Guys, remember when I was barking up Henry’s tree for his great routine? Remember when he was doing 5-7 hour sleep stretches?
Well, I’m having a hard time remembering because it’s been SO LONG. Henry has turned into the worst dang sleeper ever.
If Henry could speak, this is what my nights would sound like (every 1.5-2 hours, start to finish):
Hey ma, I just farted… Can you come rock me back to sleep?
Momma, I dreamed I was drinking milk and now I’m thirsty. Can I have a sip?
Mommy, did you just try to put me down???? In my crib!!!? Pick me up immediately or I’ll wake the toddler!
Momma, I have hands! Now nurse me back to sleep!
Mommy, let’s snuggle (or I’ll scream).
You get the picture…
I don’t even think he’s hungry most of the time. He just wants to be snuggled NON STOP!
Don’t get me wrong, I love how cuddly and sweet he is, but time and place, Henry. Time and place.
Essentially, I’m haggard and tired and fed up. We need to sleep train STAT, but I don’t want the toddler to suffer. Ugh. Dilemmas.
We just spent way too much money on a ZipadeeZip… Please say this will be our magic fix.
Let me know if you have helpful suggestions. I’m tired (understatement) and about to go back to work…
Playing House 
Have you considered the Rock N Play? That worked great for Will when he was itty bitty so I could sleep solidly (4 hours at a crack?!) We transitioned him out of the Rock N Play at about 2 months because I was getting ready to go back to work and grandma didn’t have it at her house (nor did I want to transport it back and forth) and we wanted to have him get used to his crib.
Hope little Henry starts sleeping better soon!! Momma needs rest!! ❤
I have considered it, but since he’s 3 months now, I’d rather not create a new sleep crutch. Ya know? I want to just teach the kid to self soothe. How is the question. A friend suggested putting some rice cereal in his nighttime bottle. Any thoughts on that?
Yes, good thoughts about not wanting a new crutch! Yes, we started Will on some cereal when he seemed to be waking up more in the middle of the night. Our doctor said to feed it via spoon and not put it in the bottle, though…I’ve never tried it in the bottle so I’m not sure how that would work. Will was 4 months when we started spoon feeding and he was able to sit up pretty well. We started out with it really soupy (i.e. – just a bit of the rice in with the milk) and now we’ve worked up to more of a porridge texture.
A note to research for yourself: Big D notified me shortly after we started on the rice cereal that there are trace amounts of arsenic in rice and that oatmeal is preferred. I read a bit on this and it’s not enough to concern me, plus our dr. said the rice was fine. I send oatmeal with him when he goes to Big D’s just so I don’t get the grief, but we give him rice at home without any issue.
Aside from the fact that Henry might be hungry and waking up from that, we started “sleep training” Will pretty early on and it seemed to be successful. He was sleeping fairly soundly through the night starting around 2 months, but he’s never been great at napping during the day. I found that playing classical music for him on a low volume was helpful, and I got him a little “star gazer” thing that projects colorful stars up on the ceiling which are kind of cool/neat to look at. Of course, at that young of an age, who knows how much they’re actually able to see. We kind of did a modified cry-it-out where we would put him down and let him cry for 5 minutes at a crack before going to check on him. Now he’s to the point where he knows the routine and it’s bedtime and he generally goes down without a fuss. Of course, you’ve got Charlie too so I understand not wanting to let him cry too much that it would disturb her. I have read though that the first few days are the hardest and the babies eventually adjust and figure it out. So maybe the first few days would be tough on the whole family, but in the long run, it would be worth it??
xoxox, hope that helps.
1) do you feel like the rice cereal helped him to sleep longer? 2) love the stars and classical music. I’m totally going to try that. Which star thing did you buy? 3) when you’d go in after 5 minutes, what did you do? Pick him up? Just soothe him while he was in the crib? 4) when did you start the modified CIO? Thanks, love! Xo
1.) Yes, we noticed pretty quickly that he was sleeping longer/more soundly when we added “solids” (cereal).
2.) Here’s the thing we got. It has an MP3 plug so I have Will’s iPod connected up to it and the music plays out of the built-in speaker. You can find my review on Amazon (Kate on April 5, 2016) https://amzn.com/B00YDZ2AWY
3.) We don’t pick him up, we just go in and adjust him, give him his nuk again, pat him on the back and wait till he calms down a bit. I have picked him up maybe 5 times total when he’s really inconsolable, but for the most part, having the nighttime routine and letting him be has worked pretty well. He usually tuckers himself out after 7 minutes or so (so, that would be one check at 5 minutes, and he’s passed out 2 or 3 minutes after that).
4.) We started doing the modified CIO around 2 months, maybe 2.5. I was going back to work relatively soon so I wanted to get him used to soothing himself a bit + getting used to napping in his crib.
Okay… I’m inspired. This helps! Do you play music from that starry night music player thingy? Or is the music separate?
Okay I see… You play music from the iPod through the starry night thingy. $60!! Worth it???
The sounds from the starry night thing is kind of annoying, to be honest….there are several “sounds” to choose from (beach waves+seagulls, crickets, static, rain, waterfalls, etc.). The most tolerable is the beachy one, but the cycle is really short. So, it repeats the same pattern after 7 or 8 seconds. The beach one sounds most authentic. I’ll make a video recording tonight for you of the sounds and send it!! 🙂
I have an iPod for Will of classical/easy listening music that I just keep in his room and have it hooked up to the starry night thing. It’s got an external speaker so the sound comes through that. The speaker quality isn’t the best (it can sound a bit tinny at times) but it is what it is so I just keep the volume relatively low and it doesn’t sound too bad. I like that the starry night thing could be an alarm clock too; maybe someday we’ll use it for that.