And you'll never guess what he is NOT doing: SLEEPING!
Now don't get me wrong, I knew there would be many sleepless nights and days once he came along but here we are at the 5 month mark and I am still exhausted! I still feel like a zombie and I'm wondering if i'll ever feel like myself again!
As of now, Collin will go to sleep about 11 or 12pm and sleep until 7 or 8am. Not bad you say? Ha! Once he is in bed (finally) at that late hour of 11 or 12pm, we then have to wait to make sure he's not going to get up again, so we don't get to bed until about a half hour to 45 minutes later. Then it takes me about a half an hour to actually fall asleep and let me tell you - 7 or 8am comes FAST, FAST, FAST!!
O, and by the way, his naps last between 20 and 30 minutes - not enough time for me to even fall asleep, never mind to feel rested! *sigh*
We recently saw a sleep expert, i'll call her Dr. T. She had us do a behavior diary and then gave us a 'plan' to follow. She gave us some GREAT advise! Here are the main points:
- Feeding on demand was a wonderful idea - in the beginning, not any longer.
- We need a schedule - set times in which we eat and set times in which we sleep.
- All feeds should be between 7am and 7pm. No more feedings at 11pm.
- Nursing sessions should not last more than 30 minutes and should be at least 3 hours apart.
- BEDTIME! It's time to establish a bedtime!! (Along with a bedtime routine, of course!)
- Be consistent!
I guess the big question now is HOW!? HOW do I do these things?!?!? I really have no idea, but i'm going to try.
So. Off we go on our sleep adventure......
All very good ideas...yes I know now you sit there and scratch your head on how to start. You know I just went thru this with Gabe (and still on going) some days better than others. All I can recommend is dont get discouraged and dont change the "plan" right away when it seems not to work, it takes a few days for them to understand whats going on.
ReplyDeleteI think I had to put Gabe on a feed schedule around the same time. He was eating every hour or so. So I started "stretching" out the times by 20 mins. (just and idea)I tried the 3 hours right away and boy I think we were both crying LOL
Same with the sleep schedule...I tried backing up the time by about 15 min and we are now going to bed around 9:30 instead of 10:30.
Just ideas. You know you can call me whenever you need some help....just next door :)
love the blog
Good luck!!!!!
Thanks Liz!!!
ReplyDelete