I really enjoyed reading this blog! If you have a little one who just doesn't sleep much or sleep well, take a look. My daughter has not been the best sleeper either. I call her queen of cat nappers! She is almost 11 months old and has never needed more then 4-5 hours sleep at a time. If I am lucky.
Although I really love snuggle time, I was starting to really struggle with not having enough sleep to function. I am typically a happy person, and was becoming a real Oscar the Grouch. Yikes! After reading this blog, I relaxed a bit and stopped worrying about her cat napping so much. We weren't doing anything wrong, she just needed to be close to us and for that time period and didn't seem to need to sleep for really long periods of time like other babies.
Recently we started setting in place a bit more structure, because her internal clock was about 12 hours out as well. All that wonderful cat napping will do that to a tiny human. :) We started with a bed time routine which starts off with everyone getting their jammies on and then story time. We all head up stairs to read in my sons room getting away from all the distractions of the T.V., IPAD's, phones and electronics. Everyone including the dog comes up for the story. :) My husband and I read to my son, while one of us plays with Kloe quietly on the floor. Then after story time is over, we change my daughters diaper and give her a bottle while rocking her in the rocking chair. I typically turn on her Baby Einstein Underwater Mobile for some nice relaxing music. Once she finishes her bottle we say our prayers and then lay her in the crib. At first she cried a bit, but with this routine in place the crying didn't last long. And after about a week of the routine she no longer cried when laid down for bedtime! Whoop Whoop!! Which is a huge turn around since she would cry and cry and cry if laid in her crib without doing the routine. We tried the "Cry it out Routine", the "Pick up and Cuddle Routine" and many other things, but this is the only thing that has really worked for her. Since starting this routine (Its been about 3 weeks now), she will typically wake up once through the night for a bottle and diaper change, but will go right back to sleep without a fuss. She has also blown us away with actually sleeping through the night a few times! That started last week. We have also been able to tweak bedtime too. And get her to bed earlier. Mind you she was going to bed around 4 am (like I said 12 hours out) and now we have her going to bed around 11pm. So we are steadily making improvements.
If you are going through sleep drama with your child, hang in there. I know it can be hard to find something that works. Especially when you are sleep deprived yourself. Just use your gut and do what's right for you and your child. I am not a huge fan of letting the kids cry for long periods. And my daughter is a strong personality, so that just didn't work for us. Finding a good routine that quiets everyone down in the evening seems to work best for all involved. Good luck!
http://sweetmadeleine.ca/2013/10/14/here-are-some-lies-people-tell-you-about-infant-sleep/
Although I really love snuggle time, I was starting to really struggle with not having enough sleep to function. I am typically a happy person, and was becoming a real Oscar the Grouch. Yikes! After reading this blog, I relaxed a bit and stopped worrying about her cat napping so much. We weren't doing anything wrong, she just needed to be close to us and for that time period and didn't seem to need to sleep for really long periods of time like other babies.
Recently we started setting in place a bit more structure, because her internal clock was about 12 hours out as well. All that wonderful cat napping will do that to a tiny human. :) We started with a bed time routine which starts off with everyone getting their jammies on and then story time. We all head up stairs to read in my sons room getting away from all the distractions of the T.V., IPAD's, phones and electronics. Everyone including the dog comes up for the story. :) My husband and I read to my son, while one of us plays with Kloe quietly on the floor. Then after story time is over, we change my daughters diaper and give her a bottle while rocking her in the rocking chair. I typically turn on her Baby Einstein Underwater Mobile for some nice relaxing music. Once she finishes her bottle we say our prayers and then lay her in the crib. At first she cried a bit, but with this routine in place the crying didn't last long. And after about a week of the routine she no longer cried when laid down for bedtime! Whoop Whoop!! Which is a huge turn around since she would cry and cry and cry if laid in her crib without doing the routine. We tried the "Cry it out Routine", the "Pick up and Cuddle Routine" and many other things, but this is the only thing that has really worked for her. Since starting this routine (Its been about 3 weeks now), she will typically wake up once through the night for a bottle and diaper change, but will go right back to sleep without a fuss. She has also blown us away with actually sleeping through the night a few times! That started last week. We have also been able to tweak bedtime too. And get her to bed earlier. Mind you she was going to bed around 4 am (like I said 12 hours out) and now we have her going to bed around 11pm. So we are steadily making improvements.
If you are going through sleep drama with your child, hang in there. I know it can be hard to find something that works. Especially when you are sleep deprived yourself. Just use your gut and do what's right for you and your child. I am not a huge fan of letting the kids cry for long periods. And my daughter is a strong personality, so that just didn't work for us. Finding a good routine that quiets everyone down in the evening seems to work best for all involved. Good luck!
http://sweetmadeleine.ca/2013/10/14/here-are-some-lies-people-tell-you-about-infant-sleep/
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