to go flying across the parking lot.
It’s a good thing my sweet, sweet baby cannot understand curse words yet.
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We were in the same boat. We lasted for several months but when our son was like 8 and a half months old and was waking up every hour to 2 hours we just couldn't take it and we used the self soothing method from a lifesaving book called "Every child can learn to sleep". It's not available for sale cause it is our of print and it's very difficult to find but there are a few similar books.
My wife wrote an article about our experiences with it: Every child can learn to sleep.
Mi son is the same way and is 13 weeks old I really thought he sleep more at night by now but it's not the case. Glad I'm not alone.
Thanks very encouraging! I tried putting my 13week old on a schedule and he just slept even less at night
Thanks very encouraging! Tried putting my son on a schedule and it just backfired on me
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