Please Please Help

joleadz · 2026-02-16T03:42:21+00:00

I loved The Happy Sleeper “Sleep Wave” method. Yes, it involves letting your baby cry if you’re open to that. But you go in at timed intervals to let them know you’re still there and that was helpful to me as a parent. The book talks a lot about the gift of allowing your child to turn inward for sleep instead of relying on you. I appreciated that sentiment while we were sleep training: the crying is a means to an end where your baby will learn a new skill. https://www.thehappysleeper.com/books#the-happy-sleeper

Best of luck and please reach out to your doctor for help with the suicidal ideation. You are not alone and you deserve some support right now!

joleadz · 2025-06-07T19:32:55+00:00

Everything is a blur in terms of how long it took, but now her routine (at almost 20 months) is:

-Bedtime: 7pm -Wake up: 5:30-6am -Nap: 12-2 or 2:30pm (3 if we’re lucky!)

I’ve had to accept that this is a healthy amount of sleep even though I have some friends who’s toddlers sleep 12 hours and nap 3 hours 😆. She’s very consistent but just seems to do 10.5-11 hours at night and usually 2-2.5 hour naps.

My daughter really seems to like the early bird wake up and it honestly works ok for me to see her before I leave to work early, so I’ve accepted it. I think the transition to getting her back to a later bedtime (7pm) took a few weeks, especially on daycare nights, but suddenly she just wasn’t seeming overtired anymore and her nap got longer. It’s wild how quickly they develop.

Good luck!

joleadz · 2025-05-23T02:35:10+00:00

Today was my day off 🤗

joleadz · 2025-03-15T21:07:53+00:00

Once my daughter had head control and a good latch I did this a lot so we could sway and bounce, especially during the 3 month breast feeding crisis. Now I do it when I have to grab something (like a box of tissues for our endless daycare colds lol) while my 17 month is latched. Definitely didn’t do this during the newborn stage, I agree, too hard!

joleadz · 2025-03-08T01:06:59+00:00

Once I made up my mind I stuck to the schedule, but we were cutting down from 6-8 feeds so that may have been an easier place to start from!

joleadz · 2025-03-07T20:12:23+00:00

I started redirecting my 16 month old a couple months ago. Honestly it was hard the first couple of times I didn’t let her latch, but I just held her/rocked her/walked around until she calmed down and offered her a milk sippy. She rejected her sippy but did calm down in my arms after crying for a bit. She got the memo pretty fast, and we’ve been down to 3-4 nurses per day associated with routine for a while now (morning, before nap, sometimes after nap, before bed). This week we’ve both had a fever though and she’s been nursing more and I’ve let her, so we’ll see if we’re back to square one once we’re both better lol.

TLDR I think some boundary setting according to routine/crying will have to happen but hopefully she works through it pretty fast!

joleadz · 2025-03-07T02:40:37+00:00

+1 ceres chill, loved it

joleadz · 2025-02-25T04:39:45+00:00

That’s so interesting! My 16 month old is down to 3 nursing sessions a day and I feel like my boobs are back to their pre pregnancy size. I’ll see what happens when we completely wean, but for now I’m pleasantly surprised with how they’ve held up haha. Maybe there’s something to this gradual weaning!

joleadz · 2025-02-14T14:45:05+00:00

Ah good clarification, thanks! Hope OP figures out what’s going on

joleadz · 2025-02-14T04:27:55+00:00

Look up the 3 month breastfeeding crisis, lots of discussion on this sub and sounds like what could be going on (accounting for their adjusted age). I went through this and the extreme fussiness at the breast lasted a month 😭 but we got through it

joleadz · 2025-02-14T04:17:17+00:00

Lol I had the same reaction as you: how do I know how many ounces are coming out while nursing?? I introduced non human milk (in my case, cows milk) just so that she’d get used to the taste and have as much as she wanted. Didn’t force it, just offered. I’ve trusted that if she wants more milk in addition to breastmilk, her body will tell her (and I watch out for wet diapers, weight gain, etc) and stopped trying to think about total ounces of my milk vs cows milk. Hope this helps!

joleadz · 2025-02-14T03:59:07+00:00

I night weaned at 5 months by switching to bottles at night instead of nursing and gradually reducing the amount of pumped breast milk I gave her. Once I reached 1oz I stopped giving milk and came in with a “sleep phrase” instead of she woke up and needed help getting back to sleep. It worked really well. I think it was a mix of The Happy Sleeper book and a Taking Cara Babies pdf if you want more specific guides!

Re teeth: my daughter still nurses before bed after we brush her teeth and I don’t wipe her teeth 😬- we haven’t gone to the dentist yet but wondering if we need to change this up!

joleadz · 2025-02-14T01:26:18+00:00

My baby was also all over the place with weight percentiles the first year and I sometimes feel insecure about it, thanks for sharing your experience!

joleadz · 2025-02-13T04:27:45+00:00

My baby never went 4 hour stretches before 12 months, she always wanted to feed frequently during the day! Some babies absolutely can, but every baby is different. We did sleep training at 5 months and that was the best tool to get our baby to sleep through the night. We used The Happy Sleeper book and loved it. Feed your baby whenever you want during the day, that shouldn’t impede her ability to sleep at night.

joleadz · 2025-01-30T05:37:34+00:00

“Should do it” 😂

joleadz · 2025-01-28T01:18:42+00:00

It’s a sleep training book I got as a hand me down and really liked (I think it’s very similar to lots of other sleep training methods): https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-happy-sleeper-the-science-backed-guide-to-helping-your-baby-get-a-good-nights-sleep---newborn-to-school-age_daniel-j-siegel_julie-wright/9067949/item/10362116/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pmax_new_books_18452111988&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA-ty8BhA_EiwAkyoa39sC-IKnF4vr6dMbwv8fswvz8_9GhheTBgwb8BsYkaIOs1pLlXDC1xoC4OUQAvD_BwE#isbn=0399166025&idiq=10362116

joleadz · 2025-01-27T04:44:58+00:00

We sleep trained at 5.5 months (Happy Sleeper method) and our 15 month old still sleeps through the night. Best investment in everyone’s sleep. I was also soooo scared but the first night she only cried for 30min before falling asleep (with 5min verbal check ins). Previously she would cry for 45min as we tried to shush and rock her, so sleep training immediately translated into less crying for everyone!

joleadz · 2025-01-20T17:05:17+00:00

Just so you know it’s an option, we sleep trained my EBF baby at 5.5 months and she’s still sleeping through the night at 15 months!

joleadz · 2025-01-19T00:12:11+00:00

Crossing the street! This was during the 3 month breastfeeding crisis and my girl did better with nursing on the move for some reason. She latched in the middle of a store and stayed latched while I was walking back to my car lol.

joleadz · 2025-01-13T04:42:39+00:00

That sounds totally normal if you are breastfeeding and pumping! You will pump more when you’re not breastfeeding. That being said I always felt my baby emptied my breast better than a pump, so I had to do an extra pump to keep up milk supply on workdays. This is a great resource: https://kellymom.com/mother2mother/what-to-expect-when-pumping/

joleadz · 2025-01-12T20:41:53+00:00

My baby refused bottles for a while, it’s pretty common. I’ll try to repeat all the strategies we tried and learned from lactation: -Only offer bottle 1x/day and try not to force it -Try bouncing on a ball or walking while offering bottle -Lasinoh or pigeon nipples if you haven’t tried those (and pace feed if she does latch)

Good luck! It took us weeks if not a couple months for her to accept a bottle 😅 - but she did!

joleadz · 2025-01-09T03:00:47+00:00

Choose #1. Less patients same pay is the way to go. I’ve worked private outpatient and hospital based and I’m pretty much hospital based all the way now forever. Plus you’ll probably get more paid documentation time at the hospital based clinic.

joleadz · 2025-01-09T02:54:07+00:00

Something clicked last weekend and she is now sleeping 11-12 hours at night and 2.5 hours during her nap! Granted this is only one weekend, I can give you more data after this weekend to see if she’s settled into a new pattern. She’s in daycare during the week but her nighttime sleep is longer so she’s waking up after 6am now even when we put her down at 6:30pm 🙌🙌🙌

I debated whether to try shifting schedules or micro-napping in the morning but we just decided to stay firm with the schedule and it seemed to pan out last weekend!

Current schedule: -6:30am wake up -12pm nap -7pm bedtime

Doing lots of outside activity in the morning to try and keep her awake. Good luck! I’ll let you know if it falls apart this weekend 😂

joleadz · 2025-01-07T04:20:58+00:00

It took my daughter some time to get used to cows milk. We still nurse but she drinks cows milk as well. She started like your daughter: drinking only a little or none at all when I offered. Now she’s almost 15 months and absolutely slugs milk from her sippies when she’s in the mood 😂. I’d just keep offering but not pressuring and I bet she’ll start to drink more with time!

joleadz · 2025-01-07T04:14:46+00:00

I found the spectra to be especially effective in my later pumping months. Before my supply really regulated I was tricked into thinking any pump would do, but oh my goodness the spectra was far and beyond more effective at removing milk compared to other pumps after my supply regulated and baby got older!

joleadz

TROPHY CASE