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

[AngelUK]

Oh my gosh how does that boy function on so little sleep?? I would have thought he'd make up for it in naps but not even that? Have you asked a doctor about this? Sounds unhealthy to me even if he were an adult! I wish I understood babies. I hope you get this sorted soon you poor thing, for Alex' and your sake

 

[Gemmamuk]

Every time I take Alex to drs for anything and mention sleep, she smiles and says 'I did warn you to stock up on sleep when you were pregnant'! And the male gp said 'don't worry, you'll know what your doing with the next baby'.
How I didn't punch him in the face I don't know!!!! Must have been shock!
Health visitor has been as useful as a chocolate teapot to the point I told her his sleep problems were resolved so she would stop ringing and turning up with ridiculous suggestions, and making me feel stupid! "Have you tried keeping the room dark?". Felt like saying "no - we keep it floodlit you stupid woman!".

 

[Gemmamuk]

Really hoping that its the changes with me going back to work, and that it will sort itself out soon....

Oh is staying in the room with him in the night, so I'm managing to sleep from about 1, until 6am. Although when he's really going for it he does wake me up with his screaming.
So I'm getting around 5 hours a night, but then I sleep in with him fri & sat nights so OH can lay in and catch up on sleep. So I don't get a lay in myself, or much sleep really
And sat I was shattered and went for an afternoon nap, and OH actually moaned at me!!!

 

[Claireyb1]

hugs Angel and Gemma
we are currently in sleep hell too. Lucy is waking every hour or more and just wants to suck on my boob constantly we have also had major meltdowns at bedtime the last few nights too.....just for good measure.
I guess if any of us had the answers we would 1. not be on this thread and 2. would be off on some tropical island spending all the money that you would make selling "the sleep cure" lol

Alex does sound hardcore!!! you'd think that someone would take it more seriously or give more helpful advise. All I ever get is do CC/CIO......not very helpful if you ask me.
Now it looks like Lucy has another cold so that will mess her up even more now.....and just as she was getting back to full health too

How are you Firefly,mrshedgehog and Ramie?

sleepy dust ladies.

 

[AngelUK]

Claire you poor thing too! Have you considered giving her formula in the evening to see if perhaps she would last longer? Not sure about your stance on the whole BF v FF issue but having to nurse her all night sounds sooo exhausting!

 

[Gemmamuk]

To be honest, I'm way past the losing my sanity stage. A lot of the time he's happily nattering away in his cot to himself so I leave him to it. I popped in to check on him the other night and he'd reached and grabbed a lot of his teddys off the bed, lined them up in front of his and was chatting away like he was having the best conversation ever!!! He was grinning from ear to ear at them, so adorable!!!
Everyone keeps saying to leave him too it if he's happy on his own and go to sleep, but how can I when he's nattering away on the monitor! And I need to be awake and alert for him to listen out for him.

He does sometimes cry, but I'm having to leave him to it as I only have the evenings to shower, and do my washing etc now that I'm back to work, so I leave him and go back every 10 mins to check on him as I have no option....I can't go to work unwashed, in dirty clothes,with no lunch
Anshe still cried wether I'm sat with him or not, because ultimately he is complaining about being in the cot, when he'd rather be downstairs playing!!!
So it's not like I'm neglecting his needs.

Weirdly, he always sleeps well when he stays at SIL's and quite often sleeps through for her. It's just me he's playing up for

 

[Claireyb1]

Claire you poor thing too! Have you considered giving her formula in the evening to see if perhaps she would last longer? Not sure about your stance on the whole BF v FF issue but having to nurse her all night sounds sooo exhausting!

Oh Angel,if only it were that simple! Lucy will not and has never taken a bottle so formula isn't really an option and she will only drink water from her sippy cup.
She isn't really feeding at night, just more comfort sucking.She can't seem to go from one sleep cycle tot he next and when she wakes she can't get back to sleep....then the demands for my boob come into force
I'm so at a loss as to what to do? she actually slept really well when she was ill,so I know she can do it, but wouldn't wish her to be ill just so she sleeps

 

[Noelle610]

Just popping in to say hi! I'm a mom to a formerly (and sometimes currently!) bad sleeper, so I stalk this thread sometimes because I relate

Gemma, I will say that your situation does sound quite dire. Mostly because it doesn't sound to me like your LO is getting nearly enough sleep. I'm sorry your doctors haven't taken you seriously! Could your request to be referred to a sleep clinic? I wonder if it might help. I agree with Claireyb that CC/CIO really doesn't seem to be the answer here.

Hope you all get more rest soon!

 

[Claireyb1]

Just popping in to say hi! I'm a mom to a formerly (and sometimes currently!) bad sleeper, so I stalk this thread sometimes because I relate

Gemma, I will say that your situation does sound quite dire. Mostly because it doesn't sound to me like your LO is getting nearly enough sleep. I'm sorry your doctors haven't taken you seriously! Could your request to be referred to a sleep clinic? I wonder if it might help. I agree with Claireyb that CC/CIO really doesn't seem to be the answer here.

Hope you all get more rest soon!

Hi Noelle,I know you also have a thread about sleep on baby club
How is the sleep now and what if anything did you do to improve things?

 

[Noelle610]

Just popping in to say hi! I'm a mom to a formerly (and sometimes currently!) bad sleeper, so I stalk this thread sometimes because I relate

Gemma, I will say that your situation does sound quite dire. Mostly because it doesn't sound to me like your LO is getting nearly enough sleep. I'm sorry your doctors haven't taken you seriously! Could your request to be referred to a sleep clinic? I wonder if it might help. I agree with Claireyb that CC/CIO really doesn't seem to be the answer here.

Hope you all get more rest soon!

Hi Noelle,I know you also have a thread about sleep on baby club
How is the sleep now and what if anything did you do to improve things?

Hello, I do have quite a thread going in baby club! There are quite a few moms on this site who struggle with sleep, so we are certainly not alone.

Things did start to improve for us around 7 months. Charlotte has bad reflux and was eating a ton overnight and it was making the whole situation worse - it was basically a cycle of wake - eat - reflux - wake - eat - reflux. It was awful. Instead of reducing her feeds as most babies do as they get older, she was increasing them. At the suggestion of her pediatrician, we night weaned. That seemed to really decrease night waking. I think it was twofold - primarily, her reflux improved because she wasn't eating all night and laying flat. But also, she started eating more during the day and waking less for feeds.

Anyway, I truthfully think a lot of it was time as well. We also have bad nights still. Charlotte will STTN for three nights and then be up hourly one night! There's no pattern. I just think babies go through so much - from teething to illness to developmental milestones - and some are much more sensitive to it, including my girl. Since she began sleeping better the tough nights are so much easier to handle, because I know it's not forever. I think the worst part about the consistently bad sleeping was that I couldn't see the end of the tunnel. It's so hard to be exhausted and not know if and when you will get some rest.

to all!

 

[Ramie]

Nights still the same for us I'm afraid Although he seems to be actually feeding more during the night The last few nights I've had to change him as he's absolutely soaked through. He used to just have a quick suckle back to sleep every time he woke, but now for some reason he's having mammoth feeds! He obviously needs this otherwise why would he be doing it??? I try my hardest to get him to eat more during the day, but a lot of the time he'll only have a couple of bites of lunch/dinner etc. Tried him on cows milk in a cup but again not interested. I think he now thinks nights are for feeding, days are for playing

Noelle - Hi, you said you night weaned, how on earth did you do this? I wish I could do it but I'd be afraid of the tears and couldn't handle that. Were you bf and cosleeping? Also, may sound like a silly question but how did you know your LO had reflux? Is it obvious? Could my LO have developed this??

Gemma really hope you have a breakthrough soon. What is the set up when Alex sleeps at your SIL's, is he in a cot?

to everyone else

 

[Noelle610]

Nights still the same for us I'm afraid Although he seems to be actually feeding more during the night The last few nights I've had to change him as he's absolutely soaked through. He used to just have a quick suckle back to sleep every time he woke, but now for some reason he's having mammoth feeds! He obviously needs this otherwise why would he be doing it??? I try my hardest to get him to eat more during the day, but a lot of the time he'll only have a couple of bites of lunch/dinner etc. Tried him on cows milk in a cup but again not interested. I think he now thinks nights are for feeding, days are for playing

Noelle - Hi, you said you night weaned, how on earth did you do this? I wish I could do it but I'd be afraid of the tears and couldn't handle that. Were you bf and cosleeping? Also, may sound like a silly question but how did you know your LO had reflux? Is it obvious? Could my LO have developed this??

Gemma really hope you have a breakthrough soon. What is the set up when Alex sleeps at your SIL's, is he in a cot?

to everyone else

Hi Ramie! I'm sorry you're not getting much sleep right now.

We went cold turkey with a dream feed. I did the dream feed because I still wanted to feed once in the night, but wanted to respond consistently to all night wakings. My LO is super smart, but also very stubborn, so I knew that consistency was the key.

Honestly, there was a lot of crying. I just soothed her through it. Rocking, back rubbing, etc. But there was a lot of crying prior to the night weaning because she was waking often, eating tons overnight, refluxing badly and just plain old overtired. So in the long run, I think there was less crying overall after we changed up our night routine.

I exclusively pumped, so not feeding directly from the breast or cosleeping. I imagine it would have been much, much harder had I been in this situation. I believe the "No Cry Sleep Solution" has some great tips on moving from breastfeeding and cosleeping to independent sleep. Might be worth a read?

In terms of reflux, my LO was diagnosed when she was only a few weeks old. She was very colicky - lots of crying, tons of projectile vomit and very little sleep. Some babies do have silent reflux without the spit up. When I brought her to the doctor, they sent us to a local hopsital for a test called a barium swallow. They take xrays as your LO drinks this mixture and they can see if there is evidence of acid reflux. The catch on the test is that it only really works to diagnose if your LO is refluxing at the time of the test. A baby can have reflux but test negative. She then was put on medication, which worked well but not perfectly. I have not heard of babies developing reflux when they are older, but I certainly think it often goes undiagnosed. It could be worth looking into if your LO seems to be in pain!

 

[kosh]

why am I not getting the notification emails?
i thought noone was posting here any more!

no time now, I have to pick up my little man from nursery. will read/reply alter on

 

[MrsHedgehog]

Just when I thought we were getting somewhere with LOs sleep she decides to find another way to drive me crazy! We finally had LO in a better routine, going down in her cot at a reasonable time, napping well and waking up at a reasonable time. She was still waking a lot but it was bearable. And now she's decided to start fighting sleep at bedtime. It's been taking hours to get her down when usually she's pretty easy. I don't know what to do. She only naps once a day for 1 1/2 hours. I think she doesn't realise there are only 24hours in a day. She wants to sleep 12 hours at night, then stay awake 4.5 hours before napping for 1.5 hours and now she wants to stay awake another 7 hours before going to bed. So for example today she woke at 9am but refused to go down until 10pm which means tomorrow she'll want to sleep until 10pm and go to bed at 11pm and so it'll go on. I don't want to cut down her nap because she gets really grumpy if she doesn't sleep long enough and if I wake her up an hour earlier in the morning she's cranky all day and will sleep badly at night. Her times just don't add up. It's driving me crazy. What are you're LOs awake and asleep times?

 

[Ramie]

Noelle - thanks so much for your reply, very interesting. Looks like things have worked out well for you now. Don't think I can night wean yet though - maybe when he's eating more in the day perhaps. I really don't mind feeding him in the night as it's so easy, it's just when it's every hour!

MrsHedgehog - My LO wakes for the day between 7 and 7.30, he'll then have about 3 hours awake with his first nap around 10am, then 4 hours awake with another nap at around 3pm. His bedtime is 7pm and he goes to sleep very quickly. Naps are between 30 mins to 1 and a half hours.

 

[Ramie]

Kosh, how are things going with you?

 

[Claireyb1]

Noelle - thanks so much for your reply, very interesting. Looks like things have worked out well for you now. Don't think I can night wean yet though - maybe when he's eating more in the day perhaps. I really don't mind feeding him in the night as it's so easy, it's just when it's every hour!

MrsHedgehog - My LO wakes for the day between 7 and 7.30, he'll then have about 3 hours awake with his first nap around 10am, then 4 hours awake with another nap at around 3pm. His bedtime is 7pm and he goes to sleep very quickly. Naps are between 30 mins to 1 and a half hours.

Ramie,seems our LO's are pretty much on the same schedule re sleep and wake times etc
I have no idea how I would go about night weaning without lots of tears and even less sleep???

xx

 

[firefly15]

Hi all! We were having slightly better nights with less crazy awake time in the middle of the night, which I think is due to more teeth finally cutting through. We now have 3 molars so only 1 to go (until the next ones!). Unfortunately LO had a tummy bug on Friday night which had him up being sick literally all night he was really poorly and sorry for himself yesterday but thankfully better today, with the exception of awful exploding nappies! We had a fab night from him last night, sleeping 6.30pm-1.30am and then awake again at 5.30am then back down til nearly 8am. I just wish it wasn't due to him feeling so rubbish, but I'll take any decent nights we can get at the moment!

Sleepy dust to everyone

 

[Claireyb1]

Firefly we too had great night due to LO being poorly, but like you it is a shame it is because they were sick and not just because it is going to be the new routine!! lol
I think we have very disturbed sleep due to the teething - can't believe we still only have 2 bottom teeth??!! surely some new ones must pop through soon?? I'm sure her 2 top teeth are nearly about to break through, but I've been saying that for a few months now

xx

 

[kosh]

Kosh, how are things going with you?

we are up and down last week we had a marvelous night where he slept 4hr then 2x 3hr then 2x 2hr!!! that's almost like STTN to me!!
then the following night, up almost every hr again....
then back to the usual up every 2hr......which I guess is awful for some but to our standards I think it is not that bad

as noelle said, i think babies go through sooooo many things, from physical stuff, ilness, teething, etc, to developmental, crawling, walking, to emotional, separaxion anxiety etc etc and some seem to be more sensitive than others, which is reflected in their sleep

that's my theory at least

we are not ready for night weaning either I think
sometimes I am ok with it all, sometimes i want to bang my head against the wall..............

sleepy everyone