Where is a Sleep Guru When You Need One?

When my now 10 month old was only 2 months old he slept like nobody’s business.  He would go to sleep around 11 pm and not wake until 5 am, nurse for a bit and go back to sleep for another few hours.  I still like between 8 and 9 hours of solid sleep myself, but it was doable.  Then somewhere between 5 and 6 months Quinlan decided (well at least his body decided) that it was time to actually start pushing out some teeth.  They take forever and come in 1 at a time.  They must also hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.  At least this is my inference because of the waking and general crankiness.  Just so you know, the waking happens between every 1.5 to 3 hours.  Quinlan usually gets his biggest chunk of sleep from 7:30 pm till somewhere between 11 pm to 2 am.  Unfortunately I hardly get to sleep before 11 pm at the earliest.  It is usually closer to 11:30 or midnight.

Quinlan is still not much of a napper unless he is attached to the breast, in the stroller (moving), in the car (also moving) or lying on my lap on the nursing pillow.  This is not a good thing either.  About the only good thing I took away from the Weissbluth book was figuring out your child’s tiredness signals.  At least with this Quinlan shows them much better than Aidan ever did.  These signals are what told us that Quinlan needs to be going down to bed at around 6:45-7:00 pm.  If we push the time it is harder to get him to nurse to sleep, though Anthony can usually lie down with him and get him over the edge to sleep.

Quinlan Sleeping as an Infant

The Good Old Sleeping Days

So with Quinlan waking so many time during the night now Anthony and I are incredibly sleep deprived.  I have a hard time getting back to sleep especially if I get up to soothe, feed and generally move Quinlan back to sleep in his crib.  I will do this for the first session but after a while Quinlan ends up in the bed with us.  Neither Anthony or I sleep well with Quinlan in the bed.  He doesn’t sleep for longer periods, we just don’t need to have the extra step of going into the boys’ room to get him.  He has started shunning the soother (in the wee hours) and will cry when Anthony tries to soothe him.  I am at my wit’s end.

Before we get any comments about this, we don’t want to keep co-sleeping and we have no intention of ever trying Cry It Out ever again.  It was horrific for everyone when we tried it the Weissbluth way and didn’t work except to make it that much harder to get Aidan to sleep at all.  We will not try it for Quinlan and because we need to have the boys share a room it isn’t something that is at all practical either.

I will be checking out a number of sleep books from the library and some twitter friends have promised to lend me some as well.  Watch the blog for updates and reviews of the sleep books and training methods.  Maybe there is something we can do with the child who stands up the nanosecond he stirs.

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4 Responses to Where is a Sleep Guru When You Need One?

  1. Carrie says:

    I can totally relate. Went through the same sort of issues with Amelia and ended up co-sleeping for about 6 months while hubby slept on an air mattress. She finally figured out the sleep thing around 10months so fingers crossed your little guy does the same.

    However, I’m actually RIGHT THIS SECOND dealing with possibly the most frustrating sleep related issue. Amelia is 13mo and had been sleeping pretty well but the last few nights she has been fighting and SCREAMING like she was being beaten. Usually I can calm her and get her back to sleep but not tonight.

    For my own sanity I am doing CIO because I am so frustrated I know I will just yell at her and that won’t help anyone. Plus, I’m doing the bedtime thing solo tonight which makes it that much harder.

    I read quite a few books about sleep and honestly none of them helped at all. I think in the end it’s just accepting your child’s own developmental timeline.

    I’ll be thinking of you…as I creep back upstairs praying she’s fallen asleep. God, I feel awful. I hate CIO…

  2. Chris says:

    Hmm… I really wish I could help you out with this one, but as a “good times” Uncle, I’m never around for such trouble. That said, if you find a solution please post it as I do plan on having kids of my own and will likely need all the help/advice I can get.

    Oh and before I forget, Netchick sent me. She says “Hi!” She’s good like that.

  3. Grandma Kathy says:

    Hope some one has some suggestions for you. Are you still adjusting to the time change too?

  4. Nana says:

    You may need to resort to one of you sleeping upstairs on alternate nights just to keep the sleep deprivation from totally doing you in. How on earth Anthony manages to ride to work after so little sleep I do not know.

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