New dad poll

[Cnasty]

Dude, were you in the exam room today?!?!

He said the same exact thing. Shut the monitor off, ear plugs, and you will know when he cries with how loud he will get.

He said the first 4 days will be hard but you will be buying me a beer in a week when he is sleeping through the night.

[yougoogelizer]

My wife and I at about the 2 month mark went to doing the same routine every night where we would feed our daughter, give her a bath and then put her in bed at the same time every night...and within 3 weeks she was sleeping through the night. And it was tough because there were nights in the beginning she would cry for 20-30 minutes but we had to leave her so she would learn its bed time. We get to do it all over again too, wife is pregnant with number two so hopefully the "system" works again lol.

[Cnasty]

Hes at exactly 2 months yesterday so we are beginning our journey in a couple days. He just got shots today so need to wait 2 to 3 days make sure no fever or side affects.

But after that, its on! If he is sleeping before 3 months I might cry like AJ

[ajalves]

Dude, were you in the exam room today?!?!

He said the same exact thing. Shut the monitor off, ear plugs, and you will know when he cries with how loud he will get.

He said the first 4 days will be hard but you will be buying me a beer in a week when he is sleeping through the night.

took us 3 or 4 nights.

we got to thanksgiving break cant remember how old he was....i (probably her too) said "look, this isnt working"

It was to the point i was napping at working during my planning period just to get some solid shut eye.

we got to Thanks giving break and said fuck it....lets do it.

1st night he cried like 2.5 hours
2nd night he cried 1.5
3rd night he cried .5

from that day forward he will sleep 8:30 till the next morning

(i thought i had told that story before. maybe not.)

your wife might not be on board just yet if she hasnt gone back to work yet. wait till she does, she'll agree to do this plan within a damn few days

[shel311]

from that day forward he will sleep 8:30 till the next morning

8:30, nice.

My boys have a rock solid schedule, guess I can't complain, but I'd like an extra hour sleep in the mornings on the weekends lol. They go to sleep around 8-8:30, wake up around 7:30am. Naps for an 1-1.5 hours between 10am and noon and again between 3 and 5.

They NEVER(jinxing myself) wake up in the middle of the night. It's honestly been about 5 or 6 months since one of em woke up crying in the middle of the night, not counting one night with some pretty loud thunder that woke one of em up.

[dakshdar]

I have no kids but I have nephews and two of my best friends out here in California have kids.

I'm probably not qualified to chime in, but I find the baby monitor (with video now too!) to be completely ridiculous. My one friend's wife watches the monitor like it is Emmy winning television and goes to check on the kid every freaking time he moves or makes a sound. It isn't even my kid and, when I'm over there hanging out, it drives me crazy!

Maybe I'm a heartless, logical android, but I'm letting that kid cry after it's bed time.

The other thing I laugh about is how the kids react to falling down. All of the kids I've been around are boys and they run around like maniacs slamming into things and they just get right up because they're (almost) doing it on purpose. Then, once in a while, they bump into something they don't see and collapse on the ground like an Italian soccer player and start howling. If I'm the nearest person to the kid when that happens I pick them up, put them on their feet, and say, "You're fine, you're not hurt, go play." And 9 times out of 10 they do just that. But, when I see the mom react instead, and they get upset because they think the kid is hurt, it just plays into the kid's reaction, which then amplifies everything to another level. If the kid really is hurt, you're going to know.

Anyway, non-parent rant over. You guys with kids may tell me I'm crazy and that I'll learn some day, but I'm sticking with this for now.

[autiger730]

I have no kids but I have nephews and two of my best friends out here in California have kids.

I'm probably not qualified to chime in, but I find the baby monitor (with video now too!) to be completely ridiculous. My one friend's wife watches the monitor like it is Emmy winning television and goes to check on the kid every freaking time he moves or makes a sound. It isn't even my kid and, when I'm over there hanging out, it drives me crazy!

Maybe I'm a heartless, logical android, but I'm letting that kid cry after it's bed time.

The other thing I laugh about is how the kids react to falling down. All of the kids I've been around are boys and they run around like maniacs slamming into things and they just get right up because they're (almost) doing it on purpose. Then, once in a while, they bump into something they don't see and collapse on the ground like an Italian soccer player and start howling. If I'm the nearest person to the kid when that happens I pick them up, put them on their feet, and say, "You're fine, you're not hurt, go play." And 9 times out of 10 they do just that. But, when I see the mom react instead, and they get upset because they think the kid is hurt, it just plays into the kid's reaction, which then amplifies everything to another level. If the kid really is hurt, you're going to know.

Anyway, non-parent rant over. You guys with kids may tell me I'm crazy and that I'll learn some day, but I'm sticking with this for now.

Audio monitor I can see if your in a bigger house and the kids bedroom is a good distance away. Video monitor? Absolutely ridiculous. What's the new born gonna do climb out of the bed and start doing acrobratics on the mobile? Brilliant post on the falling down part too.

[Cnasty]

Yea, coming from someone without a kid and autiger, not listening.

We dont stare at the video monitor but if he screams, we take a look and see whats going on. He has reflux and spits up like crazy so we make sure it actually has come out and he is breathing after he spits up. I guess that makes me a video monitor watcher!

We are full on board with crying it out when needed as we already do that if his diaper is clean, hes been fed, and he isnt choking from his reflux.

This will just take some getting used to if its AJ's 2.5 hours or so first on. First nights will be hell!

[ajalves]

when my oldest was like a year and a half (maybe younger, maybe older, but whenever he started semi walking) we went in to get him after his afternoon nap and he was sitting on the floor....

he had climbed out of his crib. no idea how

conversely, another time, i swear to christ, he was real tired he actually climbed into his crib

[ajalves]

This will just take some getting used to if its AJ's 2.5 hours or so first on. First nights will be hell!

the kid had a will of steel. he'd stop for like a minute here or there, but yeah 2.5 hours pretty much straight of crying....he was like a machine

in the end, i won

[ReignOnU]

@au

...or rolling sideways, wrapping the blanket around their neck and choking?

While dak saw that side of it, where the chick just stares at it, I find it useful to put by my computer screen and if I hear something I can look and see if it's anything that's worth paying attention to or just keep working. Why guess at why the baby's crying when you can see if it's something that matters.

[ReignOnU]

My wife goes back to work in the middle of Sept... I figure that we need to be at 6hr stretches over night, at that point. I'm usually up until 11-12, she wakes up @ 6. If I'm that far along, I should have to force anything. If we're not, we'll definitely be implementing some 'cry yourself to sleep' time.

[shel311]

My one friend's wife watches the monitor like it is Emmy winning television and goes to check on the kid every freaking time he moves or makes a sound. It isn't even my kid and, when I'm over there hanging out, it drives me crazy!

Sounds to me like the monitor isn't the problem.

[ReignOnU]

My one friend's wife watches the monitor like it is Emmy winning television and goes to check on the kid every freaking time he moves or makes a sound. It isn't even my kid and, when I'm over there hanging out, it drives me crazy!

Sounds to me like the monitor isn't the problem.

Sounds like my wife and her phone. I blame the phone.

[autiger730]

when my oldest was like a year and a half (maybe younger, maybe older, but whenever he started semi walking) we went in to get him after his afternoon nap and he was sitting on the floor....

he had climbed out of his crib. no idea how

conversely, another time, i swear to christ, he was real tired he actually climbed into his crib

That is when we took the bars off one side of the crib.

[Cnasty]

My one friend's wife watches the monitor like it is Emmy winning television and goes to check on the kid every freaking time he moves or makes a sound. It isn't even my kid and, when I'm over there hanging out, it drives me crazy!

Sounds to me like the monitor isn't the problem.

Yeah really.

Im actually being more lazy of a parent just looking at the monitor if I hear something rather than getting off my ass and going in there.

Reign, you seem to be on the same schedule as us. Wife goes back mid September and thats our goal for sleeping through the night in the next week or so.

Like AJ said, she will be all about crying it out if it works like the doc said.

[shel311]

Then, once in a while, they bump into something they don't see and collapse on the ground like an Italian soccer player and start howling. If I'm the nearest person to the kid when that happens I pick them up, put them on their feet, and say, "You're fine, you're not hurt, go play." And 9 times out of 10 they do just that

Unless I visibly see them take a pretty nasty fall, this is exactly what I do. Some say just ignore, but instead, I'll just continue on and keep playing with him like nothing happened. Like you said, 9 times outta 10, they stop crying in 3 seconds.

My dudes are in the headbutting phase. THey will headbutt any and everything, their heads are made of steel, I swear. We're out near our pool so we have that concrete that's kinda rough and not a good place to hit your head. My big guy just started walking 2 days ago, he's walking, falls forward, braces himself with his hands, he is now in the crawling position. He then inexplicably headbutts the ground seemingly as hard as he could. My wife and I easily hear the loud thud and I watched him do it as well. he instantly had a huge red mark, and a brush burn with a bunch of little marks on his forehead. Best part...he never flinched. Not even in the least, no pain whatsoever.

[ReignOnU]

Every source I've found suggests that the babies don't have true thought processes until 2-3 months. At that time, then crying can actually mean more than hungry. Within a month of that, it will mean wet / uncomfortable / etc. Then after that point, it can be manipulative. So just after 2 months is when you really want to push the issue of sleeping through the night. Anything before that and you're just neglecting the fact that the kid is hungry. Prior to that point, you are supposed to be able to do a few things, like keep them up longer during the day, keep them in 'cooler' clothing during the day, take them outside, keep windows open, sun coming in... then at night, feed as much as possible for the last meal, lights out, keep warmer. On top of that, when you do feed overnight, try to keep them in the room, lights out (very dim), only feed them, change if necessary and right back into the crib. Limit interaction during the night.

All of this seems to be working. The only issue that we've run into is that she can sleep through any noise. So she'll easily fall asleep during the day, no matter what kind of noise is going on. However, if we want to wake her up during the day, we just put her in her crib, with no noise and she wakes right up.

[autiger730]

Yea, coming from someone without a kid and autiger, not listening.

I was 10 when my younger sister and cousin were born. I have (so far) successfully raised a 6 year year old who is well behaved and well ahead of the rest of the kids in her class. Don't know why you wouldn't want to listen to me. Dak is dead on with the falling bit. My little girl will fall running around, offf her bike, whatever, I'll get her up dust her off, get a bandaid, clean her up if need be, and she's fine. If she falls and mama is around it is 10 times worse because of the reaction she gets from mama.

[nick]

Yea, coming from someone without a kid and autiger, not listening.

I was 10 when my younger sister and cousin were born. I have (so far) successfully raised a 6 year year old who is well behaved and well ahead of the rest of the kids in her class. Don't know why you wouldn't want to listen to me. Dak is dead on with the falling bit. My little girl will fall running around, offf her bike, whatever, I'll get her up dust her off, get a bandaid, clean her up if need be, and she's fine. If she falls and mama is around it is 10 times worse because of the reaction she gets from mama.

thats like my buddies son whos 4. when he falls, hes just like "dont cry" and he wont.