Did you see my post last night? In search of sleep, well perhaps I’m a little impatient but I’m still in search of sleep. Beanie Boy just doesn’t seem to be able to settle himself without me nursing him to sleep or Daddy rocking him. We keep saying that we’re going to try the “cry it out” method but I don’t think either of us are strong enough for that. We don’t exactly rush up the stairs the minute he starts crying but we’ve never made it to five minutes yet.
Tonight I fed him until he was almost asleep and then laid him in his cot, the second his head hit the mattress his eyes burst wide open. I tried going downstairs and leaving him to get on with it but after 10 minutes he was screaming. I went up to him after 5 minutes and just patted his back without picking him up until he stopped crying then I sat down next to his cot in the chair. He tried sucking the label on his blankie but it kept choking him so he stopped that, he tried sucking his fist but kept getting stressed out and then began screaming again and so it went on for almost two hours! He looked and sounded exhausted but my children appear to have my stubborn tendencies tenacity and he just would not give in. He cried so hard that he made himself cough, then choke and then sick, it was so upsetting that I ended up caving in and picking him up, within 5 minutes of being held by me he was asleep.
Can anyone give any suggestions for how to get my little man to soothe himself to sleep?
How old is he hun? With dd1 the minute she hit the cot her eyes would ping open. In the end although breastfeeding I gave her a bottle once she was in her cot so that she wasn’t disturbed by being put down. I kept one hand on her tummy rocking her and moved a little bit away each night until she settled on her own. I also gave her a comforter and put that on her tummy which helped her feel like my hand was there.
DS was a NIGHTMARE!! He slept in our bed a lot of the time and I used to take him to bed, lie down next to him, feed him and then when he’d gone off I’d slip away. But he would wake up every 2 hours! He didn’t really settle until he was on solids.
Just got to start this with dd2. When she was younger when you put her down as long as you turned the light off she’d go to sleep. Now she’ll only go to sleep feeding. But fortunately once I put her down she stays there and sleeps thru!
He is 5 months and I would LOVE to give him a bottle but that is my other problem as he refuses point blank to accept one. I slept with one of his comforters last night to get my scent on it and gave it to him today for his nap – I was very surprised that he actually slept for 2 hours! He normally only sleeps for 40 minutes but then again he was very late to bed last night so he could have been overtired!!!! When I went in to check on him he was sleeping soundly on his tummy but he had pulled the comforter in close to his face and was snuggled up beautifully with it.
Tonight he fell asleep whilst feeding again, I tried to wake him a little before putting him down, he looked at me briefly, looked around his cot and then went to sleep but I don’t know if that really counts as self soothing?!?!?!
Thank you for your comment 🙂