is/was your LO a really bad sleeper? support and advise thread!

[Hanskiz]

Ours was good (ish). Bed at 7, slept to 11.20, fussed a bit but settled herself, awake at 3. OH gave water, she didn't settle and as she has been grumpy with teething we gave nurofen, a cuddle and more water. Took a while to settle down, but fussed more than cried and was quiet mostly, asleep just after 4. Up for the day at 6.20. NO night feed which is brilliant. Up a little earlier than usual but I can live with that! Hopefully tonight will be better - it's got better steadily, night after night (last night was night 4). I'm hopeful for STTN soon.

 

[AngelUK]

lisa that does sound very good indeed! Here is to hoping that our boys are improving At last is goes to show that they CAN sleep for more than one cycle at the time lol

Gemma I feel for you I really do. I know so well how you must be feeling. Chewed out gum doesn't even come close.

 

[kosh]

ours wasn't brilliant,but it wasn't bad either. tbh, i can't remember how many times he woke - the new sleeping arrangement means i can go to sleep immediately which really helps.

so, you think it was the porridge that did it??

 

[chocolala]

Yey to those who had an ok night

And hugs to those that didn't

Ours was ok, she's def back to waking every 90 mins or so and has stopped trying to settle herself those few nights where she was trying settle herself and was only waking 3 times were great, that's how she was before she turned 6 months. But she's still waking too early and I don't know why, nothing has changed, it's so frustrating!

On top of Lily's multiple wakings we also have the dog bursting in most nights demanding to be let out so she can chase stuff - she's not popular

 

[MrsHedgehog]

We've had another couple of pretty bad nights, one was after a day with great naps the next was after a day of crappy naps so I've come to the conclusion that day time sleeps don't affect night time sleeps.

Someone on another thread said that their LO was waking a lot at night until they started walking and then they STTN. My LO is almost walking so hopefully this will be true for us. I'm reluctant to do any sleep training as I'm still optimistic things will improve by themselves sooner or later. I'm managing to function fairly well on little sleep and when I go back to work it's only 3 afternoons a week so shouldn't be too hard. I couldn't do CC or CIO as I physically can't listen to LO cry, I get really stressed and anxious and snap at DH a lot. LO gets hysterical really quickly and there's no way she'd go to sleep. I'm trying to get her to settle without boob while she's in my bed still just by unlatching her when she's not quite asleep, sometimes it doesn't work, other times she'll roll over and go to sleep. We'll gradually work on this and slowly by slowly hopefully she'll improve.

 

[Louppey]

Just to give you girls some hope, my Coralie was an absolutely shocking sleeper, I'm talking up every 45 minutes for the longest time... She just started to STTN at 14 months. I don't know what changed, but suddenly she wanted to sleep.

It does happen eventually

 

[oox_tasha_xoo]

Been having bad nights again the last 2 nights, but tonight has been a major breakthrough already and its only 7.10pm! My LO went to sleep ALL by herself and without me in the room :O and the major topper, WITHOUT her dummy! Im in shock :O She normally refuses to sleep without holding my hand and without her dummy, i hope this is a sign of good things to come! major fingers crossed! (her tooth has finally popped through so maybe this is why! x
good luck tonight everyone x x

 

[firefly15]

Yay for those that had a good night! Big hugs for those that didn't.

Now I don't want to curse myself by writing this down, but we've had FOUR good nights in a row Last night we had 3 wake ups, which is the worst of the 4 nights (but still AMAZING by normal standards)...
bed by 7.15 then slept til 10.30 (feed @ 10.30)
10.45-2.40 (feed @ 2.40)
3-5.30 (coughed and woke himself up - mini feed because I was desperate to keep him from waking up completely!)
5.45-6.45

The other thing that feels like a miracle has been performed is that last night and tonight he has self settled for bed with NO FUSS I fed him as usual, gave him a cuddle for 5 minutes or until he started to show he wanted to be put down...then put him in his cot awake, he grabbed his muslin, rolled over and last night spent 15 minutes shuffling around before going to sleep (no help from me at all, I just stood there). Tonight it was 5 minutes of shuffling around and then zonked out. I have no idea how this is even possible as I haven't done anything at all differently

Please, please let us have turned a corner here with the sleep. I have no problem doing a couple of feeds at night as long as I get a half decent stretch of sleep in there somewhere!

 

[lisa1980]

Yay for those that had a good night! Big hugs for those that didn't.

Now I don't want to curse myself by writing this down, but we've had FOUR good nights in a row Last night we had 3 wake ups, which is the worst of the 4 nights (but still AMAZING by normal standards)...
bed by 7.15 then slept til 10.30 (feed @ 10.30)
10.45-2.40 (feed @ 2.40)
3-5.30 (coughed and woke himself up - mini feed because I was desperate to keep him from waking up completely!)
5.45-6.45

The other thing that feels like a miracle has been performed is that last night and tonight he has self settled for bed with NO FUSS I fed him as usual, gave him a cuddle for 5 minutes or until he started to show he wanted to be put down...then put him in his cot awake, he grabbed his muslin, rolled over and last night spent 15 minutes shuffling around before going to sleep (no help from me at all, I just stood there). Tonight it was 5 minutes of shuffling around and then zonked out. I have no idea how this is even possible as I haven't done anything at all differently

Please, please let us have turned a corner here with the sleep. I have no problem doing a couple of feeds at night as long as I get a half decent stretch of sleep in there somewhere!

That's amazing!!

The reduction in night wakings is great but the self-settling from nowhere is SO promising.

Last night was good for us too - maybe there was something in the air?!

He's gone down tonight with no fuss (although he did fall asleep on the bottle and I didn't have the heart to wake him up to make his self-settle as he's a bit poorly today) so fingers and toes crossed for tonight.

Chin up ladies....we'll soon be on the Woohoo thread

 

[firefly15]

The self settling is nothing short of miraculous given the battle that we usually have! I really cannot believe it - I'm still in shock!

Maybe there was something in the air last night, and hopefully all those babies who had bad nights will catch it too. Bring on the Woohoo thread, we are ready!

Even if this doesn't stick at least I've had a few nights of more sleep and now I know that it is possible and he won't be waking up all night until he's ten

 

[Boo44]

I love this thread. Although my LO may not quite be as bad as many on here I love reading your posts and you feel like constant company especially when I'm up in the night! It's so nice to hear how other people are and to know you're not alone!

Anyway, back to lurking!

 

[kosh]

please please let the self-settling air move up north!

 

[firefly15]

I love this thread. Although my LO may not quite be as bad as many on here I love reading your posts and you feel like constant company especially when I'm up in the night! It's so nice to hear how other people are and to know you're not alone!

Anyway, back to lurking!

This thread is brilliant, lots of the ladies on here have kept me sane when I felt exhausted and miserable beyond all reasonable sense! Your post really made me smile too

 

[firefly15]

please please let the self-settling air move up north!

on the way!

 

[lisa1980]

I LOVE this thread.

I'm so grateful for it...it really helps me to feel less alone in all this. Sometimes you feel like you're the only one with an LO who doesn't sleep, particularly when you read threads about tiny babies sleeping through, and it starts to feel like you're doing something wrong, so it's so nice when other people relate and can empathise.

I think Kosh deserves to be made a Dame or something for starting it

 

[MrsHedgehog]

Please send some of that sleepy air my way! It's 10:30pm and LO has been awake for 7.5hrs. She skipped her afternoon nap so I thought we might be in for an early night. There are no signs of her tiring yet though. I don't know where she gets her energy from!

I agree that this is a great thread. It's so nice to hear from others going through the exact same thing and know that I'm not the only one with a crazy no sleep baby.

 

[Gemmamuk]

Woooo maybe there is something in the air! After Alex's awful night he was exhausted and mapped and hour and 45 mins instead of his usual 20! It was with me as my oh dumped him in my bed while I was sleeping instead of his cot but I'm grateful for small mercys lol!

Tonight, still exhausted, I started to feed him to sleep. He normally on this first occasion stays sound asleep when I lay him in the cot but he kept waking. So I left him to cry, and alternated going in the room every 5 mins with OH (determind he should start to do SOME of the work!).
He cried between 7 & 8 but has been out like a light since.
Recently he hasn't really slept longer than 2 hours so he may just wake up within the next 15 mins but we'll see!

Wish all you ladies lots of hugs and sleepy luck!!!! Loving feeling the support from this thread xxx

 

[kosh]

having an emotional day here...

I love this thread. Although my LO may not quite be as bad as many on here I love reading your posts and you feel like constant company especially when I'm up in the night! It's so nice to hear how other people are and to know you're not alone!

Anyway, back to lurking!

this made me smile

I LOVE this thread.

I'm so grateful for it...it really helps me to feel less alone in all this. Sometimes you feel like you're the only one with an LO who doesn't sleep, particularly when you read threads about tiny babies sleeping through, and it starts to feel like you're doing something wrong, so it's so nice when other people relate and can empathise.

I think Kosh deserves to be made a Dame or something for starting it

and this made me cry...

I agree, this thread is brilliant, so much support and empathy!

 

[Casey3]

I agree, this thread makes you feel better. Even though I may not have the worst sleeper it helps to read about others going thru something similar instead of the usual "my 3 week old sttn!!"

Hope you all are having good nights.. LO fell off the bed tonight when we were getting ready for bed so for the first time in like ever I actually want him to wake every couple hours so I don't have to wake him up! (probably not a problem, he was asleep 30 minutes before the first waking haha)

 

[Gemmamuk]

I'm in shock ladies!!!!
After an hour of crying, Alex fell asleep at 8, and slept till.........12.15!!!!! Over 4 hours!!!!! Longest stretch in ages!
All he needed was turning over, a kiss and I rubbed his back and he went straight back off

I went to Sleep then too, and he's just woken up now and I've just realised it's 5.20 - so he slept for over 5 hours!!!!
Longest single stretch of sleep I've had since before I was pregnant

He's just drained a 6oz bottle, which he also hasnt done in months, and is now having a boobie feed.

I'm not expecting miracles - I doubt it'll happen tomorrow as he was so exhausted from last night. Tonight we have my mother in laws birthday BBQ at our local pub but I'm reluctant to get him out of routine so quick so think I'll make my excuses and leave early