I've been trying to look up solutions to Lydia's sleep problems. As a tiny newborn, she woke up every few hours at night and slept a lot during the day. I was tired, but this was expected. After a few weeks, I put her on a sleep schedule in which, during the day, she could only sleep 2 hours at a time, and then had to be up for an hour in between. That way, she'd sleep longer at night. It worked really well.
At about 2 months old, Lydia dropped all her night feedings except for one. She'd go to bed at 8:30-9:00 and not wake up until 2:30-3:00 and then sleep again until 6:30-7:00. This was great for me...but I took it for granted! Just before she turned 3 months old, Lydia has started waking up often at night. She goes down at 7:30-8:00 and will then wake up at 12, 1, 2, 3, and 5. The first few times she wakes up, I just give her her pacifier and pat her bottom and she goes back to sleep. At the 3:00 wake up, I'll nurse her and put her back in her bassinet. By 4:30 or 5:00, she'll join me in bed when she wakes up and I'll nurse her while we sleep. These constant waking-ups are driving me crazy! I definitely don't get a good night's sleep with her waking up every hour.
The past few nights, I have changed her bedtime routine just a bit and started "dream feeding" her. We start getting her into her pajamas at around 7:30 and then I nurse her on one side while I read her a book. Then, I nurse her on the other side while laying down. This way, she will either fall asleep while nursing, or I put her on her tummy when she's done and pat her to sleep. She sleeps in my bed until Brian and I go to bed, around 9:30. I then "dream feed" her, in which I nurse her without really waking her up. She then goes into her bassinet. She'll wake up around 1:00 and I'll feed her, but then she'll keep waking up, restless. Last night, she decided that 4:00am was a good time to get up and play.
Brian eventually took her into the nursery (down the hall) so I could get some sleep. He put her in her big crib and said she fell asleep after only a few minutes of moving around. And, she stayed asleep until I had to wake her up at 7:00! We are going to try putting her in her big crib in her own room this weekend. We're going to sleep on the futon in that room for the first night or so (because I'm just a bit nervous about her being so far from me). We'll see if she does better. I feel that the bassinet is getting a little small for her and she doesn't find it comfortable anymore.
Lydia takes really good naps throughout the day - usually 2 two hour naps and 1 one hour nap. She's really good at sticking to the center's routine. I totally believe in routines for babies and Lydia seems to be doing great on the one we have set up (as do the other 6 babies).
I found that Lydia sleeps better on her tummy. Aunt Leah put her on the tummy first, for naps, when Lydia was less than 2 months old. When Lydia turned 2 months, I let her sleep on her tummy at night. She was really good at moving her head when on her tummy so I felt safe and confident that she would be fine on her tummy while sleeping, despite the SIDS scare. I have a movement monitor under her bassinet's mattress that detects when she moves. An alarm will go off if it doesn't detect movement after 20 seconds. This definitely helped in my decision to put her on her tummy. I had always thought that I would never put my baby on her tummy before she could roll over. But, now I know it's what is best for the baby. Lydia sleeps better on her tummy, so I let her sleep on her tummy. Of course, during naps, I check on her constantly. And, when she used to go 6 hours straight without waking at night, I would wake up randomly to check on her.
I had also said I would never co-sleep. But, when she wakes up at 4:30-5:00, I put her in bed with us to nurse and sleep until 6:00am (or later on the weekends). I never feel completely comfortable with her in our bed, which is why I limit the time she's sleeping with us - even though she always sleeps really well with us. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of things I said I would never do, but I'll end up doing it. Oh well. Each baby is different and whatever is best for baby goes.
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