Help, I can not get my baby girl to sleep?

Question

Her birth date is 7/27/06. She sleeps from 7:30pm-12:30am then she is up every 2 hours. Yes, I feed her cereal in her bottle-- actually she will not take a bottle without a little cereal in it, no, it does not constipate her. I tried feeding her sweet potatoes and pears throughout the day, which she loves both. But then she was extremely fussy in the evening so we quit the food for a week and the fussiness went away. But she still will not sleep and I am exhausted !!! I would greatly appreciate any "real" advise from experienced mothers. I am a nurse and none of the doctors know what to tell me. She is a beautiful and happy baby, she does not wake up in the morning in a bad mood(always happy) you can not be upset at a smiling baby..But she wants to get up for the day at 5am. Help!! dad can not help as he is on call 24hours a day for towing and we live in a very rural area. We own a collision/body shop/towing business. The closest town to us has one red light. Any advise???

Answer 1

start putting her down at 8 and when she wakes up at midnight don't go to her. allow her to get herself back to sleep. then when you get up with her later give her a bottle burp her and put her back in her crib. do not stay awake with her. kiss her and say good night and leave her to herself . she will go back to sleep. Give her one of your t-shirt that you have worn for a few min to get your mommy scent on it. but it in her crib. the t-shirt will comfort her. good luck.

Answer 2

Someone else suggested giving her a shirt of yours with your mommy scent on it. I am not being disrespectful, but the baby is not a puppy ! It doesn't work the same way with humans.

It doesn't sound as if she has a medical problem. The doctors do not know what to do. SO, I will give you my advice as the mother of three children. Try this: Start tonight: Before feeding her give her a nice, warm bath. Talk to her and soothe her while bathing. Sing to her, just make her comfortable. After her bath feed her. Mix applesauce or peaches (baby food of course) with rice ceareal in a bowl. Stir it up so that it is not real thick nor real runny. Use a baby spoon and feed it to her. Then follow with her milk. Burb her in between. It depends on her if you bathe first or feed first. All babies are different. You don't want her screaming during her bath if she is starving. Bath first or feed first depends on your baby.

Make this a quiet, soothing time. Don't run around the house holding her and doing other things at the same time. If possible play some light classical music or something equally soothing for her. Make sure she is warm enough but not overboard so that she sweats. Regular footed pajamas and a nice blanket. Use the remaining milk to feed her and rock her to sleep.

I would do that tonight. Tomorrow I would mix the rice ceareal and fruit again and give her a bottle. Mid afternoon give her the vegtable she likes. Then tomorrow night follow the above. DON'T forget the soothing bath EVERY night. That is a must. It is important in getting her tired and sleeping all night. You could even move bed time to 9:00 p.m. in a short time to make her sleep thru the night.

If she wakes during the night, prepare a warm bottle, change her diaper and make as little noise as possible. No bright lights, keep everything quiet and no playing. QUIET, CHANGE, FEED AND SLIP BACK INTO BED. NO stimulation to let her think she can make this a play time..................

Just give this a try.............Good Luck

PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW HER TO CRY. She does not know what she is doing. You never let a baby cry. WHY would you? You comfort your children. She is an infant, not a six year old that just wants to watch more cartoons. To me that borders on child abuse. You are a parent and part of being a parent is to comfort that child. You are not supposed to sleep the first year !!

Answer 3

She's only 4 months old, i hate to say this, but you really wont be able to change much at this point. My daughter went thorough a lot of strange sleep patterns. For a couple of months she would sleep through the night, and then she went to what I call "club hours". She would wake up at midnight or 1 and go back to sleep at 4 or 5 (like she was out partying). I had to fight it out on my own. I let my husband sleep because he had to be at work at six (we live in a small town too)

have you tried any baby bath or lotion with lavender in it? that helped my son, but not my daughter. Johnson and Johnson and Huggies makes some good ones. You also may have to keep her up a little later at night...that helps some babies too. She
may be upset with you about it,but if it help, it's worth it.

I hope something helps you. I know how hard it is when they just won't sleep. A few moths ago, at over a year old, my daughter went back into club hours, all she wanted to do was laugh and play. I just had to let her stay in the crib and play until she went ack to sleep because nothing I did helped......now that I think of it i asked a question on here about it......I'll send what they said to you if you have the message option...Good luck.

Answer 4

I agree with littleluv. New Babies do this for the first 6 to 9 months. Then they get into a regular routine. Accept it, you sleep when the baby eats, you end up eating cold meals instead of warm, your showers will be minimal, your social life is nada, everything has changed but remember the biggest important little deal is you have a baby and your baby reflects on your emotions. So what are you doing on line? get some rest!!!

Answer 5

My baby girl was born on 08/03/06 and goes to bed at around 7:30 also.. @about 7pm she starts getting a little fussy so I calm her by patting her on the back and then put her in her crib where she humms her self to sleep. When she wakes about 12:30 I go to her and if she doesn't have her "binky" I give it to her pat her on her back and leave... when she wakes at 3am I get her up change her and feed her in my bed. After she finishes eating and gets ready to roll over to sleep I put her back in her bed. Sometimes she wants to play but I tell her no playing at nite time and put her on my tummy and pat her until she is tierd again then I put her back in her bed.. I try not to give her any stimulation by turning on the lites, I have a dim lamp in her room to change her by and in my room the tv is on for feeding light. Hope my experience helps. Maybe soft music would help lul herself to sleep too.

Answer 6

I know your risk but it's will be better when your baby is one years old. Baby need sleeping and eating. you should feed your baby after 2 hours, just a little milk if she wakes up. sing some luballies to her with some caressing manner for example stroking her hair, rubbing her back,.. You also should put a pillow on her bell to avoid starting. Hope my answer will help you. good luck

Answer 7

littleluv said exactly the things that i have done. it's tuff at first but it will work and you'll get some much needed rest. Just be sure and keep this routine even on the weekend. A lot of parents let kids stay up late on the weekends but it's really not good and then they wonder why the baby is getting so ill.

Answer 8

She is not sleeping at night because you have her sleeping for so long in the evening! Try keeping her up until 9 or 10. Also, its normal for most kids to be up for the day so early. My kids are all up by 6 am every day. Maybe you should go to bed earlier so you can be more awake for her at 5 a.m.

Answer 9

Don't hate me for this, but, your going to have to let her cry it out. If you keep going in there, she is going to learn that this is a fun way to get Mommy to hold me and pick me up. I wouldn't let her cry it out cold turkey, though. You have about another 3 weeks of torture. Here goes. Tonight, when she wakes up are 12:30, go in, rub her back, tell her that you love her but Mommy needs to sleep, tell her that it's not morning time yet and leave. She is going to holler. Let her. She is either going to realize that you are not coming back or she'll cry herself to sleep. You need to be firm on this otherwise she will learn how to wrap you around her cute pudgy little finger.

Answer 10

Rock her to sleep....hold her in your arms and do a bouncing- rocking technique. Do that for about 5 min. until she gets a little sleepy. Then put her in her bed and see what happens. If she starts to cry then let her cry. After about 10 min. babies start to get tired of crying and go to sleep. Good luck!