Update on the whole nursing to sleep problem...

Posted by Steve (Hannah's Dad) on December 04, 2002 at 13:05:39:

Thanks to everyone for their settling tips yesterday. My wife and I had a lot to discuss as a result. Very helpful!!!

Here's an update with some more background:

We had just gotten Hannah settled into a great schedule when this ear infection hit a week or two ago. She would sleep from 8pm until about 3-4am, when she would wake for a feeding. She would then go down until 5 or 5:30am when she would get to come to bed with us for another hour or so. It was working great for about a week or two, plenty of time to set a pattern. Well, then the infection hit and screwed everything up. We're relatively certain that the infection is gone now, and now we have to clean up the habits that were created while we were just trying to make her comfortable.

Last night was an ugly night. I was out at a late meeting so Jen just nursed Hannah to sleep as usual. We decided she shouldn't have to start a new sleep ritual without me around to help. Well sure enough Hannah woke up at about 10pm, only two hours after being put down. This has become normal, unfortunately. We didn't want Jen to nurse her back to sleep, so we tried...

1) Giving her a pacifier and whispering to her to try to settle her.
2) Patting her and turning on some quiet music.
3) Picking her up and rocking her
4) Picking her up and walking her around the house
5) Turning the light on and having quiet play time.
6) Nursing (wife tried to do a short one and put her down before she fell asleep .. it didn't work too well this first try).

Not ONE of these things would stop her from crying, let along get her to sleep. She wasn't tugging at her ear so I don't think that's still bothering her. The only thing I could come up with was that she was tired and really really really cranky because of it. Finally we put her down and let her cry for a bit, going into her room every five minutes to talk to her and try to sooth her. After 15-20 minutes of this my wife was able to get her to settle down. I think Hannah finally just wore out. It was really sad and wore on our nerves like nobody's business.

I know this stuff takes time, but wow do I have a stubborn little one!

Marybeth - I got your email. Thank you for that. There was helpful stuff in there.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Update on the whole nursing to sleep problem... MarybethW 16:11:13 12/04/02 (1)
  • Re: Update on the whole nursing to sleep problem... Steve 16:21:48 12/04/02 (0)

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