Monday, January 4, 2010

Changing routines

With Luci refusing to nurse, our bedtime routine is thrown off. Before - we would give her a bath, then I would nurse her, and she would fall asleep while nursing, so we were able to go to bed without a fight on our hands. Every once in a while would she still be awake, but not too often.

Now - we give a bottle after her bath, but she sucks it down so quickly that she doesn't have time to fall asleep. So now we are at a loss...what do we do now? I know what we are supposed to do - put her in her crib and let her fall a sleep on her own. I suggested this to John last night, and he was not a fan of the idea. So last night, he walked with her around the house and she fell asleep within 30 minutes.

I just don't want her to get into the habit of depending on one of us to get her to sleep, I know that we should just suck it up, put her in her crib, and join Operation Cry It Out.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I am open to them!
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On a side note, I have decided to just keep pumping for now. I guess that I can do it for 3 more months until she can go on regular milk. I am too cheap to do the formula thing. Since my milk supply is abundant, why not just take advantage of it. I do miss the closeness of nursing, but I am kind of happy not to suffer the bites (which were bound to get worse with more teeth coming in!).

5 comments:

pajama mom said...

we used to give m a yogurt at bedtime, i can't remember if it was before or after a bottle, but i'm guessing yogurt then bottle.

later we did baby cereal bars, she always slept better with a full tummy. :)

wonder if you could mix some cereal in with the breastmilk? make it thicker, like formula?

Katie said...

I read the same book and sing the same song as I am putting Sam down for a nap and at bedtime. It seems to work well. Good luck!

nora said...

Since Luci sounds like a pretty easy baby, I bet it would just take a couple nights of CIO to set a new routine. Like Katie I do an identical routine for naps and bed. When I stopped nursing to sleep it did take a little time to transition. You can go in and say "go to sleep, I love you" every 5 -10 min until she falls asleep, if you don't want to leave her alone - the key to any bedtime routine is CONSISTENCY, both you and the baby have to know exactly what to expect.

Will was a bedtime NIGHTMARE, so I've read like 6 sleep books and can discuss this from a number of angles - the fact that she stopped nursing suddenly does make the "no cry" solutions difficult; most of those include weaning off an existing sleep aid. I would just take the bull by the horns instead of set up a new crutch.

Good luck - let me know if I can help! :)

WASPy Girl said...

I agree w Nora

Sarah said...

I don't have much to offer as B is awesome at putting himself down initially for naps and at bedtime (our ped warned me to make him fall asleep on his own from the beginning). Now, waking in the middle of the night is a totally different story! We were up at 12, 3, and 6 last night. I'm blaming it on the move-him waking and not knowing where he is, maybe?-so we're giving him a week before CIO starts up again for the 8 billionth time. It sucks, but there are no other options-he is freaking 19 months old! Really, it's ridiculous.

Nora's right though-Luci seems like a doll and it may only take a night or two before she adjusts.

Good luck! Have a BLAST! :)