Fire & Ice - What's your sleep temp?

How do you sleep?  Are you a cold sleeper or do you like to be warm? 

Personally I like to be cold. Really cold.  It's proven that people sleep better when their body temp is cooler.  I have to agree with this.  I sleep much sounder when I am cold.  If I am too hot I toss and turn and wake up all night trying to uncover myself or take off clothes if need be.  If you are cold you can always put another blanket on or put on a hoodie or socks.  In general I like to be cold anyway, I am not one for hot weather.

Kris on the other hand, and Aiden for that matter, would rather be toasty warm when they sleep.  By toasty warm I mean sweaty.  Aiden is easy, we keep the heat a bit warmer in his room and he sleeps fine.  He wakes up if he gets cold so we've learned.  Kris on the other hand is starting to kill me when we sleep at night!  It's been in the 80's-90's around here and doesn't really cool down too much overnight, perhaps 60's in the am.  I like to sleep with a fan pointed right on me {in this heat I won't lie - there are 2 on in our room but only 1 points to the bed} and I like the window open to get that cold breeze at 4am.  Kris keeps turning off or turning down the fan that points at our bed, he keeps taking his warm body and curling up next to be and well, I've been suffocating! 

The last 2 nights I have slept in a top only, not full pj's, and sleeping on top of the covers.  I still wake up hot during the night.  It's driving me crazy.  He sleeps in a muscle shirt and basketball shorts and complains he is cold.  I keep asking him to put on a hoodie or sweats and let me keep the fans going on high.  I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can finally sleep comfortably again!

So tell me - do you sleep better when you are warm or when you are cold?  There is a handy little poll at the top of the blog - I'm interested to know if I'm alone in wanting to be a block of ice when I sleep.

Book Review: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth, M.D.

After posting a few days ago about my trouble with Aiden's latest sleep habits I picked up this book.  Jamie over at Another Joyous Journey suggested it, telling me how great it worked for them with their son.  I love her blog and totally trusted her opinion.  I read the book in a day!

It was such an eye opening experience.  I had no idea that our main problem is his bedtime.  Turns out his bedtime is too late!  We normally get him to sleep by 9pm, some nights it's 10pm, and then he wakes up 1-3 times a night before getting up at 6-7am.  We thought we were doing good because 90% of the time he falls asleep easily at 9pm.  The book said to start moving bedtime up 20 minutes at a time and see how it goes.  Last night I put Aiden down at 830pm and I'm sure it's not seriously going to be THIS easy, but he slept amazing!  He woke up at 915 and I rocked him right back to sleep.  Then he stayed asleep form 933pm-712am without waking up once!  I was shocked!  Just having one good night has really inspired me.  I feel like we are on the right track.  After further reading it makes a lot of sense why he needs to go to bed earlier.  I mention a quote below that talked about this.

Once we get him in the habit of going to bed earlier and finding the time that works for us {I'm aiming for asleep between 730-8pm} routinely our next step will be cutting out his 3rd nap.  He still takes it but I know it's time to cut it out.  We'll start doing that slowly, I don't want to change bedtime AND nap time all at once.  So bedtime first and I think the nap will start to fade out naturally. 

There was one passage that as I read I got all excited... I read it to Kris and we were both like "whoa - this IS totally OUR problem!".  I'd like to share it with you... {page 125}

"Sometimes, around nine to twelve months of age, a child falls asleep around 5:30pm and is up around 730 or 8pm {ours is more like 430-6 for a nap}, then is up playing with parents for a few hours until 10pm, and finally goes back to sleep but does not sleep well at night.  The parents think the child is taking a third nap at 530pm, but in reality the child needs a very early bedtime, maybe around 6pm, and no playing between 730-10pm."

After reading that I am confident that this book is the right one for us!  Dr. Weissbluth doesn't tell you that you HAVE to let your child cry it out, it explains how it is a healthy option and how to go about it, it really just explains sleep problems and possible solutions.  I am so very glad it was suggested to me and can't wait to see REAL progress and be able to share it!  The book is broken down by ages and goes from birth all the way until they are in teens.  Talking about common problems that may show up as they grow, like sleep walking, nightmares etc.  I can see this book being helpful for many years, and many children, to come. 

I NEED HELP - 9 Months means NO sleep??

I have no idea what happened, but all of a sudden Aiden will NOT sleep at night.  We put him to bed, get a couple hours of out him and then he wakes up.  He usually wakes up right after we are going to sleep - perfect! 

The last 3 nights we have spent from about 11pm -4am trying to get him to sleep.  We take turns rocking him and putting him down and somewhere between 5-30minutes later he wakes up crying.  By 330-4am he is exhausted and finally sleeps until about 8.  It's killing us! 

I don't know if this is a 9 month thing - like the "wonder weeks" where he is learning new things, like trying to walk for him, or if it's this "separation anxiety" that the dr. said should hit soon.  He could be teething, but he just got 4 teeth a week or so ago {all 8 in front if you are keeping track} and he has never been this bad when sleeping during teething.  Tylenol keeps him pretty sleepy at night, but it isn't doing us any good this time.

We've tried letting him fuss a bit but that either turns into crying or jumping up and down and playing.  We've tried bottles in the middle of the night.  We've tried skipping a nap {although I'm going to try this again today}.  Kris suggested putting a shirt of ours in his crib.  We've adjusted the heat up and down in his room. 

After 3 nights of no sleep around here I am BEGGING for help ladies.  Is this normal?  Did your baby go through this?  What did you do?  What should I do? 

Drug Side Effects: I think I have been sleep "rocking"...

You know how every possible drug on the market has side effects?  If you are anything like me you read them and go "gee I hope I don't get diarrhea" as that is always the most dreaded side effect.  For the record I have never had that problem thanks to a drug, it's been the opposite really.  That is not for this post though.  This is about sleep walking.

Have you ever taken a sedative to sleep?  I tried switching my anti-depressant meds to the morning so by night time it wasn't working as much in my system and I could sleep.  That still didn't help my sleep habits.  It actually made life worse as I previously wrote about.  So I got a generic version of Ambien from my doctor.  I was sitting and reading the side effects listed, among your usual upset stomach, headache, dizziness, sleepiness, it said memory loss and doing activities in your sleep such as but not limited to having sex, cooking and eating, driving and sleep walking.  Umm, great.  I mean who really wants to have great sex with their spouse and then not remember it?  No good in my book. 

Unfortunately that is not what has been happening.  I've only taken it a few times, 3 in fact since I got it.  The first night Aiden slept 10 hours, and I slept an amazing 9 hours with only one brief wake up to go pee.  Kris did try to tell me  the next day I said "honk honk" in my sleep, but that was just a joke.  The 2nd time I took it was a failed attempt.  Aiden was staying the night with my mom {which of no fault to her didn't go well and we picked him up at 12am} and then he was restless a bit and well I still didn't get that night of sleep I craved.  Last night was the 3rd time taking my sleep aid.  I took at 10pm, stayed up until 11pm watching Twilight on my laptop in bed while Kris snored next to me and went to sleep at 1130 or so.

I remember waking up to Aiden fussing a bit so I got up to go rock him back to sleep.  I swear to you that he was making noise and starting to crawl around in crib to stand himself up and cry.  This is his usual behavior and it takes me 5 minutes usually once every few nights to get him back to sleep.  Not a big deal.  So I did my usual and rocked him back to sleep.  Then went pee and came back to bed.  I remember when I got up starting to stumble a bit.  I remember my head felt "cloudy" as I thought it at the time.  Like things were fussy and my head was heavy.  I went right back to sleep after I put Aiden down. 

I don't remember all the details but this morning Kris said that he woke up when I did and told me that he didn't hear Aiden, but that if he was awake he could take care of him so I could sleep.  I guess I just looked at him and got up and went to Aiden's room to get him without saying a word.  When I came back to bed Kris again said he didn't hear Aiden and I said he was awake.  Then Kris asked me "are you sleep walking - did you take your pill" and I said "yes I took it" and he told me he thought i was sleep walking and to go back to sleep. 

This morning I swear to you i heard Aiden and I swear to you he was awake when I rocked him, but Kris said that he started fussing after I went back to sleep and he thinks I went in there and picked him up and actually woke him a bit while sleep walking.  Now I feel all weird because I don't know anymore if I was really awake and it happened or if I thought Aiden was awake and really I was asleep!  So strange, let me tell you.

At least I didn't get up and cook or miss out on the best sex of my life lol. 

He will NOT sleep anymore... help?

Aiden is a pretty good sleeper.  He has been from the begining.  We had our troubles putting him down while he slept, but not a problem getting him to actually sleep.  We switched him to his big boy crib 2 weeks ago - the first week he slept 8 hours without waking up once!  I was soo happy, it worked!  A month ago I got him to where he would put himself to sleep if I laid him down drowsy.  We've been on a roll.  We didn't even hit the 4 month wakeful - he still slept.

NOT NOW.  I don't know if it's the new first tooth, the impending 2nd tooth, the fact he is desperately trying to crawl, seperation anxiety, that maybe we let him fall asleep being held (mostly in situations where there was no crib for him) too many times lately - no clue, but the kid won't sleep anymore.

He is slowly getting worse and worse at falling asleep on his own.  He will be drowsy and yawning and I lay him down and he screams and reaches up for me.  He has been waking up 3 times a night, and not always does a paci put him back to sleep.  Last night after 30 minutes of him not sleeping at 5am I was desperate and rocked him to sleep.  3 minutes after I laid him down and crawled back into my own bed he woke up.  3 minutes.  3.  Poor Kris had to get up with him at that point because I was spent.  Kris just fed him a bottle - he sat next to the crib and didn't hold Aiden to feed him - and he finally fell back asleep for a couple hours.

The night before, so this would have been Monday night, Kris actually had to sleep in Aiden's room on the floor for about 4 hours so all of us would get sleep.  Aiden watched him through his crib slats and finally fell asleep.  We have even been desperate enough to turn the tv on in Aiden's room trying to trick him with noise.  You know what?  I walked in and found Aiden watching the tv through the crib slats!  Fail!

Tonight we have been trying to put him down to sleep for about 2 hours, and counting.  He was fussy, rubbing his eyes, pulling on his hair and ears (one of his sleep cues - not sure if this is a normal one?) and so we put him down.  He cried.  We fed him his bedtime bottle and he started to act like he was falling asleep in my arm after the bottle.  Key word there is act.  I set him in his crib and he was awake and playing for the next hour.  Kris and I went to bed thinking we would watch tv quietly and wait it out - he had to tire of playing at some point and put himself to sleep, right?  Wrong.  We both jumped out of bed when he heard loud banging noises coming from Aiden's room.  The kid was kicking, and he kicks hard enough to bruise my thigh mind you, his crib.  He was kicking!  He smiled up at us when we looked in on him. 

Now we sit awake as a family in the living room.  Aiden is jumping something fierce in his jumperoo and yawning constantly.  The kid will not give in.  I have even looked over to "catch" him yawning and he quickly giggles and gives me a huge smile.  I'm blogging, Kris is playing Mario on Wii and we are just waiting him out.  It's going to be another long night.

What is going on here?  Anyone else go through this?  He was sleeping soo well, at least 5-6hrs at a time most night and even when he woke up it was just because he needed a paci - he would be asleep again in a minute after he got it.  Now I'm lucky for 2 hours straight of sleep.  Is it normal for them to digress?  I was going to cry it out last month to get him into good sleeping habits, but it turned into 1 day of "fuss it out" and it was a solved problem.  Now I fear I'll need to try again and I have a sneaky feeling this time he will fight it and cry instead of fuss and just give in to sleeping well.  Grr... help.  What can we do?? 

To the inventor of the heating pad...

I Love You. Seriously, I do. I don't know who you are (although some googling could find me that answer I'm sure...) but you have just made my day. Aiden has not been napping the last 2-3 days. I mean, he will sleep for 30 minutes and then wake up and be wide awake. Then he will get cranky because he really IS tired, but he won't sleep! Also we have taken a big step back at nighttime. Instead of sleeping 5-8hrs at a time, IN HIS OWN BED, he won't sleep unless we hold him. So 2 nights ago we had him in our bed with us again. Then last night it turned into taking sleeping shifts with him in the rocking chair - back to week 2 home for us. Yippie.

SOO... this morning Kris put the heating pad under Aiden's crib sheet (with the cord sticking out the foot not near him at all) and turned it on low. I rocked Aiden to sleep and then carefully placed him on the heating pad - IT WORKED. He has now been sleeping for 2hr and 15 minutes...and still going. I'm sure he'll wake up soon because I know he will be hungry again, but it's been wonderful. Perhaps if we get him napping again during the day nighttime will be better for us. Sleep begets sleep right??

Oh and yes we turned it off, but I'll be honest, it was only because he pees A LOT (we have to use Baby Dry diapers at bedtime) and he isn't in his nighttime diapers and I got worried of him leaking through and you know, that'd be a REALLY bad mom moment..... anyway, he is ASLEEP and it's all thanks to the inventor of the heating pad! Cheers to you sir!

He Slept Alone... *tear*

Okay so I never wanted to be a co-sleeper, it just happened that way once we got home. So 2 nights ago Kris took the first shift of the night, he was awake after his 1130pm feeding. Well I fell asleep and next thing I know Kris comes to bed and tell me he is asleep in his crib! He slept for 4hrs once Kris got him to sleep all by himself in his crib. Then when he came to our bed he didn't want me to hold him, I laid him on his back next to me and he stopped fussing and fell back asleep.

Last night Kris and I decided to try him by himself in his bassinet which is on my side of the bed. We figured maybe he would sleep longer in it than when we first brought him home and he would wake up every 20 minutes. Well, we were right. Kris bundled the boy all up and we put him in his sleeper at 915pm. He slept until 145am! This was his 5hr mark for food, so we fed him a bottle and he went back in his bassinet at 215am drowsy. I had to pop the binky back in 2 times, but then he passed out on his own. I woke up at 545am with his being a bit fussy. He was hot. So he pretty much slept all night on his own his there.

When he fell asleep at 8ish we put him back in there and we all slept again until 1130. I can't believe it. Makes me soo happy, but yet soo sad that he is ready to sleep without his mommy. I'm gonna make cookies to cheer myself up!