My little one, has been very much disturbing lately as i work from home and my mrs is house wife. We recently shifted to our own place and bought my baby a lot of toys (although he had many before), the problem is he won't sleep, and if he sleep during day it is for few minutes and then wake up, this has exhausted us. While he was born and till last month, he was mostly in bouncer, and shaken it vigorously (by her mom or grandma), or in lap of his uncle would make him fall asleep. Now he need same vigorously shake to sleep and while he is falling asleep (which i had to do while holding in my arms), makes loud sounds, fight and hard to put to sleep. During night, her mom pulls him from crib to feed him and cannot put him back as he won't sleep without suckling whenever he wants to. I know his sleep pattern has been really turned bad by choices,perhaps or that is my thinking, maybe i am wrong? but how can we change his habits, so we are bit relaxed and he can sleep with a sound sleep, because this habit is unhealthy for him and for us as well.
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It sounds like you are saying you shake the baby to sleep. That can cause brain damage or death. Never shake a baby. It is better to leave the room and let the baby scream than to shake him.– KyleJul 21, 2016 at 20:43
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@Kyle not shake as in shake like crazy, i mean like cradle swing, only a little long.– localhostJul 21, 2016 at 20:48
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I figured that was probably what you were saying, just didn't want to risk not saying anything if I was wrong :-)– KyleJul 21, 2016 at 20:54
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2Babies get used to routines. You can try putting him in his crib at night after feeding and letting him cry for a while. He might cry for a long time at first, but if he gets used to having to go back to his crib after feeding, it will likely improve (though he will probably always cry a little bit going back in). That's what my wife and I did, and it worked well. The crying out method is sometimes controversial, but I think it works well.– KyleJul 21, 2016 at 20:59
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2It is not necessarily bad for a baby to cry forcefully. Some babies will cry very intensely when left to fall asleep, especially if a routine of falling asleep on their own is not yet established. You might want to look at some articles on the crying out method, like this one: babycenter.com/…– KyleJul 21, 2016 at 21:09
1 Answer
From my personal experience, and those of friends, sleep training is a must. My son (now 9 months) did not sleep through the night until he was 7 months, and even then it was only 8 hours. As for his naps, he would fight the crib all the time. He would only sleep if he was in my arms after a feeding, or was in his vibrating bear. In order to get him to sleep in his crib, we had to sleep train him. The process is as follows - 5 minutes of crying, then check on baby (but do not pick him up). 10 minutes of crying, then check on baby (but do not pick him up). Adding 5 minutes each time until he stops. But do not go longer than 45 minutes. If he's still crying at 45 minutes then he may not want to sleep. Babies also go through sleep regression. My son always has sleep regression (where he refuses to sleep) when he is about to grow. Through sleep regression, we were finally able to get him to sleep in his crib. It took about 3-5 days of torture, hearing him cry. But he now sleeps soundly. We later learned that he also does not like to be cold, and he was very cold in his crib and his preference was to be warm and cozy. We moved his crib during sleep training and that helped as well.
A really helpful book we have is called "The Baby Owner's Manual" by Louis Borgenicht, M.D., and Joe Borgenicht. It's written in a technical, yet comical way, referring to the baby as a "model" that you need to "trouble-shoot." It is very to-the-point and really helped us in times of need. It was definitely helpful during the sleep training.
Below is a link to Baby Center and their advice on sleep training: http://www.babycenter.com/0_baby-sleep-training-the-basics_1505715.bc
A link to sleep regression information: http://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-patterns/sleep-regressions/
