Sunday, August 3, 2008

This is your brain on no sleep...

My 7 month old is on sleep strike (which has been going on for over 2 months now)--so today we're rearranging some furniture and putting him in his own room. I hate to do it, and there is going to be some crying involved (no, not just me), but I have to because hubby and I can't survive with only 3-4 hours of sleep per night.

Scrambled brains aside, if anyone has ideas to help this kid sleep, please speak up. We've tried just about everything and nothing has worked. My baby actually has DARK CIRCLES under his eyes--they're not as gargantuan as mine, but they're definitely noticable. Here's to hoping for a good night's sleep!

3 comments:

Kim @ What's That Smell said...

Seriously, I know this wasn't the point but now I'm hungry!

MamaDuck76 said...

I found your blog by accident when looking for "green" blogs. I promise you that I'm not a crazy stalker! ;)

I, too, have a 7 month old who took a nice little sleep strike. After reading up on lots of different sleep training methods, we've found success with "No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. Really - no crying. It takes patience & a lot of routines, but it works. It won't change overnight, but for us, it did get much better within a week. Within 3 weeks, our little guy is only waking once a night.

Good luck! I can sympathize with you on the dark circle thing!

Anonymous said...

Some approaches that helped my son who was a horrible sleeper at first and a co-sleeper to boot, to get into the sleep routine and transition from big bed to crib I had to do the following:

1. A warm, quiet bath just before bedtime, I also used some bed time bubble bath, I don't know if it helped but I was trying everything I could.

2. A back massage while reading a book, and keeping the house very quite and excitement free just leading up to bedtime so he didn't feel like he was missing something.

3. The Ferber Method (this was really hard but WORTH it) I cried just as much as he did, but it only took 5 days of diligence and he was already going to sleep without a fuss and has every sense, with only occasional relapses now that he's a toddler.

4. A static 9:00 bedtime, and a regular scheduled nap @ 1:00-3:00
My Aunt was on a schedule from day 1 with her twins and it worked wonder's after I put Ethan on one. Luckily I found a daycare that had already scheduled thier naptime for that time slot.

Now he will actually tell me that he's ready for bed "I go nigh nigh mommy", or he will calmly accept his fate, he's two now and only wakes up occasionally with night terrors.

Steffie @ http://www.thriftywench.com