Our time here is coming to a close and it is kind of bittersweet. I have met so many amazing moms and families here in Kentucky. I have picked up ideas about what family scripture study will be like when our family gets a little older and so many other fun ideas for decorating, crafting and developing talents. I will miss all of my friends here.
Matt is gone for his last field training and I am so anxious I can hardly sleep. He left a few days ago and won't be back until the 14th. When this phase ends, we will know what the game plan is for the next 6 months. He has the opportunity to go to Airborne school in Fort Benning, GA after we leave Kentucky. Luckily, it is only three weeks long. Grace and I will be in Texas setting up the house and trying to familiarize ourselves to our new city, church and so forth.
Grace is starting to walk around the furniture and falls quite often when she can't figure out which foot moves next. She is such a handful, but I love her to pieces ( as her Great Grandma Barlow says). She still doesn't sleep at night. She wakes up two times usually lasting about an hour each time. Last night I decided to let her cry herself to sleep at 5 in the morning, because I had already been up for two hours with no relief. It took her 45 minutes to do so, but she slept the rest of the morning afterward. The only good thing about the "field time" Matt has is that all of the tenants around us are also out there. Needless to say, she can cry and make all sorts of noise and I don't feel guilty for her waking everyone up.
Not much new with me. I haven't been working out lately and I am starting to feel it. I have no energy or desire to do anything aerobic when I haven't slept and I have a killer headache. If anyone has tips about helping babies sleep better at night, I am all ears. I have tried everything her doctor and other moms have recommended...but I am still open to suggestions. You can call it the Save Mandy's Sanity Project.
Unfortunately, never having been a parent, I have no help for your current situation. If you figure it out, however, I would love to know the tricks as we will need the help after our first comes in September. Good luck in Texas.
ReplyDeleteHello Mandy! It's fun to see your blog. Jay showed me that you were asking for advice. I do have a few ideas, so I'll write them and you can take them as you see fit. Did you ever look at The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer? Most of anything I would tell you comes from that or The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems.
ReplyDeleteMy first idea is to "rob Peter to pay Paul." Perhaps she is getting too much sleep during the day. Wake her up early from each of her naps, or get rid of one of her naps altogether. (It was about that age that Liesl went from three to two naps/day.)
Lately Liesl has been waking up early-- 0600 or 0630. (Until we moved to Virginia, she was sleeping 12 hour nights, but now she's only doing 10 hours. However, she still needs her 1 1/2 hour nap during the day, so I can't get rid of that.) What we've started doing is a little odd, but it works. When Jay gets up at 4:30, we wake Liesl up for family prayer (I wake up anyway because we have wood floors and he has huge feet). We keep it dim, low key, and short, and it takes her about 20 minutes to get back to sleep, but she sleeps until 7:30 when we do that.
That's a variation of one of the Baby Whisperer's suggestions to actually stir your baby slightly awake about 15? 20? minutes before they're habitually waking up. (Of course, praying is a little more stimulation than I recommend for Grace.) It is kind of a crazy suggestion, but it might work for her. The point is to stir her just enough out of her sleep cycle that she starts the cycle over again-- so it's kind of trying to reprogram her internal clock. I don't remember the specifics, but it's in The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems (which would probably be worthwhile for you to study (reading it is not enough, I found)).
Also, look at it this way: it's a habit she's formed (or forming, which is easier to fix), so you're going to have to train her out of it. Recognize what you've done to contribute to the problem, then plan steps to ease her out of the habit. For example, if every time she wakes up, you hold her and sing to her, she's getting something she loves and has no reason to change. Instead you could quietly hold her only until she's calm and then lay her down, without the singing or any other sort of stimulation. You may have to repeat that until she realizes you aren't going to do anything interesting. Hopefully, as days go by, she needs less and less intervention. That's the goal. At her age, she could be out of the habit within a couple weeks.
Or you could just let her cry it out for a while. I've heard that works too, but I never could do it. Either way, prepare yourself for a few weeks of rough riding before things are fixed.
Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions. Or comments. I have no idea the circumstances around her bad sleep habits, and I don't know if this is advice you've already recieved and tried. I only claim to know anything about this because I've studied all the Baby Whisperer books and committed them to memory. :)
xo-JeriLynn
Mandy I miss you! I am so bad at returning your calls, I am so sorry!! But I still love you. :) I made sure Abigail was awake and active for 3.5 hours before it was her bedtime. No naps no momentary dozing.... active for 3.5-4 hours before bed time and then she was ready for bed and went right to sleep for me. Might work for you. xoxo
ReplyDeleteOh, those late night wakings are brutal! If you haven't read it a helpful book is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Do whatever works best for you. I'm sure you'll all feel better once you really get settled. Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteMandy, your little girl is so adorable! Being a mom is the greatest! Cayden has always been a good sleeper, but when I was trying to get him to sleep through the night, he would only have one nap, and it was about 4 hours after he woke up in the mornings. He usually sleeps for an hour and a half to two hours. Then he is up until bed time. I try and make sure before he goes to bed that he isn't hungry. I know this is crazy since he is 2 years old, but I still give him a glass of milk before he goes to bed. Once he is asleep he will usually sleep for 10to 12 hours. I hope this might help a little.
ReplyDeleteBekah (Vernon)
P.S. May I add you to my list of friends on my blog?