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

[Hanskiz]

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

 

[firefly15]

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

Go Alex!! It's such amazing relief to get a good night!

 

[Gemmamuk]

He's just slept 6-8.20, although I didn't get back to sleep till 7.15 ish - damn arthritis in my knee! Had an amazing night, and like I said - more sleep in one night since before I was pregnant!!! Woooooooooooo!
Feel like screaming it from the roof tops! He will be rewarded with lots of cuddles!!!!

Hope the rest of you had a good night too
X

 

[chocolala]

Wow to the self settling! Lily did that 4 times when she was 6 months old, she tried a few times last week but gave up and asked for boob.

I think this thread is fantastic, it no longer feels like its just me going through this, there are others out there who get exactly how it feels and know all the usual stuff like routine and co-sleeping make no difference.

I'm so grateful to Kosh for starting this thread.

Anyway, our night wasn't terrible, but far from brilliant. I'm really mourning those few nights of only 3 wakings from last week.

We still had an early wake up, to early for the time she went to sleep at, so I think we're going to have to back to getting her sleep around 7pm again, though I suspect she'll just wake even earlier. We shall see.

 

[lisa1980]

Wow Gemma that's great! You must feel like a new woman!

Did you continue with the CC that you started the other night?

Night not too bad for us. Awake many times but able to resettle him quickly which is now more of an issue for me than the actual number of wakenings tbh.

He just WOULD NOT settle for OH last night though. I put him to bed as usualy and he woke an hour later so OH tried to resettle him as we're trying to share the load more.

Anyway, LO wouldn't have any of it. He SCREAMED (on and off ish) for over an hour while poor OH was holding him, rocking him, singing to him, giving him milk/dummy/water/nurofen for teeth.

I tried not to intervene as i didn't want to mess up his efforts but after an hour he gave up and I went in. LO instantly stops crying and goes to sleep in my arms within 5mins (exhausted from all the crying probably). I'm glad he settled so quickly for me but it's really frustrating that he won't settle for his dad in the evening/night. He's FINE with him in the day - an absolute daddy's boy, and he puts him down for naps no problem so I've no idea why all this starts up as soon as the sun starts setting

Hope you all had good nights

 

[Gemmamuk]

Wow Gemma that's great! You must feel like a new woman!

Did you continue with the CC that you started the other night?

Yep I do, although still mega tired to be honest and feel like I could have slept much longer - guess I've got a lot to catch up on

Yes we did, although it only took the initial hour or him crying and going in every 5-10 mins, which I alternated with OH.
When he woke at 12.15, he dropped straight back off when I settled him into position and gave him his dummy.
At 5 wake up he fell asleep on my boob and stayed asleep when I moved him

Hope your LO starts settling better for your OH soon Lisa! Alex is the same - a real daddy's boy but will only come to me when he's tired! Although when it was hot at the end of July we were co sleeping and only wanted OH in the night and he gave me a real dirty look if I tried to settle him and just turned round to cuddle his daddy

 

[flippityflop]

Wow Gemma that's great! You must feel like a new woman!

Did you continue with the CC that you started the other night?

Yep I do, although still mega tired to be honest and feel like I could have slept much longer - guess I've got a lot to catch up on

Yes we did, although it only took the initial hour or him crying and going in every 5-10 mins, which I alternated with OH.
When he woke at 12.15, he dropped straight back off when I settled him into position and gave him his dummy.
At 5 wake up he fell asleep on my boob and stayed asleep when I moved him

Hope your LO starts settling better for your OH soon Lisa! Alex is the same - a real daddy's boy but will only come to me when he's tired! Although when it was hot at the end of July we were co sleeping and only wanted OH in the night and he gave me a real dirty look if I tried to settle him and just turned round to cuddle his daddy

Gemma that's fantastic! I'm so pleased for you. You must feel amazing. X

 

[AngelUK]

I love this thread too! And I am so glad some of your LO are getting better! It is the power of the thread! kosh : hugs: OH had nightwatch and reports that both boys slept from their 11:15 bottle till 3:30 and then after that a few calls from Dom but nothing too bad so I think and pray that we now have our one good stretch of sleep a night back

 

[flippityflop]

Wow Gemma that's great! You must feel like a new woman!

Did you continue with the CC that you started the other night?

Night not too bad for us. Awake many times but able to resettle him quickly which is now more of an issue for me than the actual number of wakenings tbh.

He just WOULD NOT settle for OH last night though. I put him to bed as usualy and he woke an hour later so OH tried to resettle him as we're trying to share the load more.

Anyway, LO wouldn't have any of it. He SCREAMED (on and off ish) for over an hour while poor OH was holding him, rocking him, singing to him, giving him milk/dummy/water/nurofen for teeth.

I tried not to intervene as i didn't want to mess up his efforts but after an hour he gave up and I went in. LO instantly stops crying and goes to sleep in my arms within 5mins (exhausted from all the crying probably). I'm glad he settled so quickly for me but it's really frustrating that he won't settle for his dad in the evening/night. He's FINE with him in the day - an absolute daddy's boy, and he puts him down for naps no problem so I've no idea why all this starts up as soon as the sun starts setting

Hope you all had good nights

We've had that problem Lisa with LO screaming at DH. Although I think ours is a little different as OH never used to out LO to bed so when we tried it he screamed the house down. We're doing bedtime together now that we are able to put LO to bed later and its getting better. Hopefully one day soon I won't need to be there although I like putting LO to bed. I guess at nighttime they just want mummy.

LO took an hour to go down last night because he's ill so of course I didn't do CC. Poor little bud just cried and everytime I picked him up he just fell asleep on me. Although he did then sleep from 8-6.30. Hope he gets better soon.

 

[lisa1980]

Wow Gemma that's great! You must feel like a new woman!

Did you continue with the CC that you started the other night?

Night not too bad for us. Awake many times but able to resettle him quickly which is now more of an issue for me than the actual number of wakenings tbh.

He just WOULD NOT settle for OH last night though. I put him to bed as usualy and he woke an hour later so OH tried to resettle him as we're trying to share the load more.

Anyway, LO wouldn't have any of it. He SCREAMED (on and off ish) for over an hour while poor OH was holding him, rocking him, singing to him, giving him milk/dummy/water/nurofen for teeth.

I tried not to intervene as i didn't want to mess up his efforts but after an hour he gave up and I went in. LO instantly stops crying and goes to sleep in my arms within 5mins (exhausted from all the crying probably). I'm glad he settled so quickly for me but it's really frustrating that he won't settle for his dad in the evening/night. He's FINE with him in the day - an absolute daddy's boy, and he puts him down for naps no problem so I've no idea why all this starts up as soon as the sun starts setting

Hope you all had good nights

We've had that problem Lisa with LO screaming at DH. Although I think ours is a little different as OH never used to out LO to bed so when we tried it he screamed the house down. We're doing bedtime together now that we are able to put LO to bed later and its getting better. Hopefully one day soon I won't need to be there although I like putting LO to bed. I guess at nighttime they just want mummy.

LO took an hour to go down last night because he's ill so of course I didn't do CC. Poor little bud just cried and everytime I picked him up he just fell asleep on me. Although he did then sleep from 8-6.30. Hope he gets better soon.

Poor baby. I hope he's better today. Good on him for still sleeping so well though!

I usually put LO to bed as I quite like it and it's much quicker if I do it, but we're trying to see if OH can resettle him when he wakes in the evening (which he does...lots) as if I go he always wants to BF back to sleep which I'm trying to stop.

We've only started this recently since we've been trying to be a bit more proactive with his sleep habits but it's just amazing that he can be such a daddy's boy in the day but as soon as he's tired he will literally fight to get out of his dad's arms and into mine. He SCREAMS until I come in, which I don't want to do as I know it's going to reinforce it all, but I can't just let him scream all evening and poor OH gets quite downhearted about it all, even though he knows it's obviously not personal. It almost feels like we're doing CIO the way he screams, even though he's in his dad's arms being comforted - it seems to make no difference

Maybe we'll try putting him to bed together to get him used to it for a while and go from there.

We're leaving him with my parents this evening as it's SIL's birthday. I'll have to prepare my mum for the inevitable evening meltdown (we're only 5 mins away so can come back easily if needed). I'm sure she'll be fine, she managed to raise me and I was an awful baby!

 

[oox_tasha_xoo]

Gemma that sounds fantastic! Fingers crossed you have another good night tonight!

The begining of my night last night was definately not a good sign of things to come
She woke SCREAMING at 10.45 wanting my hand as per usual and i refused to let her have it, i kept calming her down but she would keep screaming, after 45 minutes she finally gave in , rolled over and went back to sleep!
Queue her waking again at 1am for half hour screaming.
And again at 3 for 45 minutes of screaming til i gave in and gave her a bottle early.
Put her back in her cot and she woke again at 5 SCREAMING.
So i put her in my bed with me but she didn't go back to sleep.
BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH im dying today

 

[lisa1980]

Tasha

Could it be teething?

Hope you get a chance to have a nap today (although I know that's mainly impossible!)

 

[MrsHedgehog]

Gemma congratulations on the good night! I hope it continues for you.

We had a really terrible night even compared to our usual terrible nights! After skipping her afternoon nap LO was wide awake until 11pm. Not over tired or grumpy, just awake. She finally got sleepy and dropped off around 11. She then woke up at 11.30, 12.00, 12.30 and then every 45mins thereafter until waking for the day at 5.30am

We got up, had a play then went back to bed at 7am. I had to resettle her at 7:30 but then she slept until 10:30am. She was then awake until about midday and she went down for a nap and is still sleeping now, soundly in her cot almost 2 hours later

I just don't get it. At night she won't sleep longer than 45mins at a time but then during the day she'll sleep for ages either in the bed next to me or in her cot. I wondered if it was because we were co-sleeping and nursing to sleep that caused her to wake so often but then she has 2-3 hour stretches as soon as the sun is up. I really don't get it. She is obviously able to self settle because during her naps now and again she wakes slightly but she just rolls over and goes back to sleep.

WHAT THE F*** is going on???????

 

[lisa1980]

Gemma congratulations on the good night! I hope it continues for you.

We had a really terrible night even compared to our usual terrible nights! After skipping her afternoon nap LO was wide awake until 11pm. Not over tired or grumpy, just awake. She finally got sleepy and dropped off around 11. She then woke up at 11.30, 12.00, 12.30 and then every 45mins thereafter until waking for the day at 5.30am

We got up, had a play then went back to bed at 7am. I had to resettle her at 7:30 but then she slept until 10:30am. She was then awake until about midday and she went down for a nap and is still sleeping now, soundly in her cot almost 2 hours later

I just don't get it. At night she won't sleep longer than 45mins at a time but then during the day she'll sleep for ages either in the bed next to me or in her cot. I wondered if it was because we were co-sleeping and nursing to sleep that caused her to wake so often but then she has 2-3 hour stretches as soon as the sun is up. I really don't get it. She is obviously able to self settle because during her naps now and again she wakes slightly but she just rolls over and goes back to sleep.

WHAT THE F*** is going on???????

I sympathise with this. My LO seems to be able to nap like an absolute star in the day (didn't when he was younger but suddenly sorted it himself around 6 months).

He just had a 2 hour nap where he went down awake but sleepy without fuss in his cot, slept soundly with a couple of stirrings where he put himself back to sleep, and awoke happy, babbling in his cot cheerfully for 5 mins before I went to get him.

At bedtime he fights sleep, wakes every 30mins-hour crying and screaming and won't resettle easily, can't self-settle AT ALL. I've no idea why this is - I just can't work out why it's so different when the surroundings are exactly the same

I even tried leaving a light on in case he was scared in the dark, and TV for daytime noise but it made no difference.

I'd love to have an answer for you but I've literally no clue why this happens.

 

[MrsHedgehog]

Gemma congratulations on the good night! I hope it continues for you.

We had a really terrible night even compared to our usual terrible nights! After skipping her afternoon nap LO was wide awake until 11pm. Not over tired or grumpy, just awake. She finally got sleepy and dropped off around 11. She then woke up at 11.30, 12.00, 12.30 and then every 45mins thereafter until waking for the day at 5.30am

We got up, had a play then went back to bed at 7am. I had to resettle her at 7:30 but then she slept until 10:30am. She was then awake until about midday and she went down for a nap and is still sleeping now, soundly in her cot almost 2 hours later

I just don't get it. At night she won't sleep longer than 45mins at a time but then during the day she'll sleep for ages either in the bed next to me or in her cot. I wondered if it was because we were co-sleeping and nursing to sleep that caused her to wake so often but then she has 2-3 hour stretches as soon as the sun is up. I really don't get it. She is obviously able to self settle because during her naps now and again she wakes slightly but she just rolls over and goes back to sleep.

WHAT THE F*** is going on???????

I sympathise with this. My LO seems to be able to nap like an absolute star in the day (didn't when he was younger but suddenly sorted it himself around 6 months).

He just had a 2 hour nap where he went down awake but sleepy without fuss in his cot, slept soundly with a couple of stirrings where he put himself back to sleep, and awoke happy, babbling in his cot cheerfully for 5 mins before I went to get him.

At bedtime he fights sleep, wakes every 30mins-hour crying and screaming and won't resettle easily, can't self-settle AT ALL. I've no idea why this is - I just can't work out why it's so different when the surroundings are exactly the same

I even tried leaving a light on in case he was scared in the dark, and TV for daytime noise but it made no difference.

I'd love to have an answer for you but I've literally no clue why this happens.

I've tried leaving the light on too*and tried pretending LO is just going for a nap but she's too clever for that! I'm sure there must be some really logical explanation that we're missing, probably something really obvious! I've even tried ditching the bedtime routine to try and 'surprise' LO into sleep! It's like she realises bed time is coming once we start the routine and so she suddenly wakes up again!

 

[kosh]

gemma - wow 5 hr!! I'm sooo jealous!!

flippity - hope cormac is better. gael is teething and feeling quite rough too.

tasha - could there be anything wrong with your LO? teething? wind pain?

I usually put LO to bed as I quite like it and it's much quicker if I do it, but we're trying to see if OH can resettle him when he wakes in the evening (which he does...lots) as if I go he always wants to BF back to sleep which I'm trying to stop.

we're trying this too,but works,maybe 20% of the time i think we should persevere..

mrs hedgehog - sorry you had such a bad night.

chocolala - our osteopath got back to me yesterday, said the national osteopath website was down and will get back to me asap

wanted to share what happened this afternoon - was trying to get Gael to nap, he was very tired but quite relaxed - so I laid in bed next to him and started stroking his forehead and nose, very slowly and after a couple of minutes, he actually fell asleep!
I felt like a snake enchanter!!

 

[AngelUK]

I want to cry this morning. Back to horrible I guess. Fed the boys at 11, was up again and again trying to settle Sebastian between 00:30 and 1:30, Dom cried at 2 and I had to rock him back to sleep, fed them at 3, Dom cried at 4 and then between 5 and now I have been trying to settle one or the other. Fed Dom and changed him just now and I think he has dropped off but Seb will probably wake any moment pretending to want to eat and then refusing to. I am also worried he will start leaking any minute but I don't want to wake him. Maybe I will go to bed for 10 minutes. I feel like dying.

Yep tried giving Sebastian the bottle and he started fidgeting and when I insisted he started crying even though he hasn't had a whole bottle since 11 last night. I had to step away.

 

[Lulu1982]

I've only just seen this thread and have/had a terrible sleeper. She has never slept longer than a 2 hour stretch. She used to have t be rocked or held to sleep, then we had to rock her Moses basket. For the past 4 months we have been stroking her face or holding her hand.

She naps brilliAntly ... I pop her in her cot after a short book and she takes herself off without even moaning! Bedtime can take anywhere up to 3 hours unless I face stroke, belly rub, hand hold etc until she's fast asleep.

I started CC on Monday ... I was always adamant that I wouldn't but I've been back at work over 2 months and am on the verge of being dismissed if I don't up my game

Bedtime has been rough, she had to get up and get changed last night as although she didn't cry any tears, she screamed in anger so much I had to change her pyjamas. It took 3 hours of me leaving er for short intervals, settling her and shushing her fro. The corner of the room for her to finally fall asleep ... And she slept through!!

Monday she did her normal ... Bed at 7 and then up every 45 minutes until midnight ... Fed a 1, then a hour to settle, up at 3, then 5 and up for the day at 6.30. That's a standard night for us, even a fairly good one I'd say! Tuesday was the same.

Wednesday she did 8pm until midnight, fed but took 2 hours t settle and slept until 5 but wouldn't go bac down after and I gave in and got her hat 6.30. Thursday was similar.

Friday she slept 7.30 until 3am!!! Had a feed and was bac to sleep within minutes, then got up at 7am ... The best night we have ever had by far.

Last night she took hours to get off to sleep but then slept through until 7.30!!

I was up all night checking on her and checking the monitor was working!

I'm still a bit shocked! She's woken up the happiest I've seen her in e morning. I can't say I've been good over CC, I've been a complete mess, ive hated every minute, but it certainly seems to be working for us and the difference in her this morning is unreal.

I feel for all of you, I didn't know tiredness like it cou.d exist and it's so hard, I lost count of the amount of nights I sat in her room crying. I'm intrigued to see how tonight goes.

Hope some of you start seeing improvements soon.x

 

[AngelUK]

Lulu sounds like it is working really well for you. Can I ask, when you shush from the corner of the room, is she still crying at that moment? I am not sure that CC is for us cause Dom doesn't take for ever to settle as such, he just keeps waking and crying and as long as we nip that in the bud really quickly, he usually falls asleep again with just a lil rocking. But if we let him cry he will start tantruming and screaming and going totally crazy would then definitely wake Sebastian who then tends to cry also. :/

 

[Claireyb1]

well, my night went like this. went down at 7pm,woke up at 8pm and then a further 2 wakes in the space of 30 mins. Then she slept all the way until 1.30am,had a quick feed and went back down until 3.30/4am (not too sure what time it was exactly?? was half asleep as per usual ) she then slept until 6am when it was time to get up.
so all in all not a bad night at all
Hope everyone else's nights weren't too awful.
I wonder how "Dame Kosh's" night was?