Do any other moms out there have a temperature problem in their nursery (and house)? We are renting a house built in 1950 that was partially updated. The nursery has old drafty windows that face north east. We have blinds, lined curtains and bubble wrap taped all over the windows. We bought a new thermostat and placed it in our baby's room to regulate the temp. in there. It either gets too hot or too cold. We placed the thermostat on the wall at his sleeping level. We set it to 72, but he woke up again cold. The difference between the temp a couple feet above the floor and up at eye level is a few degrees! The heat goes right out of there. If we set it too high it doesn't shut off and the whole house becomes an oven. Our baby is 8 months old and has only slept through the night 3 times, 2 months ago. He is up 4-5 times EVERY night. My husband and I are truly EXHAUSTED! We end up bringing him into our bed, but he still fusses and finally falls asleep. Also, he goes to sleep between 8 and 8:30, sleeps for 1/2 an hour then wakes up and it takes us 2 hours or more to get him back down. He is not cold or hot at this point. Just happy that he can stand up in his crib. My husband and I have NO alone time together, as we are taking turns getting him to go back to sleep. By then we are tired and go to bed, then we are up 5 times before 8 am! What is a comfortable temp. for a baby to sleep and what clothing, blankets. sleep sacks would you recommend? He tends to kick blankets off, and we have tried a sleep sack. It has worked sometimes. Depending on how hot the day was, his room is warm when he goes to bed and I don't want to bundle him yet. Would you cool the room off with A/C for a short time so that you could bundle him? Thank you in advance for all recommendations.
I have a similar problem. The baby's room is 5 or so degrees cooler. What I do is put fuzzy socks on his feet and put him in the terry cloth sleepers. If it's really cold I have one of those wearable blankets. That has made all the difference.
Your baby boy may be a little cool but it sounds like he doesn't like to be bundled. My daughter was the same way. As soon as she could move she'd kick everything off and away from her. I was paranoid that she'd freeze. She didn't. I just dressed her in footsie jammies and during the winter I put a onesie and socks under the jammies. It worked out great. Now that it's warmer I don't put the under clothes on and tonight she's sleeping in shorts and a t-shirt. She's nine months old. We too had a heck of a time getting our daughter to sleep thru the night. It took me from the time she was 5 months old until about 7 or 8 months to get her on a really solid sleep schedule. It was tough. I've read that at 7 months babies can sleep thru the night with out being fed. I had a hard time grasping that but we eventually did and now she sleeps thru the night. She's wakes up a few times and might cry for a moment or two but that's normal and she goes back to sleep. Try Keeping a sleep log: Write down when he goes to bed, when he wakes up, when he cries and for how long. This helped me to notice if I was making any progress in my efforts. Babies, after they're not newborns anymore, wake up out of habit rather than hunger and they'll cry for the same reason, habit because they know mom or dad will come keep them company for a while. Well, I don't know if I'm right but your situation sounds similar to the sleepless nights we had with our daughter and what she needed was a sleep schedule and for us to let her cry it out for a while so that eventually she could put herself to sleep. I didn't think I'd live to tell about it but it's all good now. Perhaps your son needs the same thing. Good luck. I hope this helped a little. By the way I sleep really well now too ;) take care Becky in Coachella
Well, if your baby is having trouble sleeping, it may be the temp, but it could also be the routine he's into. He has gotten into the routine of waking up in the middle of the night and you might want to change that. If your baby kicks off his blankets, then he's too hot, so you don't want to bundle him and you don't want to turn the ac on because then he would be too cold. I would recommend finding the source of the draft. If it is the windows, try some new lining around the window or maybe some new windows all together. Your baby will eventually figure out how to move around and find the blanket and cover himself up without you.
We have the same problem and put a portable heater in our son's room. You can purchase ones that are very quiet so he doesn't wake up everytime it comes on. I think we got ours at Target. Good luck!
We have this problem in our daughter's room. I bought her "baby in a bag" @ www.babyinabag.com. If you buy the summer weight one it is very light. The winter ones are heavier. You could probably buy the summer one and use a heaverier sleeper when it is really cold. Then use lighter sleepers under it when it is warmer. Colder temperatures are better than hot for baby. The baby in a bag is a very neat thing. My daughter sleeps in hers every night. She is 6 months old but they have them for all sizes.
I know we all survived sleeping with blankets as babies but Please rethink the blankets ;the Acadamey of Pediatrics states cribs should be free of blankets , bumpers , toys and other suffocation hazards so I would reconsider placing a blanket in the crib. After 7 years working ER I can tell you the 1% of the time something goes wrong is 1% too much.
As far as the heating/cooling I would call Nevada Power and SW Gas and have them do an energy analysis on your home . They will find the source of your draft and give you tips for insulating and adjusting/replacing your thermostat etc.. For the time being I would use a sleep sack on top of the PJs. It is getting warmer and you may not need to use any heating or cooling in a week or two ( we don't have anything on currently but our house is new and with better insulation)
If the sleep problem is more of a behavioral issue I would try to put him to bed earlier ( say 7pm) . Kids that are over tired actually sleep worse and less than kids that aren't ( weird baby stuff ) . You also might want to read some articles on the Ferber Method of sleep training. Some Rice cereal before bed with milk or breast milk also gives the nice full tummy effect , helpng baby to fall deeper asleep.
Hope it helps ! Sleep deprevtion is terrible. Take lots of naps !!!!
J.
Sleep sacks are the best thing. Even if your house is a bit warm already, when you put her to bed, she will feel comfortable in the sleep sack. Babies prefer to be warm.
I would use a sleep sack (find one that is cotton (try Babies-R-Us), and not too heavy), or heavier feet pajamas (Gerber makes them), if you can, get your landlord to install a ceiling fan in the room, leave the door open and run the fan day and night - it doesn't cost that much to run it all the time. This will circulate the air better. If he won't do this, get a fre standing fan and run it for a bout an hour before he goes to bed and if the night is warm, all night long.
Another thing to do is let him cry it out. I know it sounds terrible, but it will help him soothe himself, and he has to learn sometime right? If you have to, close the door to his room, put a rolled up towel on the floor against the door (to muffle the sound), and let him scream starting at 5 minute intervals, go in lay him down, gently talk to him to reassure you are still there, then leave the room after no more than about 2 minutes (do this every 5 minutes after you leave the room), every few nights (you decide how many) increase the wait time by 2-3 minutes, and decrease the time you spend in his room, by 20-30 seconds. When you get to 30 minutes wait time and he is still crying, then take him out and comfort him, rock him or whatever for 5 minutes and put him back in his bed. Hopefully this will work for you. It did for us.
When he gets up in the middle of the night, do not take him back to your bed, and if you do only allow him to stay there for a few minutes and as soon as he is back to sleep, move him to either a pad on the floor in your room, or his bed (you don't want him to get used to coming to your bed every time he wakes up). Check on him and make sure he isn't hot or cold (take appropriate measures) but leave him in his bed and let him scream it out. If you have to, put pillows over your head and ignore it, or buy ear plugs. But ignore most of the crying at night. This will teach him to put himself back to sleep when he wakes up, which is a good thing.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Hi,
My little boy did not sleep through the night until he was 9mo! I was really exhausted! Your babies sleeping pattern sounds very similar to what my own experience was with my son.
A nutritionist shared with me to give my baby some warm chamomile tea before bedtime and it will help regulate his body chemistry as he sleeps so he won't be so sensitive to wake up for really no apparent reason. It was so amazing how much sleep that we all got after giving him a little warm tea. The funny thing is he is 15yr now and loves to drink his tea : )
I have 2 children now 10 and 6. I had a lot of sleep issues with my oldest that are similar to what you describe. I am not convinced it has anything to do with the temperature. I definately recommend doing some reading on better sleep habits for your baby. I read "Solve your child's sleep problems" and did what it recommended to help him learn how to fall asleep on his own without any sleep aides (such as nursing or feeding to sleep, pacifiers, etc) so that when he wakes up naturally throughout the night he can fall asleep on his own without requiring your help to do so. Exhaustion made me desperate enough to read and do all that was needed for him to learn how to do this. Part of it did entail allowing him to cry and finally fall asleep. It was hard for just a few nights, then it totally worked. Good luck D.. You can do it. :)
That's funny, I have the same issue! We have our therm set at 69 degrees, and it will be 60 degrees in the bedrooms. I just put my son in warm pjs and a sleeper blanket on top of the pjs, and make sure he has socks on and a onsie underneath. You could try running a warm mist humidifier, too, and that will keep the room warm and keep the air moist with the heater running.
If he kicks his blankets off, what worked for me
was putting on the baby's pajamas and then putting on a blanket sleeper over them. My daughter would never keep blankets on. As far as the temperature is concerned, babies like to sleep at the same temperature you do. If you are warm, put less clothes on him. He doesn't have to sleep with a blanket.
i used to use a portable radiator only at night to keep the babys room more comfortable since we prefer to keep the house colder for our comfort. we would turn on the radiator about 30 min before bedtime to make the room warmer and keep it on to keep the room comfortable all night. it really helped keep her sleeping.
I had one baby that was hot and one that was cold. I don't think you need to fret so much over the temparure in the room. Sounds to me like your baby is waking up to get you to put him in bed with him. I would let him cry it out a while. If the bed room is between 50 - 70 degrees he is not going to freeze to death. Put him in a little carter blanket sleeper and call it good with a blanket. If he kicks off the blanket he will still be warm in his sleeper. I understand you worry over that. But , those little darlings have a way of minuplating you into getting what they want. You just have to stand your ground and you can teach him to have better sleeping habits , so you and your husband can get some rest. Goo Luck, your doing a great Job.
N.
Grandma with plain old common sense
