Dear Readers of ChoicyWhiteBoy:
Help! Sammy Mammy here. Our darling baby Samantha does not want to go to sleep. Ever. Well, she sleeps pretty well between midnight and 6am, getting up once around 2am to eat. But we continue to have a devil of a time getting her to sleep. Nap irregularity during the day we can handle; however, the nightly bedtime battle is really getting to me.
We have been doing the same nightly routine (bath, book, breast) for over a month. We can never seem to get her to sleep until 11pm even when we start the routine early. Some nights we’re lucky and she falls asleep while nursing. Other nights (like tonight) we are cursed with the baby who screams in her daddy’s arms as he tries to sing and rock her to sleep. Screams like nails on the chalkboard of my soul. We did not want to follow the cry it out method of Ferber and others, and generally we do not mind rocking, singing, or nursing her to sleep. But sometimes she resists sleep with every fiber of her little being. It can sometimes take an hour to get her to sleep and then she will sleep only 30 minutes.
This almost makes me miss the newborn days when she would fall asleep on top of us anytime, anywhere. Almost.
Sam sleeps in a crib in our bedroom, but we would welcome her in our bed if that would help. Problem is when she’s lying between us she gets so excited that she kicks and squirms and flashes her beautiful smile. But fall asleep? Nah. Who needs sleep?
We do, kiddo!
So, I ask you, readers, what is your experience with getting babies to sleep? Specifically:
• how do you / did you get your babies to fall asleep?
• how do you/ did you get your babies to stay asleep?
• how old were they when you were able to stick to a regular bedtime?
We’re not even worrying about getting her to sleep through the night. Sam is still small and feeding her round the clock is not a problem. We just need her to embrace sleep a little more easily.
Thanks for any and all comments, advice, stories, encouragement.