I Need Advice on How to Get a Baby to Sleep Through the Night

I know my friend Joy responded to you, but I don't know if she mentioned swaddling. You may disregard that idea initially because at first, they may seem to not like it. Actually though, it is very calming to them. I don't utilize it as much as I used to, but my babysitter still does on my kids and they sleep much longer. The key is getting it tight. At nine months, it may be hard to find one that fits. I have been looking myself for my 7 mo old son who is nearly 20lbs. I haven't tried it yet, but have been thinking of cutting up a jersey top sheet from an old sheet set. To see how to wrap them up, look at the Happiest baby on the block book. by Dr. Karp. It does take practice. My husband did a better job initially because I was afraid to make it to tight, but tight is the only way it works. Good Luck

www.miracleblanket.com

The first night I had it the baby slept through the night and he has ever since.

If you want one right away call ###-###-#### and ask for the lady that distributes them I forget her name but it is the best thing ever.

One more thing, you might try The Sleep Lady AKA Kim West. You can find her at www.thesleeplady.com or it might be www.sleeplady.com. I've read/heard great things about her techniques/counseling. Might be worth a shot.

S.

Hi L.,
I went through this with my son, Corey.
He was not a preemie, but he had a LOT of colic. I was so careful not to give him anything greasy or unhealthy. He finally started sleeping through the night at 1 year old (after a redneck babysitter fed him fried sausage-n-taters!! I do not know the whole story, but if these babies do not have colic, they are just probably not getting enough fat in their diet. You are not supposed to feed them meat much before 1 yr. due to allergy issues with the protein, but you might try strengthening their bedtime formula by removing 1 oz of the water per 8 oz. As long as they drink at least 1 oz of other liquid throughout the day (besides formula), this is perfectly healthy for them. If that does not do it, try some french fries - the thicker the fry the better (less oil). Potatoes are the universal filler and chemically make you feel full. If you do this, do not start another new food with the potatoes (you are supposed to only introduce 1 new food per week anyway). You may have to smash up the fries, or just break them into pieces small enough for them that are not hard. If they have colic AT ALL, get some Mylacon (sp?) drops containing symethicone. It is harmless, even in large quantities, but only takes a dropper full before meals to give them relief. I did not have that when Corey was a baby, but with my daughter we had it. It was a world of difference!! Don't forget that if you are that exhausted, they are too. If they can sleep, they will. Another thing you might try in case none of these things are successful enough, now this might sound a little much, but many babies - especially twins and dificult natural births - are born with a slight spinal misalignment at the top of the neck. My chiropractor's first child had this, and now he is an expert on infant chiropractic. He has an entire wall of him with his youngest patients. My son also had this condition, but he was 10 years old before I took him in and we found it! Imagine 10 years with that kind of irritation. Anyway, it is pretty cheap for a child adjustment, and it might be a good idea to just get an x-ray and check to make sure - since you are an adoptive or foster mom. Bless you for taking on this responsibility! If there is anything I can do to help, let me know. I would even come by with my daughter on a weekend or something to give you a rest (she is a sophomore in high school now).
The Best to you all,
D.
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PS My chiropractor is Dr. Kelley Brown in Grapevine, and they are not all created equal - he is very good.

I highly recommend reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Mark Weissbluth. I had issues with my son not napping (different from your issue but both are addressed in the book. I ended up having to put my son to bed about 6 p.m. every night and within a few weeks, he was napping during teh day AND sleeping through the night. Turns out that he was over tired. He is two now and still goes to bed around 7 every night because he's asking to. Hope that helps.
C.

I would try putting cereal in their bottle. That seemed to help my son
during his transition.

I found out that "sleeping through the night" meant 5 consecutive hours of sleep--not what we consider sleeping through the night.
Anyway, I read the book No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley and it seemed to help! I was so desperate that I think I read the book in two nights!!!
Good luck!
L.

L.
I remeber those days, Please call me if you would like to discuss--Thanks
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T.

L.,

I know a lot of people nowadays frown on this, but the cry-it-out method really works. You are looking at probably one night, maybe two of misery and then that's the end of it. As for the appropriate age, I'm not sure. You kind of have to get a feel for that yourself or consult with your physician. Especially since your little ones were that premature. My two natural children were nursed and I was always so concerned that I didn't have enough of a milk supply that I thought they might be hungry, so I didn't attempt it until they were weaned around a year old.

We have "virtual twins", with one natural and one adopted and they sleep in the same room. It was actually pretty easy this time. My husband went go check on them every ten minutes so that they wouldn't see me until they fell asleep on the first night. The second night they put up minimal fuss, and after that they go down like angels (well, sometimes cry for about 30s) and never wake up from 8pm to 7:30am.

It's really hard on you, but so worth it.

L.

I would recommend the book Baby Wise. It outlines a schedule to put your babies on. The premise is that the relationship with your baby and you should be Parent Directed, in other words, you determine when the baby should sleep. This will involve letting your babies cry themselves to sleep. This can be very difficult on you but in the end, they will train themselves to sleep. This was hard for me to do at first so I just let my daughter cry for a few minutes and then I would check on her and go another "round." Eventually I was able to go for longer and she did indeed go to sleep. This was at 7 weeks for my first daughter and 10 weeks with my second.
If you are more of a Child Directed parent, this method will be difficult but I promise, it works. If you want to discuss further, email me at ____@____.com

Good luck!!

Hi L.:
I feel your pain. Yes, they should be sleeping through the night. Especially since they have each other. I went through the same thing with my son when he was about 6 months. He decided he wanted to sleep with us. Which I loved!, but I knew was not a good situation. The only advice I
can give is to make sure you have a routine every night before they go to bed. It doesn't matter what it is. Just keep EVERYTHING the same. For example, my son eats dinner, then goes directly for a bath. After the bath, we lotion him up, put jammies on and get his sippy cup with milk. He sits inbetween us on the couch, then goes to bed at 8pm. Same thing every
night. To help them go back to sleep in the middle of the night, that is a little more tough. Here is what
worked for us: once they start crying, let them cry for 15 minutes, if they haven't stopped then, go into the
room and pat them on the back. You can sing a song or just whisper to them softly. DO NOT PICK THEM UP. If you
do, it is all over. Stay there no longer than 5 minutes. Leave ( i always sat on the floor outside of
his room where he couldn't see me). Let them cry for 15 more minutes. Go back in and do the same thing if they don't stop crying. Pick a night to start this b/c it will take about 2-3 nights to get them to go back to
sleep in their cribs. It is the most painful thing I have ever done. You want so bad to pick them up. It is so
hard. I would sit outside my son's room and cry and cry.

Good luck! You can do it!

Hi L. -- I have 17 m.o. twin boys born at 36 weeks and I was a first time mom at 39. I'm sending you my email so you can contact me if you like, I am not an expert just someone going through the wonderful world of twins just like you. One of mine has been sleeping through the night from very early on. Baby A didn't for a long time and often wakes during the night for attention. All I can say is that all babies are different. Don't worry about what other babies are doing. As long as yours are doing close to what they should be (especially since they are preemies) doing you are okay. Talk to your pedi for sure and see what he/she says. Also, you have to take into consideration whether they are used to sleeping apart, together, with 'white' noise in the background, or no noise. So much to consider.

Hi L.,
Maybe you could try the following;
When I arrived home with my baby girl, All I wanted was the house to be completely quiet for her to sleep as much as she wanted. Little did I know that was only encouraging her to stay awake during the night. After two sleepless night, I decided to turn on the TV or Music during the day. I would do the dishes, laundry, and vaccumm. Then at night I would have no noise, no distractions. Even when it was breastfeeding time, I would not pick her up, I would feed her while laying down. She would have her little eyes wide open in the dark, and as much as I wanted to play with her, I held it in and tried not to make more noise than I had too. It took about 4 days for her to get used to this routine. When it was time for me to go back to work, I had my childcare provider follow the same routine in the day. I have had a good nights sleep since she was about a week old.

I hope this advice help you.

I have twin girls who were born at 29 weeks. They are now 3-1/2 y.o. and are happy and healthy.

They did not sleep through the night until about 10 months old, and when I say sleep through the night, I mean 6 hours. I think alot of this is because they were so small at birth (1-1/2 and 2-1/2 lbs at birth) that they had a lot of catching up on growth to do, so they would eat alot and frequently. My husband and I usually would put them to bed at about 8:30 pm and then wake them up about 11 or 11:30pm and feed them another bottle. That would get them to sleep until about 6am. It wasn't until they were about 1 year old when they would sleep straight from 8:30pm until 6am.

Hang in there. All babies are different.

I did the 15 minute rule with our girl. Which means she had her snack in the evening, was put down for the night. I let her cry for 15 minutes, then go check on her. If nothing was wrong, example, wet, hung up in something, etc., then I would comfort her, but NOT pick her up. Then, I will leave, and again 15 minutes. I would return again after 15 minutes if she was still crying. They have to learn to go to sleep on their own. We also play soft music at bedtime which comes her down at night. Hope this helps. Good luck.

I am also of a 9 month old but unlike you I have one.
My son started sleeping all night at 4 wks- I would put cereal in his bottle right at bedtime which is 2 hrs after dinner.
it still works the only thing that is keeping him up is his gums cause all top 4 are coming in at once.
Good Luck.

i know you're really tired and the last thing you want to do is read a book but "on becoming baby wise"is an excellent book on how to get your baby to sleep through the night. there is one part of the book i do not agree with to let baby cry for 45 min to sleep. on the other hand don't pick baby up just rub back sing say shhhhhhh loud enough over the crys that does help. also a warm bath and warm bottle and maybe motrin,infant, if teething. i was thankful for this book when my second daughter was born. she slept through the night much faster than my first daughter. good luck!!!

Hi L.,

Wow! Twins! Bless your heart, I can see why you can't sleep!! I too have a nine month old that was a troubled sleeper. And I can't tell you how frustrating it is to hear that other moms are having such success getting their little ones to sleep through the night.

I don't know if you still nurse or do formula, but this advice is if you are nursing.

I ask the doctor what was going on, and she said that since my son is still nursing, he doesn't get full like a baby that is on formula. So therefore when he wakes up he is hungry. I have had to resign myself to that fact. He was also waking up because he had terrible gas pain (which Gripe Water - a natural gas helper-has helped a lot with). One thing that we have tried is feeding our son formula at night, so that he gets fuller and there are no mysterious foods (like there are in breast milk) to give him gas. This has been our experience. He is just now starting to sleep 6 hours straight, which is a welcome relief! I hope this helps! Good Luck and hopefully you will have sleepful nights in the future!!

A.

I couldn't stand it, I had to write to you. It isn't anything you are doing or not doing. People are just different. The best advice someone gave me was to never turn on any lights and try to not get them out of bed. We trained one of my kids to sleep with a classical CD. Anytime they woke up we played the same CD every time. Soon they would always be asleep by the 2nd song. I hope you find something that works for you and your family- good luck

O bless you! I have a year old daughter and she still wakes up once during the night, more when teething. I do the whole bathtime/nighttime ritual so that's all I can recommend. I hope it gets better for you...I can't imagine with two AND working.

if the babies are still on the bottle when it's about time for bed give them a warm bath in johnsons bedtime bath and a nice warm cereal bottle once their full and clean they sleep like logs it still works for me and my 2yr old daughter of course now the cereal bottle is a cool cup of chocolate milk and the bath takes a bit longer with the toys and all but she sleeps through the night like she did when she was 4mths good luck if all else fails cuddle til they fall asleep and then sneak a pillow under them they never know the difference :)

Hello L.. I totally understand what u are going thru. Well what I did for my oldest daughter is made her a bottle with cereal and baby food dessert. then u lay them down after a bath then they should sleep all night long. It has worked for me with my 4 yr old daughter and is working for my 3mth old baby girl. Good luck with it.

L. - i think most moms are talking about a 5-6 hour stretch when they say their baby is sleeping through the night. I would higly recommend the book The Baby Whisperer. Her feed/wake/sleep method really worked for me. Also I would put my son down to sleep around 7pm and right before i went to bed at 10 i would wake him up and feed him and then put him down again. that way he'd sleep about 5-6 hours after that before he needed another feeding...hope that helps!

Our son did not sleep all the way through the night until he reached 13 pounds. Our pediatrician told us that babies do not start sleeping through the night until the reach 12 pounds and it is not determined by age. Also, we play white noise (radio static or ocean sounds) all night and when he takes a nap. It helps block out outside noises so that he is not woken up. Also, when the babies are in the womb, the noise level that they hear due to all of our bodily functions is louder than a vacuum cleaner, so a lot of babies have trouble sleeping in a quite room. I have also read that when a preemie is born you should subtract how early they are from their chronological age to see where they should be developmentally. So if they are 9 months old and born 3 months early, they should only be where a 6 month old would be developmentally. Hope that helps some.

Hi L.,
I know the twins are 9 months old, but have you tried "swaddling" each one still, in a baby blanket and turning on a fan in the room (on medium to high for a nice humming sound, and not blowing directly on them of course)? I do this with my 2 month old and she usually sleeps all the way through the night.

God bless,
T.