Monday, February 14, 2011

Urgent advise needed on sleep training ..please!

Hi mommy out there,

I need advise from you regarding sleep training. Well, Isabel has not been a good sleeper since young. She scared away my confinement lady and 1 stay in nanny. She is now torturing her mommy with her sleep habits.

Her sleeping problems..

1. She needs to be carried / rocked to sleep. It's not easy to make her sleep too. She gets distracted very easily and needs to be very sleepy in order to fall asleep. She always struggle to fall asleep.

2. After she falls asleep in either my arm or the bouncing net, I will put her in the playpen. Usually she will sleep around 45mins, then she will cry again to be carried. I needed to carry her and rocked her back to sleep. Then put her back in the playpen. Another 30 to 45mins later, she will wake up crying and needed to be carried again. This cycle will go on for about 3 - 4 hrs till she is in her DEEP sleep past 3am. Then she is ok. But yet, she still wakes for night feeding after around 4-5 hrs.

Her sleeping habits is like:

9.30pm - milk then go to bed
10.00pm - sleep
10.45pm - cry from her sleep and needed to be carried/rocked back to sleep.
11.00pm - fall asleep again
11.45pm - cry from her sleep and needed to be carried/rocked back to sleep.
12.00am - fall asleep again
12.45am - cry from her sleep and needed to be carried/rocked back to sleep.
1.00am - fall asleep again
1.45am - cry from her sleep and needed to be carried/rocked back to sleep.
2.00am - mommy cannot take it and feed milk.
2.15am - after milk, sleep again till maybe 7am for another milk feed.

Basically I can never have peaceful time till 2am. On bad days, she can cry a few times in an hr demand to be carried. Sometimes, the minutes I put her down in the playpen, she will cry again. I have to hold/carry/rock her for a long long time before I can put her back to the playpen.

This bad habits make me very tiring and sleep deprived. So, I bought the book "The sleep guide for contented baby and toddler" by Gina Ford and they recommended Cry it out method to train her to sleep better.

I am very tempted to try this method as I really spent too much time making her sleep and it is not productive at all. But I know it is not easy to implement as I'm sure she will cry for hrs and hrs and we adults will not able to go through it.

I would like to know anyone of you out there tried this method? Does it work? How did u implement it? Any other suggestions besides this? How to train my girl to sleep better?

Thanks in advance...

6 comments:

Elaine said...

Hi

My baby at 1 year and 3 weeks old is still a very poor sleeper compared to her three older siblings. At this age, she is still waking up many times in a night (up to 5 times). She is light sleeper too, rousing to the slightest sound.

I don't believe in cry it out as I think it is too cruel and I can't bear to see my baby cry. During the day, we often carry her around in the sarong sling (either me or the maid). During nap, we sleep together, as long as I am beside her, she sleeps better.

At night, we co-sleep too. When she cries, I just nurse her (I am still breastfeeding) after she is content , I put the pacifier back for her and pat her to sleep. Sometimes I just lie flat and let her sleep on my chest. That's how my sleep is not really compromised.

Every baby is different. I guess Isabel is just like my little girl, needs to feel our body warmth and closeness to feel safe and secure. Hang in there. I know it is tough but I also have faith that it will get easier as they grow.

cre8tone said...

Can't help much on this.. Panda mummy..

A gift from God said...

Let her sleep on her tummy. Old enough to do so wihtout posing a risk. It helps. :)

Leeyen said...

Believe me it's just a passing phase! I got this problem with my baby b4, but I didn't do anything, I let her sleep according to her timetable, endured all those sleepless nights! :) I meant we really can't do anything about it!

Alice Law said...

At 11 months, at most she only required twice 2hours sleep during the day(recommended 1 nap(2hrs) daytime).

I'm grateful that mine since 10 mo, slept at 9pm and woke up at 11pm for milk then sleep through the night till 6am(dream feed then back to sleep till 7am). Yes, I co sleep my boy!

Try not to overstimulate her b4 sleep, play some soft music would help too! Just give it a try whatever suit your girl, all the best!:)

Have a great weekend!

Yee Ling said...

Since it de part of phase, instead of putting her to playpen, can you just let her sleep beside you. At least the moment she has a sligh move of awakening, you can immediately pat her and sooth her down. Probaly she wants to be at your side. At least if this work, it will let you get more rest instead of you put down her and carry her. it's real tiring.