You roll over and look at the clock. “Every 45 minutes. This child has GOT to sleep through the night!”
Been there, done that… times four.
When Lira was four months old, the longest stretch of sleep she would have is 45 minutes. That was the longest. The shortest stretch… well, let’s suffice to say that the baby did not like cold sheets.
We tried everything but as new parents, we really had no idea what we were doing.
Browsing the bookshelves in a desperate search for answers (and some much needed Zzzzzzzzs), I stumbled upon The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night
For those of you who want immediate solutions, I will boil the book down to some simple steps for you. However, you need to read this book in its entirety.
- Track your baby’s patterns closely.
- Fit naps and bedtime to what your baby wants based on the patterns you tracked.
- Create your plan based of her suggestions that fits your family and helps your child to sleep through the night.
Regardless of whether your child is four months old or four years old, this book will help you but only if you are willing to commit to do what it takes.
With each of our children, when I was finally ready to tackle the sleep problem and get it solved, it only took about one week to get the child sleeping through the night. Using the book, we chose to:
- Establish a bedtime routine that was the same (and still is) every night.
- Put the baby to bed while awake.
- Go to the baby immediately when he or she cries out.
- Resist picking the baby up.
- Say the key words, “Go night-night.”
- Roll
- Leave the room when the baby calms or needs to cry for about five minutes.
- Repeat.
As a last resort, when we were just too exhausted to function, we would revert to rocking the baby to sleep, but our persistence would pay off.
For particularly stubborn children, we would let them cry up to eight excruciatingly long minutes… with Bill holding me by the arm. I would then pick the baby up and stand next to the crib, rocking the child in my arms until he calmed down and then put the baby back to bed and repeat.
Now, our children go to bed, put themselves to sleep and stay asleep until morning (unless the baby is teething or a child is sick or a toddler wets the bed). Unfortunately, after teaching four children to sleep, my body is programmed to wake.
This post is linked with love at the Mommy Club.
Sharing this with a friend! Thanks!
Thanks for the referral, Tonya. Thanks the best compliment ever. 🙂
I think we need this right now…Tempted to go buy that book!
It is worth every cent and more! I love that it gives you various solutions that you can fit to your individual family’s situation, whether nursing or bottlefeeding, co-sleeping or crib-sleeping.
Our local Babies R Us also carries the book. You might try there first so you wouldn’t have to wait for Amazon to ship it. 🙂
I am in this boat right now! My 19th month old has never slept through the night still…it’s not his fault, it’s ours. We are the parents that never have had our kids sleep in their cribs. Our daughter (now 3) was the same way. However, on her 2nd birthday we bought her a big girl bed (totally skipped the crib and toddler bed) and she went in like a pro and slept through the night. However, she does require being laid with until she falls asleep. But as far as my little guy goes, there is no tricking him with sleeping in his crib. Regardless of what we attempt to do he wakes up. I’m going to try these tips…hopefully we can stick to our guns. The hardest thing is he screams bloody murder and we are not the type of parents to ignore a even a wimper soooo…we’ll have to try hard! 🙂
I cannot stand crying either. That is why I would set a timer and Bill would have to hold me down. I would draw the line at about five minutes. Bill would push for longer but I cannot take it when they get so worked up that they are snubbing. Breaks my heart.
Best of luck to you, Stephanie! You deserve a good night of sleep. I know you can do this!
My 4 month old won’t go to sleep on her own and if she’s dead asleep after I rock her and I put her in her bed she’ll pop right up n want me to rock her to bed… She sleeps with me every single night because if she’s in her crib and her pacifier falls out she’ll wake up.