Tips

[A & A]

allrighty. does anyone have any tips on getting kylynne to sleep at night? i wake her up all day lon to eat and play, but she is still awake at night for like 5 hours. what tips and tricks do you guys have to help with this. i understand she needs to eat at night, but i want her to sleep between feedings.

[SallyG]

As a veteran mother......I don't know!!! My brother is having the same problem with their new little boy. It's a common problem and as I remember I'd just try to keep them awake as long as I could during the day (unless I fell asleep, too) and HOPE they would adjust themselves to sleep through the night. Eventually they get it straight and rest assured that by the time she's 10, she'll sleep through the night!!!

With 4 boys, I think it was 12 years before I got a full nights sleep.

[sunshines_minis]

It depends on the baby. Hopefully the little one does not require less sleep. My niece is 2 and is the exact way. Always has been. She only sleeps 2 hours every 24 hrs. Take shifts, nap, get someone to stay with you and help. My brother and his wife see very little of each other, he goes to sleep at 4:30 after work and gets up at 1am to be with the toddle. she takes the evening he gets the morning. You some babies grow out of it like mine. I just slept with her in bed playing by me and took naps too. Normally a full tummy helps, less or no daytime naps, keep them warm and cuddly at night,sleep with the radio on, wollar them all day. Get them on a tight schedule helps the sleep fighters. No lights past a certain time(use night lights instead). I have three kids and am the only one that had a tough kid in my family and broke them of it. If it doesn't stop I would have the doc check it out.

[A & A]

she is only two weeks old, but i also have a 1.5 year old, and haven't slept one night since kylynne was born. i am exhausted, and napping during the day is hard to come by. hubby helps on the weekends, but still, he is the type that requires at least eight hours of sleep a day to be in a decent mood during the day. so, i usually get up with the baby to keep the peace in our house.

[heidiiiii]

My hubby worked..My hubby got a foot up his you know what in the middle of the night too. No guilt there.

There are going to be some nights when you need your sleep. Maybe he can go to bed early and then take the early morning feeding for you. Then he will be off to work afterward. Fred used to do that for me.

I only have one sure fire tip to get your kid to go to sleep but it is for kids that are afraid of the dark.

You get a clean spray bottle. Decorate the bottle and write Monster Spray on the outside. Fill the bottle with water, a tiny bit of food coloring (half of a drop if possible) and perfume.

You have the kid spray their room at night with Monster spray to keep the monsters away. They smell the perfume and knows it is working. Then they fall asleep. Chelsea still remembers when I made monster spray.. I was desperate.

Do you know someone is selling that stuff on the internet now???? I could have been rich! ROFL

[aggiemae]

Make night time feeding very business like. I changed the diaper first, even when they fussed, even tiny ones learn fast that the diaper comes before the food if you are consistent about it. Keep the lights low, just enough light so the baby can see your face. Try not to talk or play. No toys or loud rattle or music things, though a pleasant sounding tape is OK, but use the same one all the time. If other family members are up ask them to be quite until baby is back to bed/sleep.

Another good habit (I think) is not to always wait until a baby is zonked out before returning them to the cot. If the baby is sleeping with you this does not matter, but for babies who sleep alone, going to bed while sleepy but still awake, helps them learn about transitions and self soothing. A baby/child that is comfortable alone will fall asleep in the bed years earlier than babies who are always put down after they are asleep. They also enjoy sleeping because they have not been tricked into it.

My oldest ran my life for 4 years, he slept with us, nursed for a full year after I was ready to stop. No big deal but with the other three I was far more in charge of things. I do not believe in letting babies cry them selves to sleep, I just think the mom just having expectations somehow naturally relays that to her baby. Sometimes we moms do thing for the short term good, like wanting to go to sleep themselves! After the first one I knew the kid was going be be around for a while and tried to look at the big picture.

[MichelleG]

She's only 2 weeks old. Every 2 hours wake, eat, change diaper, around the clock. Then it will be every 3 hours.. then 4. It took my babies atleast 3 months to get a full night's sleep.

And the old wives tale about putting cereal in the formula (if bottle feeding) it doesn't work!! And it's really not good for a baby's digestion.

Look on the positive side... atleast she doesn't have colic and cry all day and night!

Enjoy your new baby, they grow up so fast... and before you know it, they'll be teenagers and out the door.

[Minis On The Edge]

People thought I was crazy BUT, with my two Girls they slept because I started a routine, I'd play some classical music and I gave them a warm bath every night with the J&J Lavender baby soap. I played the music all while I dried them off and put there clothes on and I would massage the lotion in (Sarah would fall asleep sometimes as I was massaging here ) I'd rock them (In the rocking chair) till they were sleep. They only woke up to eat and would go right back to sleep.

I hope it works for you!

When I had my son, I lived with my parents and my mother did not "believe" in giving babies baths every night (Yeap, old school) and felt it should only be done in the daytime cause the baby would catch cold. Of course, I used to be up ALL night with him It was great to do things "My" way when I moved out.

[Wolfie]

My son was born in 68. He was like yours! Slept all day and was awake all night. I talked to my pediatrician and he advised that his last feeding in the early evening was a mixture of baby cereal and breast milk. Well you know the routine.....use the bulb to get the milk, mix with baby cereal to the consistency of very light cream, and give in a bottle. Worked like a charm. He slept all night with that last feeding. I don't know about what doctors do in today's lifestyle for this. Check with your doctor, he may have some tricks and tips of his own!

[mommymakesstuff2]

Monkey #1 was hard she about killed me and my ex husband was no help at all...grrr..she had to sleep on top of me

Monkey# 2 liked to sleep with grandma when she could, but for a long time it was the three of us in a twin bed and for some reason she slept well that way...she is still good about going to sleep if she is tired...doesn't fight it

Monkey# 3 was the worst he got used to sleeping with Daddy and wouldn't sleep without him! Still he sleeps much better with dad than me

And monkey #4 was the easiest because she was breast fed for a loooong time but I would just sleep on my side and when she would wake I would give her a breast and she would go back to sleep again. The problem was getting her off when she was old enough.

Some babies like the static noises and vaccumes you can buy a cd of those or the teddy with the womb sound that works too. You'll figure it out just rest when you get the chance don't worry about house cleaning take care of yourself first!

[havanaholly]

Miss Grayson liked to keep her mommy awake for the first month or so, until she finally got her days & nights straight. By the time we got ack to see her at five months old she was sleeping through the night with one feeding & diaper change.

It has been 35 years since my last little one, but I vaguely remembered going through the sleepless bit for the first few weeks, and when the baby would sleep whichever kid was still home would nap with me or play quietly.

[A & A]

last night was better. my first hated the bassinet, and i was using it for kylynne, along with one of those sleep positioner thingies. i took the sleep positioner out of the bed, and moved the actual crib into my bedroom, and she actually slept most of the night last night. maybe i could get lucky and this could be a good start for this. she was up until midnight, but slept after that. the only reason i even had the sleep positioner was because Alexa loved it, made her feel like she was being held. my pediatrician is by the book, but i am not. i usually go off what the child is telling me. with alexa, the dr. was still telling me not to even start her on cereal until 4 months old, but at 3 months she was taking 10 oz. of formula every 2 hours day and night. obviously she was still hungry after the formula and needed more nourishment. so i started giving her cereal, and she improved to the average 8 oz a feeding every 3-4 hours. kylynne is too young for cereal in the bottle. the dr. had my due date off a bit, and she was actually born at about 36.5 weeks, so she is a little different than alexa who was born at 40 weeks. thank goodness kylynne was okay.

[havanaholly]

my pediatrician is by the book, but i am not. i usually go off what the child is telling me.

You're a smart mommy and your pediatrician is NOT your kids' mommy. Once you start getting a little more sleep it'll feel a bit better.