Since he was a newborn, baby didn’t sleep much. Even my confinement lady would complain that he isn’t sleeping enough and even if he falls asleep in the daytime, it’s for a short period of time only. As he grows, he sleeps even less and he can’t fall asleep by himself on the bed. It took us forever to put him to bed, patting and singing away till we grew tired and sleepy ourselves! That’s when we resorted to using the sarong to rock him to sleep. We found that motion helps to make him sleep. He would even fall asleep better in a moving car than on a bed.
Now that he’s already coming to 16 months of age, I’m quite worried that he still isn’t falling asleep on his own on a bed. He still needs to be rocked in the sarong. We have tried to lay him down on the bed once he’s fitfully asleep but if he wakes up, we’ve got to put him back in the sarong to make him sleep again.
His weight is not getting any lighter for the sarong. And I keep thinking how long more can he continue to rely on the sarong to sleep? At the babysitter’s place, he needs a bouncer to rock him to sleep or he will need to be carried in the arms of the babysitter who will then gently rock and pat him to sleep.
How is it possible to train him to lie in bed, and fall asleep? I am so clueless how to do it!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
My baby Rachel is like your baby. She just wants to stay awake 24 hours if possible. Even when she gets cranky she doesn’t want to go to sleep.
So far our method to get her to fall asleep is to first force her to lie down (which may involve a lot of wrestling) and then patting her until she falls asleep.
Last night we just put her in the baby crib and let her watch us talking and talking until she got so bored that she fell asleep on her own
Hahaha, so Rachel can actually get bored watching you both talk?! Hmm, I doubt my boy will even spend 5 minutes to watch us talk. He’ll be demanding for some attention! Haha.
I heard that we shouldn’t give active kids chocs, sweets or soft drinks after 4pm. Or else, they gonna be hyper active !!
I think that’s quite true. I also read that it’s best they don’t eat these in the morning too or they get cranky early in the day and then zombified later!
Hayley is just the same. I think most babies are like that. It is my husband’s job to put her to sleep each night. He will put her in the cot, leave her alone for about 10 mins (she will be standing and making all sorts of noises in the cot) and then he will press her down on the cot and pat her buttock until she sleeps. Sometimes she she is tired, she wont put up any fight. When she is not tired, we need to wrestle her. She never, not even once, will fall asleep on her own except in the middle of the night when she woke up and we all ignored her
By the way, if you are willing, you can try and leave him in the cot by himself at night and let him cry until he falls asleep. You might have to do this a few nights. First night you check on him after 30 mins, second night possibly 40 mins and so on.
My friend did this to her baby and after a week of crying and being ignored, the baby now sleeps on her own. I couldn’t do it myself as I felt that this was torturous. You can give it a try cause it does work but you have to toughen up and make sure you don’t give up half way
Amy, it’s a pity we can’t leave him unattended in a cot because he will climb out!
And I think I won’t be able to stand the cries even if he can’t climb out. I’m the one who spoil him, unfortunately. Maybe earplugs could work?! Anyway, I’m getting panicky about this because he is now able to sit up in the sarong, which is a clear signal we need to get him out of there!!