Friday, July 18, 2008

BabyWise HELP!!!

Friends - This post is in request of help from those of you who are "Babywise" parents (read the book, followed the methodology etc)

I need some help! Some major help! Up until now, Finnegan (10months tomorrow) has been pretty consistent with his schedule on Babywise. He'd sleep 12 hours (or 13) at night, and sleep 2 naps during the day, each about 2 hours each. Then we went to MI and adjusted to the 3 hour time difference and had a super crazy schedule. Although he wasn't getting many great naps, he was sleeping well at night. We've been back home now for 3 full weeks and although he's adjusted back to our time, his schedule continues to be off. He started to pick it back up but now we've introduced two new factors into the game... teething and crawling. This week, he's been teething (front left tooth coming in) and I definitely know that for a fact. So we've had the awakeness with him and he doesn't want to go to sleep. He's also learned to crawl and I can't get him to lay down during the night (or at nap time when it's time). So, I've been leaving him in his crib to figure it out (he doesn't really cry, just crawls around and plays with stuff, grunts and squeals). Sometimes, he'll cry, but I time it and go in to calm him etc. But when he wakes up in the morning, he's not happy anymore. He's cranky and whinny.

So, after a week of following our same old schedule, with no improvement, I changed it up abit. He woke up (after 10 hours of sleep) and was cranky and all, so I got him up and fed him and then put him back in his bed (he was rubbing his eyes all during breakfast) and I was sure that he'd lay right down and go back to sleep. But he hasn't. He's been up there for 45 minutes now, playing and crawling and all and hasn't gone to sleep. Even during this previous week, I'd feed him, play with him and then put him down, and he'll play for an hour or so in his crib (some whining), and then sleep for 45-1hr and then be up. But not waking up happy. He wakes up cranky, so I know he hasn't gotten his sleep down right... Any suggestions?

Part of me thinks that I need to just chill out and let him do what he's going to do, while I decide that place (whether his crib or where-ever). If he falls asleep, great, if not, great. I guess my main concern is that he isn't waking up happy. He doesn't wake up content like he used too. He wakes up cranky and whinny (and no one likes a whinny baby! especially mommy :) )

Thanks for your help friends!!

Hugs!
xoxo

1 comment:

Andrea said...

Ah, this is one of those times when the parenting books fail you and you wing it. He might not wake up happy until his tooth is all the way through. Trips usually throw things off for awhile and sometimes they'll completely change everything! Stick with some kind of schedule and routine, but if it's not working then you might have to just follow some of his cues. Good luck!