https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:43:20 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1578313 Fri, 18 Apr 2014 23:45:58 +0000 lady grey 1578313@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ms.janedoe: We did Sleep Easy solution and it worked so well for us. Naps took a while but LO was falling asleep on his own at night wtihout crying by night 3/4. Its so hard to hear your LO cry but in the end it was definitely worth it for us. I was going crazy due to the sleep deprivation.</p> <p>So I would say put her to bed earlier *especially* if she is not sleeping well at daycare. Stop swaddling. Start sleep training. She is old enough to sleep through the night and wean off night feeds. Most babies like to sleep on their belly once they learn to roll. Get a good fan and use a light sleep sack instead of swaddle. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1578216 Fri, 18 Apr 2014 21:20:52 +0000 Chillybear 1578216@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Night #1 went well.... She went down easy around 8 with little fuss no bumpers and no swaddle . She slept until 1am and I fed her since it had been 5 hours and she went back to sleep no problem. Woke up again at 5am (which is typical - during the week that's when my hubs alarm goes off and the house starts moving around) I fed her and noticed that she was quite wet so I changed her diaper. Getting her to settle down and go back to sleep took almost 30 minutes and quite a few tears and three attempts before she fell back asleep. She was up for the day at 6:45am </p> <p>Today she took a nap from 10:45- 12:30 (we were in the car driving to my parents house) and the. Another from 2-3:30 while running errands. </p> <p>Tonight since were at my parents and she's in the pack n play it took a few attempts and more crying than last night but she fell asleep on her own and has been asleep for about 2 hours so far </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576624 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 22:43:44 +0000 Grace 1576624@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Chillybear: That's so awesome that it worked! The same thing happened to me. It's like I had to finally let her try to fall asleep. As for MOTN, I think it will be trial and error for a bit. I let her cry for 3 min at the beginning to see if she'd go back to sleep and eventually I could tell what kind of cry was the kind that needed me. As you get more comfortable with it, you might go longer than 3 min. Sometimes, I'm pretty sure I was waking her up by going in immediately. Silly baby, crying in her sleep. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576528 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 21:20:26 +0000 Mrs. Stroller 1576528@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I ditched the swaddle at 5.5 months and a week later he was finding his own paci in the middle of the night, which was amazing. A few suggestions:</p> <p>Try an earlier bedtime. At that age we were doing a 6pm bath, by 7m it was 5:30 and now at 28m it's back to 6pm</p> <p>Put the fan on the floor and face it away from the crib, it should move the air enough to keep it comfortable</p> <p>Ditch the swaddle and give it a couple nights to see if it helps improve sleep. If it doesn't, swaddle again and try again in a week or two.</p> <p>Throw a LOT of pacis in the crib after you've ditched the pacis</p> <p>Shut the monitor off and only go in when she's woken you from sleep (this worked for me because we have a small house). With the monitor on I was waking for every little noise when he really didn't need to eat, even though he was a tiny little thing (5th percentile)</p> <p>Introduce a lovey, if you haven't already by having her "hold" it when nursing/feeding</p> <p>I'd also get the blankets out of the crib since she's close to rolling, just as a safety measure.</p> <p>If all else fails a little sleep training may work. Good luck!</p> <p>ETA: I didn't see the follow-up post! I'd do the monitor thing and just wait until she wakes you. Or have DH go in and pat her belly/back until she falls to sleep so she doesn't smell snack when you walk in. Good luck! I hope this is the start of better sleep for you! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576515 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 21:15:21 +0000 BabyBoecksMom 1576515@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>She sounds *so* much like my 2 yr old at that age. She was/is a super light sleeper, so she couldn't sleep well anywhere except a dark, quiet room. We started doing the "drowsy but awake" with her around 2 months, and she broke out if the swaddle at 3 months. She would wake every 2 hours each night until we finally sleep trained at 7 months. </p> <p>I hated every minute of it but it was so worth it. I never let her cry more than 10 min before going and calming her down, and I stayed outside her door the whole time with a timer. It only took a few nights before it worked and she started sleeping in 5 hr stretches. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576494 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 21:04:46 +0000 singingbee 1576494@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Chillybear: I also started another solid meal at her sitter's house and I have a sleep sack there for her. She doesn't have her lovey like she does at home, but she will usually get an a and a blanket and use that. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576491 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 21:03:30 +0000 singingbee 1576491@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Chillybear: we've been having sleep issues too. We also had a lot of wake-ups that I knew were just out of habit. The sleep has worked itself out and wouldn't you know that lo likes sleeping in her own room and having a set routine for bedtime and sleeping. I let lo fuss for 10-15 minutes unless she cries differently, like a hurt cry. Most of the time she falls back asleep without needing to be feed. I started to set a time that she wouldn't be fed before and it's worked. She usually just wakes up if she is hungry, but if she wakes up out of a sleep cycle, she now can put herself back to sleep. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576246 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:35:33 +0000 Chillybear 1576246@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>So I'm sitting in Fi's bedroom as I type this during our first attempt and Operation Better Sleep. I'm utterly amazed I nursed her and kept her "awake" I said good night kissed and set her in her crib (removed the bumpers and she's not swaddled) it's been 12 minutes she only fussed for about 20 sec after about 7 minutes of silence. I'm going to give it another few minutes and then sneak out of the room. Any suggestions on what I should do for middle of the night wake ups? How long to I let her fuss? At what point do I feed her? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576231 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:28:47 +0000 Chillybear 1576231@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsStormy: @scg00387: my issue with the naps is that I have no control over them. My mil will do whatever I tell her to a fault but at the day care I imagine it's hard to fall asleep with 11 other kids and 4 teachers all in the same room. I also think she's not getting enough sleep but I don't think I can put her to bed any earlier. We don't walk in the door from work/daycare until after 6pm and were trying to introduce most solids ourselves at dinner time. I think I need to talk to the daycare instructors about getting her to nap better and for longer. The lovey is a good idea maybe I'll look for a smaller Aden &amp; anais blanket since that's what we swaddle with. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576148 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:09:03 +0000 immabeetoo 1576148@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Chillybear: I would try really hard to formulate some type of schedule that is consistent between weekday &amp; weekend! Easier said than done, but it might really help her fall asleep easier and sleep longer. A routine before bed and naps, and predictable times helped us a lot. I would also try a way earlier bed time if she's only getting that much nap sleep - when my LO was around that age he refused his second nap, so he was in bed and asleep by 6.</p> <p>I also echo PP about dropping the swaddle. Have you done a lovey? My son adores his blankie and that's about when we introduced it. He also slept way better on his belly - so even if it means a couple rough nights, I'd let her figure it out sans swaddle. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1576057 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 18:34:46 +0000 MrsStormy 1576057@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Chillybear: We haven't sleep trained at night (we did nap train and it was so easy) because the few times I've tried to let her cry it just resulted in to much work and more exhaustion for me, I'm lazy I know. I did however want to commiserate in the past month my great night sleeper has stopped being a good night sleeper, it is not uncommon for her to wake up 6+ times! For us I think a part of it was just delayed 4 month sleep regression and teething. </p> <p>It sounds like for naps you really need a routine though. I don't actually think the amount of sleep she is getting is that bad (although our nap sleep is pretty bad so don't trust me on that). My almost 7 month old normally gets 2-3 hours total of nap time (3 hours on a super good day) but she has always been a bad napper. We do about 2-3 hours of awake time with 3 naps generally. I try to keep the majority of her naps in her crib and I did the 3 minutes of crying thing for nap training but I stayed in her room while she cried, after 3 minutes I would give her the pacifier again along with her lovey, the longest crying she ever did was three 3 min cry sessions, now she can put her self to sleep for naps. She does still take car naps and carrier naps when necessary though, and it hasn't destroyed our routine. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1575602 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 14:27:08 +0000 Mrs. Yoyo 1575602@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Chillybear: I want to say the worst was over in a few nights! I actually blogged about it waaay back when.</p> <p><a href="http://www.hellobee.com/2011/12/30/unswaddled/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hellobee.com/2011/12/30/unswaddled/</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1575558 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 14:10:08 +0000 Madison43 1575558@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Chillybear: my LO was a swaddle addict, but we stopped cold turkey last month after she rolled onto her tummy while swaddled. The first night sucked (took forever to get her to sleep and frequent wakeups) and naps the next day were very short to non existent, but the second night was much better and she was back to normal by the third night. We had planned to swaddle wean so that we could eventually start some form of sleep training, but didn't end up needing to. Once she figured out how to sleep unswaddled, she learned to fall asleep on her own within a few weeks. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1575523 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:59:28 +0000 Chillybear 1575523@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@illumina: I was reading the post from earlier today that referenced Sandy's experience with Momsoncall.com I liked that approach but i'm having trouble accessing the website. I could do three minutes of crying at a time</p> <p>@Mrs. Yoyo: The last few nights i've tried not to swaddle but then its been taking longer to go down at night and wake ups have ramped up in frequency. After a few hours i break down and swaddle and she seems to settle in. However, she sleeps just fine in my bed flat with no swaddle. How long did your lo's transition last? I just wish her sleep wasnt such a precarious thing. </p> <p>@ms.janedoe: its looking like were headed that way as soon as i feel better </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1575498 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:51:26 +0000 Mrs. Yoyo 1575498@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Off the top of my head, I wonder if (after a few painful nights) she might sleep better without the swaddle and rolled towels. At this age, the ability to roll around and find a comfy spot on her own can work wonders. I swaddled my first until about six months but finally went cold turkey to a sleep sack when he began trying to roll. Of course the transition sucked initially, but after we got over the hump, he did better. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1575470 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:43:59 +0000 Turd Ferguson 1575470@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We're kind of in the same boat, wakeups aaaall night long. We're planning on sleep training (CIO with checks, so Ferber/SleepEasy) this weekend if she gets rid of this damn cold!</p> <p>Hope it gets better for you! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1575442 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:36:30 +0000 illumina 1575442@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't know what others would say or if mine is a popular opinion, but I would sleep train in your situation.. CIO, or just something so that LO is able to fall asleep on her own. It may help with all of your night wakings and naps as well as bedtime. I can't advise on the daycare issues because I SAH so maybe someone else might be able to help. Though I do know from reading posts that lots of LO's in daycare have one schedule there and another at home on weekends. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-baby-sleep#post-1575316 Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:49:35 +0000 Chillybear 1575316@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>There have been a lot of sleep posts today and i'm beginning to seriously think we need to do some sort of sleep training and/or work on changing some bad habits that we've fallen into. This might get long and i applaud anyone who sticks through long enough to give advice. I just have no idea where to begin and i would love to hear some insights, experiences, and help from the hive.</p> <p>Background Little Miss is 6 1/2 months old. She is primarily breastfed. She is a very alert baby, fights sleep and rarely nods off on her own. While home on Maternity leave she would typically sleep 10pm-5am, Nurse and sleep until 9-10am. At 3 months i went back to work and it has been one challenge after another - Adjusting to daycare and a new routine, illness, dropping from 50th to 25th percentile in weight, starting formula, teething, etc. </p> <p>She does not nap well at daycare. They get maybe an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon and it usually in an infant seat if she falls asleep they've realized they cant move her into a crib or she'll wake up. She'll sometimes sleep the 45 min to and from daycare in the car. On mondays, my MIL watches her at our house and she'll sleep on her and the weekends are very unpredictable and we're often on the move - visiting my parents, running errands, etc</p> <p>At night, we start our routine around 7:30 bath (some nights), diaper, pjs, swaddle, sound machine, nurse and rock and i put her down asleep. </p> <p>For a long time, this has worked great she would easily sleep until 2-3am and go back to sleep until my hubs alarm went off at 5 and we'd nurse and doze in bed until i had to get up at 6. The last month or so, it has taken longer and longer for her to get into a deep enough sleep to put her down in the crib (like until after 9pm) and she'll wake up again within an hour or so and then wake every 2-3 hours until 4ish when i finally cave and bring her in my bed. </p> <p>Before she would wake up eyes open and call out to me ("ahh ahhh ahh) now she cries but she seems like shes still asleep and her eyes are closed. Sometimes if i catch her early enough i can put the pacifier back in and she'll settle and go back to sleep other times i need to nurse and rock her. </p> <p>My main issue is that i have a really crappy immune system and as soon as i go more than a few days with little sleep i get sick, then she gets sick and sleep gets worse. I'm currently battling a sinus infection and i've started bringing her in our bed earlier and earlier just so i can get more sleep. another bad habit i need to break. Even though i'm dozing its not good quality sleep. </p> <p>Another problem is that as it gets warmer out i dont know how to comfortably dress her for sleep. This past weekend we got a taste of summer with 70 degree days and 60 degree nights. If we open her windows, we live on a busy street and that wakes her. We need to install a fan on her ceiling. She loves to be swaddled and sleeps better when she is but if i swaddle her she seems to get sweaty really easily. She's on the cusp of learning how to roll over back to belly and often breaks out of swaddle during the night. We also have two rolled up beach towels as bumpers from when we transitioned her from her RnP to the crib. Those need to go. </p> <p>help..... </p>