How to stop the night wakings?

cjra wrote:

On Mar 13, 4:13 pm, Anne Rogers wrote:


So this is where you have to get creative, is there anyway at all you
can create a space for her - even if it means moving something every
night all a room has to be is a space where you can put a crib that is
not within reach of anything that can do her harm, which mean placing
something in the middle of an otherwise empty and undecorated room is an
option - it's what my parents do at their house, they have a room with
shelving all around the walls and precious things on them, it's a small
room, but a crib in the middle is far enough from everything. I had
friends who's baby slept in the kitchen, they moved the crib from the
hall to the kitchen every single night and every nap, it was a pain but
their kid had a normal or even better than normal sleep routine at every
age.

Our problem is lack of doors - all the doors have been removed and
sent of for stripping (lead paint removal), . So without doors,

Why does the area have to be quiet? One of the other things that my
mom told me was not to tiptoe around when the baby was asleep because
then she would wake at every noise. Whereas when you are running the
vacuum or dishwasher or whatever, or if she had siblings playing
around, she'd get used to some noise. Is it that quiet at the daycare
when she takes her nap?

Really it is better to do this - otherwise every time you go on a trip
she won't sleep.

there's no way to make the area quiet for her to sleep and still have
us do anything else in the house. That's why I don' t put her in the
room I've been using. There are only two other rooms which *can* be
closed off and are otherwise safe, we don't have *that* many rooms in
the house to begin with. Well, there is the bathroom but I'd rather
not put her to sleep in there....

If the next few options don't work we'll consider re-arranging beds
and closing off a room somehow. I'm trying to do this without totally
re-structuring the house, if at all possible.

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
Why does the area have to be quiet? One of the other things that my
mom told me was not to tiptoe around when the baby was asleep because
then she would wake at every noise. Whereas when you are running the
vacuum or dishwasher or whatever, or if she had siblings playing
around, she'd get used to some noise. Is it that quiet at the daycare
when she takes her nap?

There are babies who will not sleep through normal noises. My first two
babies slept through everything, but my youngest did not. She can't sleep in
total silence, either. She sleeps with a fan. When she was a baby, if we
were not silent, she would not sleep. She was already a horrible sleeper,
and because I knew you weren't supposed to be quiet when babies were
sleeping it was quite awhile before we tried being really quiet during her
napping. It did help somewhat. I can't sleep through things, either. The
husband, he can sleep through absolutely anything. Really.
Marie

"lu-lu" wrote in message
...

I don't know if your DD's up for a change, but I recently bought Jessica
alittle table and chair. I guess you guys have the same thing over there -
it's one of the plastic ones that looks like mini garden furniture. She's
a
real girlie-girl, so I found one in pink and she loves it.

My boys use the little tables as jungle gyms mainly but Ben was always mad
at his highchair. They have been at boosters at the regular table for
some time now. She's at an age to try that out if the she decides she is
anti-highchair again.


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

"cjra" wrote in message
...

This isn't a solution for us. It's only 15 mins or so commute home
from daycare, not worth stopping and as it is she refuses to eat
anyway more than 1/2 the time. I've noticed ont he few nights she's
awake later, she's hungry later. I've also tried putting her straight
to bed when we get home and it doesn't fly. She has no desire to sleep
at that time. Last night we didn't have a meltdown for a change.
I'm actually wondering if she's eating too much at daycare. I send her
b'fast, snack and lunch, and the babysitter feeds her whatever the
other kids are eating. I've considered not sending anything and let
her eat only what she has there, but I supply more 'healthy' stuff so
I want her to at least have that stuff first. So I think at 5-6pm
she's not that hungry, but it kicks in later.

The witching hour is very common, especially with kids that go to daycare.
Ben is sometimes a fright at that time of day and he doesn't even go to
daycare. He is high strung and when he tips over the edge he just can't
eat - no matter if he was hungry. Then he is crying because he's unhappy,
because he's hungry, mad at his chair, he doesn't know what he wants. I've
had to just let him work it out for the most part because I have other kids
to feed but if you think this might be something you are dealing with you
might consider just coming home and doing nothing. Put a few finger snacks
(like peas, cheese, or other healthy things) down and then just sitting with
her. Sort of try to make that witching hour more calm. It might not work,
or might not be the issue - just throwing it out there.

MarieD wrote:
"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
Why does the area have to be quiet? One of the other things that my
mom told me was not to tiptoe around when the baby was asleep because
then she would wake at every noise. Whereas when you are running the
vacuum or dishwasher or whatever, or if she had siblings playing
around, she'd get used to some noise. Is it that quiet at the daycare
when she takes her nap?

There are babies who will not sleep through normal noises. My first two
babies slept through everything, but my youngest did not. She can't
sleep in total silence, either. She sleeps with a fan. When she was a
baby, if we were not silent, she would not sleep. She was already a
horrible sleeper, and because I knew you weren't supposed to be quiet
when babies were sleeping it was quite awhile before we tried being
really quiet during her napping. It did help somewhat. I can't sleep
through things, either. The husband, he can sleep through absolutely
anything. Really.

I think it's one of those things that in an ideal world would be fine.
But we live in the real world, there is both the individual level of
sensitivity and the fact that we know that sleep goes in cycles. There
is also the sense of a physical barrier, in a room open and close to the
rest of the house, there will be awareness of parental activities that
the child may want to be involved in. Shutting a door is more than just
blocking out sound - we've had a few issues here, DS and DD share, DD is
younger and closing the door seems to be very symbolic to her, she knows
that means you stay in bed. For a while DS struggled with the dark and
wanted the door open, which would mean DD wouldn't stay in bed, even if
she didn't come out of the room, the door was a symbolic barrier between
staying in bed and going to sleep and getting out and playing.

Anne

"cjra" wrote in message
...
I do think the bath is part of the problem too, as she
sees that as play time and gets very excited, so instead of its
calming effect it's the opposite. It had been part of our bedtime
routine but clearly is not working. I may try to move that to right
when we get home before dinner

I think that sounds like a really good idea.


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

"cjra" wrote in message
...
I do think the bath is part of the problem too, as she
sees that as play time and gets very excited, so instead of its
calming effect it's the opposite. It had been part of our bedtime
routine but clearly is not working.

That's how it was for us, too. I always wondered where all the kids were who
became relaxed from taking a bath!

I may try to move that to right
when we get home before dinner (although if she makes a huge mess at
dinner, it's easier to clean her in the bath) and see if that helps. I
think she does need some more wind down time after dinner tho.

I know it's hard to not play with her after you've been working and haven't
seen her all day!
Have you tried a fan in the room while she's sleeping? Since the noise is
constant and soothing, *maybe* if she woke in the night it would let her
drift back down into sleep without fully waking up. Alot of people can't
sleep with total silence (I hear this constant high-pitched noise if music
or a fan is not on). Of course you many have already tried it, I haven't
read all the posts. Other than that I can't think of anything else to try.
Good luck!
Marie

"Chris" wrote in message
...
My 2-y/o loves to hit his Ocean Wonders
mobile button, and he has done so since before the age of 1 actually.
I hear it playing sometimes 4 or 5 times a night on the baby monitor,
but he is obviously able to comfort himself back to sleep with either
the music or the light.

I always loved to hear the babies/toddlers playing before they fall back to
sleep!! It feels like such a magical time for me, sweet and private, to hear
them singing or laughing in the bed. My husband and I used to sit at the
kid's bedroom door and listen for so long. Now we live in a 2-story home and
the kids are all upstairs, but sometimes I can hear the 5 year old singing
before she falls asleep. It's so lovely!
Marie

"cjra" wrote in message
...
The nursing to sleep is an issue. How does one stop this? When I don't
nurse her to sleep, she just cries and cries. That said, when I'm not
here, DH is able to get her to sleep. But if she knows I'm in the
house, she won't stop til she has me.

I experienced that with my own family. My youngest grew out of nursing to
sleep, but would nurse a few minutes before bedtime until she was almost 5.
If I was away from home though, my husband had no trouble and she'd even
fall asleep while they were rocking (I rocked all of my children before bed
when they were little)

Well, since she's always co-slept, the whole transition to crib will
be an issue.

Just so you know- co-sleeping isn't always the cause of sleeping problems.
Alot of people seem to blame co-sleeping, but many babies who have only
slept in cribs have sleep problems also. My youngest wouldn't sleep alone or
with us, she just didn't sleep more than 2 hours at a time until she hit
about 14 months. Just wanted to reassure you. I've known many co-sleepers,
and I haven't known any teenagers who can't sleep alone )

We already decided that when we get to that stage, we're going to bang
pots in her room as payback ;-)

My oldest is almost 13, and I sometimes throw her stuffed animals at her
until she gets up.
The older kids can be helpful if they happen to wake up before me; they will
get the little one breakfast and let me sleep. But that's rare these days
lol.
Marie

On Mar 13, 6:34*pm, Rosalie B. wrote:
cjra wrote:

Our problem is lack of doors - all the doors have been removed and
sent of for stripping (lead paint removal), . So without doors,

Why does the area have to be quiet? *

Lights on, tv (sometimes), computer etc. all within a few feet of her?
Maybe your child can fall asleep with that, mine has never been able
to. All the usual 'house' noises. Frankly I don't expect anyone to be
able to sleep through all that. Perfectly silent? no, but constant
stimulation in the form of lights, talking etc, she can't handle that.

One of the other things that my
mom told me was not to tiptoe around when the baby was asleep because
then she would wake at every noise. *Whereas when you are running the
vacuum or dishwasher or whatever, or if she had siblings playing
around, she'd get used to some noise. *Is it that quiet at the daycare
when she takes her nap? *

Yes, it's an in-home daycare and all the kids nap at the same time.

Really it is better to do this - otherwise every time you go on a trip
she won't sleep.

Oddly enough, as we've travelled with her a lot, she sleeps well on
the road.