Mar 14, 2009

Sleeping issues....

We are working on getting Emma to sleep through the night.  She doesn't sleep more than 2 hours of naps during the day, she goes to sleep at 8pm on the dot (don't try to delay or things can turn ugly, very ugly).  The problem is that she wakes up around midnight and then she is up every 1-2 hrs until 4-5 am.  We have tried bed time routine, swaddling, pacifier.  NOTHING keeps her asleep.  Emma is 19 pounds now so she should not have to wake up to eat.  So what??

I've read that preemies have more sleep disturbances than full term babies even at 6 months. These sound very familiar.  Emma can get so tired that she will swing her arms and kicks her legs.  It's rare for her to drift off to sleep on her own.  It really seems like she doesn't know HOW to.  FYI-same thing at daycare.  Any suggestions out there?
  • Inability to self-soothe - They wake and can't calm themselves in order to fall back to sleep. This is due to their immature nervous system.
  • Wanting to be held often - Is this due to not enough time spent in the womb or the fact that many of them were in the hospital's NICU after birth and not held very often? It could be a combination due to both circumstances.

  • I just found these videos of Emma when she was in the NICU.  I never realized how loud it was...Maybe she needs more noise to sleep??

    1 comment:

    A Mom to Two Lil' Ones said...

    Oh girl, I don't know what to tell you, except this too shall pass.

    Definately keep with a bedtime routine (we are big believers of that over here), pick one and stick with it, even if it shows no signs of improvements immediately - there's that saying that you have to do something like 20 to 30 times before it becomes habit. To this day if I miss a step in Lincoln's bedtime routine he will wake up in the middle of the night.

    Also, we are big fans of noise in the room, Lincoln has always slept with the sound of rain in the background.

    I've also heard of placing your smell on a burp cloth or swaddling blanket and laying them on top of that in their bed. And if you're still breastfeeding then place drops of the milk on the burp cloth. Just the smell of mommy helps them sleep even if they are not actually being held.