Sleepless Nights Part 2

So I thought we were in the clear since earlier in the week when- I posted about our sleepless night with Jack. We had 2 nights where he slept through and it was great; I had made some changes that I thought were helping, I started giving him a sippy cup of water and of milk (I know he is not yet 1, but it is only a little over a week away.) I was also making sure he had good naps and not too late in the afternoon, since I think that might have been making it harder for him to go to bed at a good time. This is all new territory for me, Allie is so different, she is just so easy going about everything- she could wake up from a nap at 5 pm and then go to bed at her regular 7:30, no problem. Anyways I thought that all these things had turned things around, until last night.

Jack woke up at 3:30 ish and I did the usually, it is so hard to think clearly in the middle of the night *grin*; I got him from his crib and nursed him in the rocker in his room and when I thought he was done I put him in his crib, covered him up and as soon as I started to walk out of the room he started crying and stood up at the end of his crib. So, I layed him back down and rubbed his back a little bit to calm him back down and left the room again. As soon as I got to our bedroom door he was crying again, but I decided to try what Sam's Mom had suggested, so I went into our room and waited for 5 minutes. Can I just tell you that those 5 minutes felt like 20. When they were up he was still crying so I headed back into his room and layed him back down and rubbed his back some more to calm him down and then left the room again this time for 10 minutes, just like last time he was standing in his crib and crying, but I waited it out and as I lay in bed watching the clock I heard him stop crying every so often and then start back up again. When the 10 minutes were over he was crying again so I headed back in and layed him down and rubbed him some more and this time when I left the room I waited for 15 minutes. The same thing started to happen he would cry some and then stop, but this time the stops were getting longer than the crying and by the end of the 15 minutes he was quiet and he didn't start up again.

I am really glad that this worked, but this was the hardest thing to do as a mom. All I wanted to do when I heard him crying was to go in and pick him up and calm him down. I haven't wanted to go this route with these sleepless nights until now; but I was starting to feel like we were building some terrible habbits with this whole waking up in the middle of the night. Hopefully tonight he will sleep through the night; of course who knows if that will happen we will be at Grammy's house tonight.

Sleepless Nights.

Well you probably guessed it from the title of this post, Jack isn't sleeping through the night again. I am at a loss, he goes to bed fine. Our routine is to have a bath (on a bath night), get PJ's on rock and nurse in his room, where it is quiet (he has gotten to that point were he is too distracted to nurse out in the living room at night before bed), then I put him down in his crib. He usually is "almost" asleep and I close his door. Most nights this is fine and he sleeps through, however we get into these crazy sleep patterns where he doesn't sleep through the night.

Last night was one of those nights were he didn't sleep through, he woke up around 12:30 ish and was up until almost 2 am! I just don't know what to do to get him to sleep through; this is crazy he is almost 1 years old!

Well this is what I have been doing; when he wakes up I usually wait a minute to see if he will settle himself down and go back to sleep. If this doesn't work then I go in and get him and lately I have been rocking him in the chair in his room and nursing him in there. Previously I had been bringing him back into our room and nursing him in bed and then just falling back to sleep and letting him stay in here. I decided that this wasn't working for me, because I truly don't sleep that well when he is in bed with us, I am always "aware" of where he is and not really sleeping. So back to nursing him in the chair in his room, once he is done I put his paci back in his mouth and put him back into his crib and I head back to our room. Well last night I decided that this was crazy, he can't possibly be hungry, he ate a good dinner and nursed really well before going to bed so I decided to let him cry it out a little and hopefully settle himself down. But that didn't work, as a matter of fact he woke up the dog downstairs in his crate and then I had the both of them crying. So I yelled at the dog and he quieted down and then I got Jack out to rock, but not nurse again and he wanted nothing to do with it. He was trying to crawl all over me, finally I got him to settle a little bit and I put him back into his crib and we woke right up crying. From there the story gets a little fuzzy because it was approaching 1:30 am and I was "done", Matt tried rocking him with no luck and finally after some crying on my part I brought him into our bed around 2 am ish and he nursed and fell asleep until this morning when Matt got up.

Does anyone have any suggestions, I just don't know what to do to get him to sleep through consistently. Today we are sticking close to home and I am going to try and keep him on a normal schedule. Hopefully that will help with tonight. I would love to hear if any of you have any suggestions or advice.

Waking Baby

My baby boy isn't sleeping well again. This is unfamiliar territory for me, Allie has always been such a super sleeper. Dare I say this, she slept through the night at 6 weeks. I mean through the night, from 10 pm to 6 or 7 am. Well I have felt everyones pain, because Jack didn't sleep through the night for the first time until he was 8 months old and he hasn't been very consistent about it since then. Some times he sleeps for 10 to 12 hours and other times he wakes up 2 or 3 times.

We are back to one of those not sleeping well cycles. To start he has a cold and an ear infection (poor little guy), but for the last 3 nights he has been waking up at least 2 times after going down and last night he was up 3 (I think) and I finally ended up bringing him to bed with us. Which I don't mind doing but then no one sleeps that well. I sleep but not that well, I am always worried about where he is and I end up in one position, which isn't too comfy.

I hate to say it, but tonight when he woke up a little while ago I groaned. I just wish that I could figure out how to help him sleep through. Does anyone have any suggestions?

*The photo above is one of my favorite sleeping photo's of Jack, doesn't he look so sweet.