Thursday, October 15, 2009

Sleep.. What's That?

The last few nights Anderson hasn't slept well. James had a headache the other day so I forced him to sleep in the guest room to get a little sleep. Anderson has been congested and has napped quite a bit in the early evening. During the day he is awake more and so much more alert. In the evening we do everything we can to try to keep him awake but sometimes NOTHING keeps him awake. We got a humidifier and a sleep positioner to help him stay propped up but now I'm wondering if the congestion is really the reason for his sleeping issues. He usually falls asleep while eating during the night and then I lay him down to sleep. He would prefer to be held and knows immediately when he is put in his crib. Last night I kept picking him up but putting him down before he fell completely asleep. This really didn't work out too well. Does anyone have advice about this issue?? We don't want to let him cry since he is not even a month old and he needs to feel secure and know that we will meet his needs. We need sleep though. Before the last few nights he would eat and then go right to sleep so I was only up for 30-45 minutes. The last few nights I have been up for an hour to two hours each feeding which does not leave much time for sleep. Any advice would be appreciated!
Awake and Alert

Asleep..nothing can wake him up!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you tried white noises? There are some nights we have had to resort to turning the vacuum on. We would walk around with her while the vacuum was on until she was sound asleep. Then we were able to put her down w/out her waking up. Just something that worked for us!

Jen said...

Try swaddling too. Lauren loved to be swaddeled and it keeps them feeling like they are held if you can get it tight. We swaddled lauren forever, even when it was just her top half :)

Heather said...

We still swaddle Alex (legs only because he kicks in his sleep). The Miracle Blanket (google it) was our best friend until Alex outgrew it!!! When he isn't feeling well, he doesn't like to be flat on his back either. It's tough! This too shall pass.

Tammy said...

Swaddling works great. We went about one month before we bought some swaddle me blankets and I regret that we didn't do it sooner. White noise works great too. In fact to this day I have to have our machine on or Quentin won't take a nap.

The Hines Family said...

So sorry to hear that Anderson isn't sleeping well right now. I hope he starts feeling better so that you all can get some sleep!

Jen said...

Ditto on the swaddle and the white noise. We swaddled forever. Reiley had a lot of difficulty sleeping when she was a newborn and like you, we got to the point where I just needed to be able to nurse her AND sleep. We set up the crib (with one side off) so that it was flush to our mattress so that I could lie down and nurse her at night and then just roll over back in my bed and she would stay asleep in the crib. My friends have also used the Arms Reach Cosleeper to do the same thing, or others have had baby in bed for the first few months to get sleep. For us, I do what I need to do for everyone to get sleep until baby is about four months old, and then I start working on sleep a bit more with them At four months, they are a bit older and seem more ready to do that. Good luck...sending sleep vibes your way!