What can I do differently this time

amother

Tue, May 21 2024, 8:14 pm

Due with my second soon BH
My first was a terrible sleeper. Took tiny cat naps and was up every few hours at night until a year.

What can I do differently this time?
I want this baby to takes naps (longer than half hour please!) And sleep long stretches at night

Any tips, tricks and advice I can implement

amother

Begonia

Tue, May 21 2024, 8:39 pm

I'm not sure if your baby was cranky but for me going off of dairy was a real game changer

it's hard but for me was so worthwhile

if sleep is the only concern- ignore my advice, just if were also overall cranky

peace2

Tue, May 21 2024, 8:47 pm

Read takingcarababies blog on wake windows. It was a game changer for me to recognize when my baby was starting to get tired and putting him to sleep then before waiting till he was overtired and totally losing it and not able to fall or stay asleep.
When I read her descriptions of an overtired baby for the first time I felt like I was reading an exact description of my baby when I would try to get him to sleep

But a bit of an unfortunate reality is that some babies are good at sleeping and some babies are bad at it and there’s not tons you can do to change that especially in the newborn stage

amother

Cognac

Tue, May 21 2024, 9:07 pm

Are you wanting just tips, or book recommendations? If books, I haven't read them yet but a seasoned lactation consultant recommended The Baby Sleep Book by William Sears, & The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley

amother

Viola

Tue, May 21 2024, 10:08 pm

I found each of my babies to naturally be very different in regards to sleeping.

As a general rule, stomach-sleeping will give longer stretches. (Make your own decision about this)

Also, try stretching the gaps in between feedings so each feed is more substantial (give 2 or 2.5 hours in between) and try to have them be awake for a little while after eating before going to sleep.

amother

Gladiolus

Tue, May 21 2024, 10:28 pm

peace2 wrote:

I had this problem as well. Bh second time around I’m very careful with naps and bedtimes. Game changer. He’s a good baby perhaps by nature but one thing for sure is that quality sleep allows him to be good.

amother

Orange

Tue, May 21 2024, 11:43 pm

Don’t want to discourage you but my first four were great babies, slept well, ate well… My fifth child was a disaster and I did the same thing I did before. Sometimes despite trying every trick in the book you still don’t succeed. Listen to advice but don’t eat yourself up if it doesn’t work.

amother

Cherry

Wed, May 22 2024, 2:46 am

amother Orange wrote:

Thank you.
My first baby was a terrible sleeper.
My second I'm not sure, didn't sleep great but it's possible she could have if I'd known what I was doing better? Because she wasn't born terrible like #1. She was great for like 4-5 months and then some kind of switch flipped and she didn't recover until she was about 2.

So now I'm on #3 and I said this time I am going to learn all the strategies and get it right. Tried all the best advice from day 1. And then again. And tried a different tack. Nothing worked. Was finally maybe making some progress and then he got sick and now we're a total unscheduled mess.

So the validation is nice because at 3/3 I start to worry that maybe it really is me. Except this time I was so much more proactive so if it were me that would have to be a very high level of ineptitude. We do have strong ADHD genes and I know it can correlate so there's that too.

amother

Plum

Wed, May 22 2024, 2:51 am

Precious Little Sleep by Alexis Dubief is the best baby sleep book I have ever read. She's hilarious (like I ACTUALLY laughed out loud) and it's SO thorough... covers schedules, newborn sleep, many different methods of sleep training ranging from very gradual to CIO. Also there's a Facebook group you can join once you've read the book that's very active and I've gotten such good advice there.

I've also spent $$ on online courses and I really felt like her book had all the info and more for 15 bucks. Felt like a steal.

amother

Bone

Wed, May 22 2024, 6:50 am

ship the baby out of your room as young as you can.
When you don't hear the baby turn its head and start 'getting ready' to wake up it takes you a drop longer to go to baby. Sometimes babies need to semi wake up and then go back to sleep on their own but since they are right next to you, you just scoop them up in your sleep and start to feed.

amother

Sapphire

Wed, May 22 2024, 7:17 am

amother OP wrote:

I think that’s normal being up every few hours until a year. Did that child eventually sleep through?

amother

Sapphire

Wed, May 22 2024, 7:18 am

[quote="peace2"]Read takingcarababies blog on wake windows. It was a game changer for me to recognize when my baby was starting to get tired and putting him to sleep then before waiting till he was overtired and totally losing it and not able to fall or stay asleep.
When I read her descriptions of an overtired baby for the first time I felt like I was reading an exact description of my baby when I would try to get him to sleep

But a bit of an unfortunate reality is that some babies are good at sleeping and some babies are bad at it and there’s not tons you can do to change that especially in the newborn stage[/quote
This. It is heavily temperament dependent whether they’ll be “good sleepers” or not.

amother

Wed, May 22 2024, 8:38 am

Based on the replies it seems it was really my babies nature, he just wasn't a good sleeper no matter what I did.
I read up on wake windows, I swaddled, put to sleep tired but awake etc etc etc and nothing made any difference