Hi ladies.
I have an 11 month old girl. She's fought sleep since day one. It hasn't helped that there seemed to have been things wrong with her since day one, too (nothing seriously, thankfully). The first month I had to hold her 24/7 as she had a milk protein issue. We had to figure it out on our own as the doctors weren't helpful. "It's normal." Then we've had soft larynx, reflux, colds, thrush and it seemed as one thing was figured out and getting better, something would come along.
She has never fallen asleep on her own and isn't one of the babies that you see cute pictures of as they've fallen asleep in various places/positions. She's always need to be held/rocked/fed/bounced or a variation of. At 8 1/2 months, I had her going down after a bottle without fussing at all. I could put her in her crib (which has been in our room since the beginning), sing and pat for 5-10 minutes and all was well. I thought I was in heaven.
Then she picks up a cold from other kids at church. It's a nasty one that lasts two weeks. I had to hold her in the chair again just so she could breath and get a decent sleep. Afterwards, she goes back in her crib, but is constantly waking up screaming, rubbing her ear. I figure ear infection. Take her to the doctor. No infection. This continues. I try keeping her in her crib, getting her back to sleep and putting her back in, but it gets worse. Take her back to the doctors. Ear is red, so they give me antibiotics. Didn't work. Take her back. Still red, more antibiotics. I'm not normally one to jump to antibiotics, but after a month of this, I just wanted her to feel better and I wanted all of us to get sleep.
Then she gets roseola. High fever and feeling yucky, she's still in my arms. During this she starts teething (I think she's working on her molars and none have come through yet and it's been well over a month). Some nights the teeth seem to bother her; other nights she doesn't have an issue with them. But at this point, I think she is so used to being in my arms or our bed. If I tried keeping her in her crib at this point, she'd first wake up her first sleep cycle and up every 5-20 minutes, or the minute I put her down. I'd be able to get her back to sleep by just shh-ing her and patting without picking her up, but they has all went out the window.
In fact, she now screams in her carseat. I have to drive 45 mins. one way to get to any place, so now I'm stuck home because I can't do that do her. I stop on the side of the road and try to calm her down. The last time, she threw up she was so upset. I was on the side of a country road, in a ditch, walking with her to get her calmed down. I felt so horrible. I don't let her CIO (will admit I tried it once when she was around 6 months after not knowing what to do). I do let her fuss in her crib if I am with her, but she no longer settles down, but full-blown crying.
Now, I would just go with the flow with her, but I am due with baby #2 in two months. None of us are getting good sleep co-sleeping. We even have a king-sized bed. She's a bed hog and I will literally be on the edge and wake up numerous times a night to move her so I can get somewhat comfortable. It's getting harder and harder as I get further along in the pregnancy.
I have tried EVERYTHING I can possibly think of. Lights/no lights. White noise. Hot water bottle. Putting something in her crib that smells like me. Giving her a small stuffed toy. I even gave in and tried advil because I thought it was her teeth. Tried gas drops. I put a microfleece blanket under her sheet to make it softer. Stretched it over the sheet to make it even softer. Put the crib right next to our bed. Tried putting her in her pack 'n play. Put her to sleep on our bed and tried moving her to the crib. There is probably more things I have tried, but seriously can't remember them all. She used to STTN once I got her down and self-sooth without a problem.
Does anyone have any advice? We're looking to side-car the crib, but I don't know if that'll work because she needs to be near me. Is this just a bad case of separation anxiety? We went through a bought of night-time separation anxiety at 6 months, but I was able to put her in the pack 'n play next to our bed. She was able to still be in the high portion at the time. I was able to reach right over and comfort her, which was enough. We also usually don't have issues anymore during the day. We went through that a few months ago. Some days she seems more clingy than others, but for the most part she's okay.
She's also in the process of learning to walk. She's pushing chairs across the floor and she's beginning to walk with her walking toy after cruising for a good month+.
Any advice will be appreciated.
I have an 11 month old girl. She's fought sleep since day one. It hasn't helped that there seemed to have been things wrong with her since day one, too (nothing seriously, thankfully). The first month I had to hold her 24/7 as she had a milk protein issue. We had to figure it out on our own as the doctors weren't helpful. "It's normal." Then we've had soft larynx, reflux, colds, thrush and it seemed as one thing was figured out and getting better, something would come along.
She has never fallen asleep on her own and isn't one of the babies that you see cute pictures of as they've fallen asleep in various places/positions. She's always need to be held/rocked/fed/bounced or a variation of. At 8 1/2 months, I had her going down after a bottle without fussing at all. I could put her in her crib (which has been in our room since the beginning), sing and pat for 5-10 minutes and all was well. I thought I was in heaven.
Then she picks up a cold from other kids at church. It's a nasty one that lasts two weeks. I had to hold her in the chair again just so she could breath and get a decent sleep. Afterwards, she goes back in her crib, but is constantly waking up screaming, rubbing her ear. I figure ear infection. Take her to the doctor. No infection. This continues. I try keeping her in her crib, getting her back to sleep and putting her back in, but it gets worse. Take her back to the doctors. Ear is red, so they give me antibiotics. Didn't work. Take her back. Still red, more antibiotics. I'm not normally one to jump to antibiotics, but after a month of this, I just wanted her to feel better and I wanted all of us to get sleep.
Then she gets roseola. High fever and feeling yucky, she's still in my arms. During this she starts teething (I think she's working on her molars and none have come through yet and it's been well over a month). Some nights the teeth seem to bother her; other nights she doesn't have an issue with them. But at this point, I think she is so used to being in my arms or our bed. If I tried keeping her in her crib at this point, she'd first wake up her first sleep cycle and up every 5-20 minutes, or the minute I put her down. I'd be able to get her back to sleep by just shh-ing her and patting without picking her up, but they has all went out the window.
In fact, she now screams in her carseat. I have to drive 45 mins. one way to get to any place, so now I'm stuck home because I can't do that do her. I stop on the side of the road and try to calm her down. The last time, she threw up she was so upset. I was on the side of a country road, in a ditch, walking with her to get her calmed down. I felt so horrible. I don't let her CIO (will admit I tried it once when she was around 6 months after not knowing what to do). I do let her fuss in her crib if I am with her, but she no longer settles down, but full-blown crying.
Now, I would just go with the flow with her, but I am due with baby #2 in two months. None of us are getting good sleep co-sleeping. We even have a king-sized bed. She's a bed hog and I will literally be on the edge and wake up numerous times a night to move her so I can get somewhat comfortable. It's getting harder and harder as I get further along in the pregnancy.
I have tried EVERYTHING I can possibly think of. Lights/no lights. White noise. Hot water bottle. Putting something in her crib that smells like me. Giving her a small stuffed toy. I even gave in and tried advil because I thought it was her teeth. Tried gas drops. I put a microfleece blanket under her sheet to make it softer. Stretched it over the sheet to make it even softer. Put the crib right next to our bed. Tried putting her in her pack 'n play. Put her to sleep on our bed and tried moving her to the crib. There is probably more things I have tried, but seriously can't remember them all. She used to STTN once I got her down and self-sooth without a problem.
Does anyone have any advice? We're looking to side-car the crib, but I don't know if that'll work because she needs to be near me. Is this just a bad case of separation anxiety? We went through a bought of night-time separation anxiety at 6 months, but I was able to put her in the pack 'n play next to our bed. She was able to still be in the high portion at the time. I was able to reach right over and comfort her, which was enough. We also usually don't have issues anymore during the day. We went through that a few months ago. Some days she seems more clingy than others, but for the most part she's okay.
She's also in the process of learning to walk. She's pushing chairs across the floor and she's beginning to walk with her walking toy after cruising for a good month+.
Any advice will be appreciated.
