Baby Sleep/CoSleep Issue

[Impish]

Baby Boo sleeps beautifully, average 3 hrs at a time.

 

During the day. :glare:

 

At night, he can be up every. hour. There have been a cpl of nights that he did sleep for a 4 hr stretch, but that seems to have been just to tease us.

 

I brought him to bed last night, and he slept FIVE hrs straight. Now, I know there are many that would be thinking, "So DUH, bring him to bed at night!" but I don't cosleep well. I'm normally an active sleeper. With baby beside me, I'm pinned into place. I've brought him to bed a few other times too...cosleeping tends to be a desperation move for me, not a real choice. I can't figure out right now which is more disruptive...up every hour or waking up, terrified I'm going to hurt the baby.

 

He can only sleep on my left side. I can't sleep on my rt, due to my arm. Usually, he's sleeping ON my left arm, which ends up with me having two useless arms when he wakes up...left arm is dead, rt arm is unable to bear any pressure or weight...getting out of bed has all the grace and dignity of a turtle flipped on its back :lol:

 

Wolf suspects its the sound of my heartbeat that soothes him. I'm thinking its a body heat thing.

 

I have 0 clue on how to get this kiddo to sleep in his bassinette for any decent time. At 3 wks old, obviously we're at his mercy...not like he's a toddler or preschooler that we can simply tuck back into his own bed.

 

*yawn*

 

During the day, he sleeps in the livingroom w/all the noise and chaos, and has no problem. We don't use our room during the day, b/c we don't have a baby monitor, and you cannot hear diddly from our room on the main floor. I'll be looking for one at the 2nd hand shop in the next wk or so, but other than that, anyone have any suggestions? He's eating well, was weighed yesterday and is now 8 lbs (born at 7) and 20.5 inches long, so there's no health issues at all.

[Halftime Hope]

Can you enlist everyone's help to keep him awake as much as possible during the day for the next couple of days, to see if you can help him be tired at night? Not sure it would work as a "black and white" thing, but maybe if he hasn't gotten much daytime sleep he'd be more inclined to make that up at night. ?

 

I've also prewarmed a bed with water bottles when the bedding was cold.

[Mommy_of_4]

Sorry I just wanted to let you know I am going through the same thing with my 6 month old. She naps great during the day but at night she wakes almost every 2hrs unless we co sleep. I think the trying to keep him up during the day could have an opposite affect for you. I tried to keep Olivia up during the day and in return she was waking every 45 min at night due to being overtired and restless. I increased her naps during the day and she will now sleep 2hrs instead of 45min at a time. Do you swaddle? You might try that if you don't. I have been working on following Dr. Sears advice about infant sleeping and she seems to be doing a little better. She actually gave me 3 1/2 hr stretch last night, which has never happened before. http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/31-ways-get-your-baby-sleep-and-stay-asleep

I hope he starts sleeping better for you :)

[BrookValley.]

Do you have the space to "sidecar" a crib? We pulled the front off of our crib and attached it (level with) to the side of our bed. This gave me a few things: a place to scootch little guy over so I could get some space (I am also a very active sleeper; actually, your whole co-sleeping experience with Boo so far sounds a lot like mine when my son was brand new. I had a nerve injury in my left arm that really caused me some problems when he was a newborn, so I totally understand the waking up with two useless arms thing!), gave me a safety rail without the rail since it was a level extension of our bed, etc. I never had to get out of the bed or do more than just lean over a bit to get the baby when he woke. Eventually, wanting to constantly nurse at night, he did end up sleeping right next to me in the bed anyway. This wasn't exactly how I had envisioned things--but it really did work out well, despite the fact that I didn't think it would work for us. Not that I didn't have a couple of very awkward and sleep-deprived months before it got easy. :tongue_smilie: But it did get easy. :) Maybe it's laziness, but I cannot imagine keeping an infant more than an arm's reach away at night. No way I was getting in and out of bed that many times!

[Impish]

Our bed is really high. The bassinette we have does have the ability to transform into a cosleeper thingie, but our bed is far too high for that to work.

 

Plus, I'm not able to nurse this time 'round, so have to get out of bed for bottle warming needs anyways.

 

I'll check the Dr Sears link, thanks!

 

I was actually wondering about using a hot water bottle to warm his bed, and see if that helps at all.

[ashfern]

Sound machine. My girls still use one in their room. I take it on vacation so they can sleep.

[Carol in Cal.]

It's the heartbeat and breathing. They remember it from the womb and it is comforting to them.

 

I'm another who wanted to cosleep but never actually could get a good night's sleep that way. I would wake up sore all over, I assume that it was because I had never relaxed completely as my subconcious tried to keep me from rolling over onto the baby. My compromise was to sleep in the same room for the first 4-5 months, and when the baby woke for an early morning feeding (5 or 6) bring her into bed with me--by then I had had some quality sleep.

 

I think the main thing, and I know it's hard with older kids but really, this will only last a few months, is to sleep when the baby sleeps, even if it is during the day. This is you and your baby's special time, and it's worth it. So when the baby naps, you nap, immediately, for as long as you can. If you were nursing, this would also increase production.

[justLisa]

Well, I have no advice because my 5.5 and 7.5 year olds STILL come get me in the middle of the night. They seem to alternate nights for some reason LOL.

 

I also slept with a cosleeper, even though I rarely actually used it, it was still a good barrier between baby and end of bed. You can put a cosleeper on bed risers if you have a very high bed.

[Alenee]

A note about bottle warming...it isn't necessary unless baby is too used to it now to switch. I can't remember where I got the idea (I'm thinking it was a baby book) but when I bottle-fed our first baby and dh worked nights, I kept a few bottles in an ice bag near her room. When she woke in the middle of the night, I just walked to her room and sat down in the rocker to feed her with one of the cold bottles. Worked fine. It would be worth a shot if you're having to feed a lot at night.

 

I co-slept with my second and third babies so I could nurse at night and get some sleep. It took some getting used to as I didn't plan ahead to do that. If this is the only way you can sleep longer at night, I would just encourage you that everything *will* be okay. Babies seem to just naturally learn how to curve with your body so you can both sleep effectively. I know it's not your first choice and I'm certainly not a nazi about it, but if you can get situated well to begin, it could end up saving you a lot of missed hours of sleep, not to mention the sweet bond with baby as he gets older.

 

:grouphug:

[Impish]

White noise or radio wouldn't help...Baby is in our room, and Wolf and I do need to sleep :lol:

 

I do nap during the day. Boo stays w/Daddy, and I get some alone sleep time. One of the benefits to bottle feeding is that I'm not on call 24/7!

[Laura in STL]

Neither of my kids slept well in the bassinet. I thought it was a fluke with the first one, or maybe that he was a big newborn so he wasn't comfy in there, so I brought it back out with dd. She didn't do well in there either, but when I switched them into a crib in their own room they were great. Dd went from fussing every hour to sleeping 8-9 hours a night at three weeks, which surprised me because she was exclusively nursing.

[Impish]

A note about bottle warming...it isn't necessary unless baby is too used to it now to switch. I can't remember where I got the idea (I'm thinking it was a baby book) but when I bottle-fed our first baby and dh worked nights, I kept a few bottles in an ice bag near her room. When she woke in the middle of the night, I just walked to her room and sat down in the rocker to feed her with one of the cold bottles. Worked fine. It would be worth a shot if you're having to feed a lot at night.

 

I co-slept with my second and third babies so I could nurse at night and get some sleep. It took some getting used to as I didn't plan ahead to do that. If this is the only way you can sleep longer at night, I would just encourage you that everything *will* be okay. Babies seem to just naturally learn how to curve with your body so you can both sleep effectively. I know it's not your first choice and I'm certainly not a nazi about it, but if you can get situated well to begin, it could end up saving you a lot of missed hours of sleep, not to mention the sweet bond with baby as he gets older.

 

:grouphug:

Cold doesn't work. Did that unintentionally once in my bleary sleep dep. I'm honestly not a fan of cold bottles, if for no other reason than nursing meant body temp milk, so it seems to me that that's the way it should be.

[serene]

Sound machine. My girls still use one in their room. I take it on vacation so they can sleep.

 

Our baby niece sleeps in a noisy house at home, and when she spends the night here, canNOT sleep in quiet/silence.

[BrookValley.]

Our bed is really high. The bassinette we have does have the ability to transform into a cosleeper thingie, but our bed is far too high for that to work.

 

Plus, I'm not able to nurse this time 'round, so have to get out of bed for bottle warming needs anyways.

 

I'll check the Dr Sears link, thanks!

 

I was actually wondering about using a hot water bottle to warm his bed, and see if that helps at all.

 

If you can, I'd try to put the bassinette on risers like 425lisamarie suggested...and then get the hubby to warm bottles (or at least take turns). :D

 

Good luck. I hope you get some good sleep soon! :)

[ChandlerMom]

Consider dismantling your bed frame. The lower height is safer and you should be able to get the bassinet to work sidecar style then.

 

We coslept, but once they were a few months old, we put two beds together ON THE FLOOR, one for dh and me, one for dc. That way I could ferry back and forth (I BF) or reach over to calm the baby. Eventually we just moved the beds further apart.

[Impish]

Consider dismantling your bed frame. The lower height is safer and you should be able to get the bassinet to work sidecar style then.

 

We coslept, but once they were a few months old, we put two beds together ON THE FLOOR, one for dh and me, one for dc. That way I could ferry back and forth (I BF) or reach over to calm the baby. Eventually we just moved the beds further apart.

There's several problems w/the bed height issue.

 

One, its not just the frame, its the actual mattress and box spring height that's huge.

 

Two, a bed too low is very, very hard on me. To manage one armed getting off a bed on the floor is painful. Its actually easier on me, physically, to have a high bed that I can get to the edge of and slip down off of.

[Unicorn.]

Maybe something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Sleep-Soothing-Sounds-Nature/dp/B000GKWA66

They also make a bear w/ womb sounds.

Or something like this:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Fisher-Price-2-in-1-Projection-Crib-Mobile-Precious-Planet/10543151?ci_sku=10543151&ci_src=14110944&sourceid=1500000000000003260330

[Tammyla]

What is he sleeping in during the day? You might try that at night with a little white noise.

[Impish]

What is he sleeping in during the day? You might try that at night with a little white noise.

He sleeps one of 3 places during the day: swing, chair, or laundry basket that Wolf set up :lol:

 

I really don't like him sleeping in the swing or chair, as I'm worried about head shape.

[meggie]

Oh I'm so sorry. I could never co sleep either; arm went to sleep and I was trapped and unable to move or baby would wake. This is what I got when Pigby was a few days old. He was a baby who absolutely needed to be held in order to sleep. I put this insert in the car seat and it tricked him into thinking he was being held. It did not work at all for Digby, he was just so inconsistent about everything. And for Chuck, I put it in her bouncy seat and let her sleep there. For the two it did work with, they only needed it for a few weeks, then they transitioned to their bassinets fine. All three have nice head shapes, I don't think it would hurt that.

 

Also, how thick is his mattress pad? My bassinet had a ridiculously thin pad and I'm sure they probably could have felt the screws and metal bits underneath. I put some folded towels under neat the pad so it was thicker. I figured that if they were in a crib, they'd have a thick mattress. It was not thick enough to pose any sort of suffocation hazard.

[misidawnrn]

My 8 yo didn't cosleep with me because ex-dh was a fitfut, arm throwing sleeper and I was afraid she would get hurt. She slept in the bassinette right next to me. I had a rice sock that I heated in the microwave and tucked it in next to her belly. Experiment with the time in 15 second intervals and remember to shake it really good to ensure there are not hot spots. I think 45 secs was the time (That was 8 years ago!) She also didn't nurse. Unfortunately she had to have it very quiet to sleep and I wish I would have known about the sound machine or fan back then. My 2yo is another story....had to be held, still co-sleeps, just weaned....night and day!

[Farrar]

Baby hammock?

 

White noise? You can get apps for your phone now that are really good that make the noise instead of buying something expensive.

 

Of course, I didn't manage to get either of mine to sleep through the night until nearly 3 yo. So... I really shouldn't even venture to give advice. :p

[happypamama]

Do you have any blankets for wrapping around him, maybe not quite swaddling, but keeping his body cuddled up and his arms still?

[Impish]

Baby hammock?

 

White noise? You can get apps for your phone now that are really good that make the noise instead of buying something expensive.

 

Of course, I didn't manage to get either of mine to sleep through the night until nearly 3 yo. So... I really shouldn't even venture to give advice. :p

We don't have a phone that does apps. And he's in our room, so a white noise machine wouldn't work for Wolf or I sleeping.

Do you have any blankets for wrapping around him, maybe not quite swaddling, but keeping his body cuddled up and his arms still?

SpecialMama gave us a blanket that has velcro to swaddle him. It seemed to work for a night or two, then he fought against it. He doesn't like his arm movements restricted at all, it seems.

[Dustybug]

I didn't read all of the responses, so I apologize for repeating anything, but we took the side off of our son's crib and then aligned THAT to the side of our bed. It was easier to get to the right level and that way, I could pull him into bed to nurse and then slide him back over. I could scoot closer to the crib if he wanted to be near me, but still have my own space.

[SonshineLearner]

Try one of those little bed things that fit on the bed.... It has 3 sides, top and both other sides (not bottom).... It gives a little "box" which can make you feel safer.

Not sure how you can set up your room, but it's easier to co-sleep with your bed shoved against the wall. The drawback is you kinda have to slink off the bed, but it's worth it for the ease of babe not potentially falling off the bed.

If you think baby just needs a bit of heat, put a heating pad in basinette and remove and turn off when you put baby in basinette...

:)

[SonshineLearner]

I didn't read all of the responses, so I apologize for repeating anything, but we took the side off of our son's crib and then aligned THAT to the side of our bed. It was easier to get to the right level and that way, I could pull him into bed to nurse and then slide him back over. I could scoot closer to the crib if he wanted to be near me, but still have my own space.

 

I did this too, commonly referred to as "side car"..... and shoved all up against the wall. My husband inserted a thin board under crib and my mattress to keep it all together... A lamb skin (lambie) is also good for babies. I had several with mine; when you want them to sleep away from home... you just bring the lambie :)

[MrsBasil]

I did end up co sleeping with DS, but other things that worked included letting him sleep in his swing when I really needed sleep and slipping a t shirt I had worn all day over his bassinet mattress.

 

Our bed is high and we couldn't find a good way to make a side car for DS. Tried again with DD(she's 5 weeks old) and no go. She seems OK in the bassinet when I run a humidifier in the room? :)