Thursday, May 31, 2007

Sleep Struggles

I am venting. My darling Izzy is such a happy girl when she is not tired or hungry, and is getting to be so much more fun.........except at bedtime!!!! She has started to become a big time mommy's girl and if DH tries to put her to bed she will SCREAM and SCREAM and SCREAM. Even when I put her to bed, she will be mostly asleep and as soon as the paci falls out, she will cry until you go up and put it back in, this will go on 3 or 4 times EVERY night before she finally goes to sleep for the night (or until she wakes up once in the middle of the night to eat, I think she is growing because she has been an eating machine). We also have still been swaddling her, because she seems to sleep better, but last night it was just too hot so DH got her to sleep last night without it ( i wasn't home, i was at golf league and I guess she cried most of the evening except when the hairdryer was on, poor daddy) she slept till 2 when i fed her , she went right back to sleep until 6:15 this morning.

So i don't know what to do, do we let her cry it out, are we causing more harm by going and putting the binky back in even though she can't quite do it herself yet? How do I get DH more involved in teh evening with the bath and bed process so she gets more comfortable with him doing it? I feel bad for him because he says "she hates me" which she doesn't she is just more used to me because I am with her ALL DAY.

I also am trying to break her of napping in the swing, and trying to get her to sleep in her crib during the day, she will do it she just doesn't seem to sleep as long. I feel like I need to though because when she goes to my mom's once a week or to DH's parents or we go up north there is no swing so she needs to sleep in bed for naps. It is hard though because there have been times where she will sleep for up to 3 hours in her swing.....

Any advice would be great. I guess i need to go to the library and get some books on sleep, i have one but is way to scientific and I don't have the patience to read it.

On a happy note check out this cute picture I took of my happy girl the other day!



3 comments:

Brooke said...

Sounds like you are writing my blog for the week! We are encountering the same sleep issues. I tried the "tough love" approach the other night and told myself I would just let her cry because she needs to learn to comfort herself to sleep. She cried for 10 minutes before I caved. Everyone is recommending the book "Babywise" to me. And although I have the book, I haven't started reading it just yet. Although I would love for her to fall asleep on her own, take longer naps, not need to be rocked or nursed to sleep, I keep thinking to myself that she's only a baby once, and she won't be 16 years old still needing me there to comfort her to sleep. So other than that book recommendation, I don't have any good adivce, but could use some too!

Stilla Momma said...

WHAT A SWEET THING! :) Our girls are only a few weeks apart :)

katd said...

Look at that face! :) I just blogged about this thing I just bought for Lily called "The Miracle Blanket." She loves to be swaddled, too, but was still only going 3 hours at most during the night between feedings. The Miracle blanket is really lightweight, so she can be in it (in just her diaper) even now that it's so warm out. Since putting her in it two weeks ago, she sleeps at least 6 hours in a row during the night and falls asleep without her paci. It's been unbelievable! I sound like a commercial for this stupid blanket, but it's really changed our life! :)
Good luck!