update on my bounce to sleep baby...10 months and going strong

[doulawoman]

I've posted a few times on here abotu my bounce to sleep baby. She's starting to take steps, saying words and two-word sentences, feeding herself etc....and...still bouncing to sleep for nearly every nap and bedtime and through every nap. She's over twenty pounds and also getting pretty resistant to bouncing anyway. Lately I feel I will lose it if I have to keep this up. In two weeks dh's sister and bf are coming for a few days and the idea of still bouncing her for hours while they visit and them having to tiptoe around our tiny apartment seems ludicrous. I was foolishly hopeful when we made these plans that bouncing would be over by now.

Dd's reflux is ok...we prop her up at night and she is on zantac but ti is still and issue even with a higher dose...so I thin this has contributed a lot to how we ended up bouncing her upright to sleep in the ergo in the first place...when we laid ehr down she's wake and scream, likely in pain but we didn't know this until recently when we started to HEAR the relfux.

I am looking for suggestions. Sometimes I am able to nurse her to sleep...even sneak away eventually after 1/2 hour nursing..ok sometimes and hour but it beats 1 hr bouncing and i get some rest too.So I feel she is ready to start trying new things. I need a plan. even if the plan doesn't work, I need a startign point. She is very smart and old enough to begin to understand it's time to sleep and this is where we sleep and how we sleep. She has a really hard time turning "off" and stopping movement. She has to eb rediculously exhausted to nurse to sleep and Is till have to pin her down with my leg and continually lay ehr back down. she will craw; off the mattress half asleep crying..like sh;'es possessed. She also won;t take a paci. What would you do/have you done? I really feel in my gut that she is ready to transition to a new way of sleeping as she doesn't seem toeven enjoy bouncign anymore and doesn't sleep well that way, squirms as if uncomfortable etc. She seems much happier when she nurses to sleep even if she wakes up and I;m not there and even if I have to wrestle her  abit. The trick is if I ahve to wrestle her more than 10 mins she will not sleep. I guess this is somewhat sleep training? but AP type sleep solutions are producing insanity at this point. I need help. Immediately. I think repetition, gently, is the key. I don;t want to let her cry but she cries no matter how we put ehr to sleep at this point, no matter when. the pnly upside fo bouncing is that my husband can do it...

[doulawoman]

I have just tried to put her down twice because she came to me bleary eyed and wanting to sleep and she just howled and crawled off the bed both times for 5-10 minutes so I brought her back out to the living room. I'm exhausted, this is utterly rediculous.

[littlegreenlady]

I bounced my son to sleep and during etc. for a very long time as well, and at 13.5 months he still needs it from time to time.

I'm not sure if this will work for you, but I started wearing him on my back in an ergo and taking him for walks for nap times.

When he was 10 months he was also very heavy (23-24 lbs) and still needed motion to sleep.

The nap time walks helped when I had house guests, because we could all go for a walk together and he could sleep.

I've only recently been able to put him down for part of his nap, this started when we decided to try one nap instead of 2.

Nap time since this transition has become a lot less troublesome for both of us.

I'm sorry I don't have anymore suggestions.

If it helps at all, I'd like to mention that it will pass, and you are an amazing Mother for supporting her in this way.

Doing a few minutes (seriously like 3-5 mins) of yoga helped me a lot, both to release the tension and to recover from the strain.

[sillysmile]

We also have a reflux baby (now 23 months), who was bounced to sleep when younger and is now rocked to sleep. Maybe you could transition to that? It's a little easier, physically, when they get bigger. Also bouncing on a large exercise ball is easier than just bouncing in the Ergo while standing.

Have you considered Prevacid for her reflux? We were initially on Zantac, but switched over and noticed a big difference. It's much stronger, so you'll have a harder time weaning later. We tried to wean DD from the Prevacid around a year, discovered that she wasn't ready, and are now weaning for good and hope to be done by age 2. This time around we were able to slowly cut down to a tiny dose without any issues, so I suspect that her GI tract has finally matured. Smaller feedings also helped a lot at that age with our DD. Just something else to consider. HTH -

[doulawoman]

Thanks to you both.

DD won't sleep on my back so far. Sometimes in the stroller but it is very cold and other times she just cries and cries. We do use a giant yoga ball. We;ve been through three....rocking she really hates it. It's better to pin her to the bed. She has a hard time sleeping with *any*noise so if ppl were talking while walking she'd be awake and just cry...I did that when she was littler but now she is too aware of surroundings?

right now we're trying a combo of homeopathics and zantac so we'll see. The ped thought she'd be done with reflux by a year but I honestly don't think that's true. i know nothign about prevacid? I know zantac is pretty safe and the stronegr stuff may not have been studied as much? It took over  amonth to get me to try zantac...

Last night because of teething the sleeping was exaggerated and she woke up every 20 mins to an hour, at one point every 5 mins or so, at that time I couldn't get back to sleep for two hours,,,everytime I mvoed she woke up, btu she also wake sup if I'm not there, and everytime I fell asleep she woke up. Here she is exahusted resisting her nap. Yesterday i agve up andput her on my back and did housework and then afetr abotu 2 more hours she went to sleep with me holding her down without much fuss, but today iam SO tired, i cant do that everyday/ I need a nap kwim?

At this point I think it's ok if dh boucnes her in the evening. He has no other way to get her down and I NEED a break. But I just feel done. It hurts my back, she resists it more with me, and it is making me crazy.

Ok, done venting.

We are gettign a crib. We migth just sidecar the mattress to ours at first so dh can come back into our bed! but depending how that goes we may ptu the whole thing together and try it with one side down...i was thinking about some kind of soothign music?

[sillysmile]

Just to follow up on Prevacid, you're right that it's less well-studied in children. However, it's been around for a long time and found to be extremely safe with a very low side-effect profile in adults. It's available OTC for adults, which I think says a lot about safety. Here's some more info if you're curious:

http://hubpages.com/hub/What-is-a-Proton-Pump-Inhibitor

I know what you mean about putting our little ones on medication, but once I saw what a big difference it made in her nighttime fussing/screaming, I was sold. Not sure if you've seen it, but there's also a good reflux board on mothering.com with lots of information.

Hope you are able to catch a break soon!