Sleep help (I'm desperate)

[HaleysMommy]

My older daughter was a poor sleeper, partly due to undiagnoseddairy intolerance. Every nap required nursing and nighttime was stretches of 45 minutes with crying and needing to nurse. It was a long two years before she night weaned.


My second child is now 5 weeks and her WONDERFUL sleep is deteriorating. I can't figure out how to get her to sleep w/o nursing and holding. I'm not opposed to it some of the tie but I have another child and other things I need to do. With my older DD I ignored my house and, more importantly, ME for too long. I can;t fall back into that.

I honestly don't know HOW to get a baby to sleep. She was taking long naps but yesterday and today has been 20min tops with crying. Ho do I get her to sleep w/o my nursing her or lying in bed w/her? Swaddling doesn't do much, she isn''t a huge fan of the swing, won't take a pacifier.

Help help help!

[tcmt81]

Nurse her to sleep. I almost always nurse DD to sleep. Sometimes she will fall asleep in the swing without nursing, but otherwise there is NO way.

If that doesn't work, put her in a carrier. Our DD went through a phase where she would only nap in the mei tai. Now she will nap in the swing.

[doodah]

I could really type a huge thing on this but there have been so many sleep help threads lately. You will find many suggestions in this forum! Overall, I always recommend the Baby Whisperer. I put my kiddos and my daycare kids on routines asap and find that setting some order to their days is a major help! I have to be able to sleep train kids without nursing (obviously since I am not their mom) and without rocking and napping with them because I have other kids to care for. I take care of kids newborn to age two so I have learned a lot about sleep issues! Because your baby is only five weeks old, I think that you would find continued swaddling will help. It is just the same feeling for them as being held. Swings or vibrating bouncers are magical for some kids and they all do better with a darkened room and white noise like a fan running. The last thing (which is a biggie) is learning their cues and putting them right to bed when they show signs of tiredness. An overtired child is just a mess and many little ones do not yet have the skills to calm themselves enough to get to sleep. It just takes time to work all the kinks out. I would recommend that you research sleep techniques and go from there. You can find many helpful things that are still gentle and drama free. Good luck and pm me anytime!

[ChoiceSoaps]

I had 2 babies with medical issues that went undiagnosed and unrecognized for a LONG time--and our family life was completely turned upside down because of it. At 5 weeks, a baby should be napping and sleeping when tired. Honestly, I've come to believe that if a very young baby is tired but doesn't sleep or is hungry but doesn't eat, then there is a real issue--most likely a medical problem. Given the history of dairy intolerance with your older dc, have you gone off dairy? It might be starting point to figuring out the problem.