Saturday, May 9, 2009

NO SLEEP... NEED HELP!


As I laid in bed last night listening to Tessa scream already for the second time at 3 am, I thought to myself "I need to ask other moms on my blog for help because at this rate Tessa may never sleep through the night"! So to all of you wonderful moms out there that had babies who didn't sleep at night I need your advice. Here is what we've been currently doing for about 3 months consistently. Around 8:00 each night I put her in her pj's and sleep sack, turn on her mobile with soothing music as well as a sound machine with rain. Then we turn out the lights and I nurse her for about 10 minutes. She pulls off and rubs her eyes which is my cue to burp her and put her in bed. She rolls to her side and goes to sleep, she doesn't fall asleep nursing. She usually sleeps for a good 4 hours or so but then the waking up starts! My doctor told me at her age and weight there should be NO problem for her to sleep at least 6 hours straight without eating. So if she wakes up before the 6 hours then I let her cry it out. Sometimes it lasts 10 minutes other times it lasts an hour. I've learned that if I go in and turn her mobile back on and lay her back down on her back (she's usually sitting) she goes back to sleep faster. If it has been 6 hours when she wakes up I do go nurse her and she usually eats a little and then goes back down quietly. Either way though she has been waking up on average 3 times a night. I seriously don't know if she's going to ever sleep through the night. It's so hard not to give in and go nurse her because I know she'll go right back to sleep but I have been staying strong. I only let myself nurse her once during the night. I just feel like I've been trying the "cry it out" for so long and it's not working! She doesn't nurse before her naps and goes down fine but only sleeps for about 45 min. I'm kind of over the nap thing though, I just care about getting some sleep at night!
So please leave me any advice that you think might help. Oh yeah, she also doens't suck a binky. I've been trying to teach her how to but she's just never liked them. I thought a binky would maybe sooth her like nursing does, but no luck so far with that either.

Also if anyone has any good ideas on making traveling easier, let me know. We're going on a plane next week with her! Yikes
Thanks for your help!