Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[socitycourty]

yes, MOTN party is a real killer. I'd rather have that chunk of sleep then be forced to wake up in the middle of the night and then stay up

 

[bananaz]

I'd take STTN/early wake-up over MOTN party/sleep in any day of the week.

Totally agree. Elsie's recent pattern has been STTN 7:30pm-5:30am and while I hate that early wakeup it was still waaaay better than last night when she was up for an hour at 3:30am and then slept in until 6:30am. If there's one thing having a bad sleeper has taught me, it's the value of uninterrupted sleep!

 

[bananaz]

Aww notnic we are suffering here too! Jack has bilateral conjunctivitis And a snuffly nose. He also has the remnants of last week's awful hacking cough. Oh aaaand he just keeps sprouting teeth - 5 in the last 9 days!! His cheeks are on fire lol

Oh my gosh, poor thing! Well maybe he's getting all of this stuff out of the way at once so he'll have a nice long stretch of healthy, teething-free time soon?

 

[Shadowy Lady]

yep I take sttn and early wakeup over MOTN party as well. MOTN's are the worst!

Boo - OMG that's a lot of teeth! Poor Jack! Sofia still has no teeth yet her sleep gets messed up randomly...I'm scared of the nights we will have when teeth are coming :/

Bananaz - aaaa the 3:30 am MOTN must have been a killer. Hope you rest well tonight.

Things were bad here last night. Sofia had a bit of diarrhea which has cleared mostly but then she woke up this morning at 3:30 am crying and whining. We finally checked on her after 20 mins and noticed she had pooped (which hadn't happened in 3 weeks or so). After being changed, she took another 1.5h to go down finally. Then this morning I noticed poor thing has a diaper rash She has never had one before and now screams everytime her diaper is wet and during diaper change

I took her to the doc and she said that the rash cream should take care of it in a few days but for now things are shitty! She's been asleep since 6:30 pm and it's now 10 pm but I know she will wake up at some point due to diaper burn poor thing. This is the most I've ever heard her cry on a given day since she was born. It's just been heart breaking for me :'(

 

[gaiagirl]

Poor baby!!!!!!! I recommend naked tummy time!!!!

 

[seaweed eater]

Wow, poor Jack I hope his mouth gets some respite soon!

And poor Sofia! hope the rash clears up soon. Poor babies and poor mamas!

I went to baby group today for the first time in a few weeks and everyone stared at me in horror and pity when I described the nap transition we are going through. Apparently they all have perfect nappers! For real. But what did make me feel better is that I asked one of them with a baby about Munchkin's age to describe her nap routine, and it was, in every detail, exactly the same as ours...so, clearly, different babies are different.

There was also a discussion of CIO that you guys might have found interesting. The consensus among those who have tried it (which was all of the moms of babies > 8 months) was that the name is unfair, and that it should be renamed "giving your baby the wonderful gift of sleep."

 

[VikkiD]

Lo slept well Monday night I had one moan out if him around 2 gave him his teddy an he went back sleep till 6. Last night he went bed 7:15 was awake for an hour from 1.20 tried teddy,bottle, calpol as his cheeks were burning nothing settled him so I sat for 20 mins on the rocking chair will him an he went sleep heard him again around 3.30 but he settled himself till 6:30

 

[Boo44]

Yes he only had his bottom front two for the last 2 months. Then all of a sudden got his top front 4 and an extra one next to the bottom two! Has totally changed his appearance lol.

I agree with you all that motn parties sound much worse! I just need to be smart and go to bed early so that I still get a good stretch of sleep before he's up! We have to have the monitor this wk on holiday as he's on a different floor to us. I have to say I haaate having a monitor on!! It makes a static noise every time he so much as breathes and totally disrupts my sleep!

 

[Noelle610]

Charlotte is sleeping a-okay, but for some reason I keep waking at like 3:30am/4am and can't go back to sleep! I am sooo tired. I'm just ready not to be tired anymore for whatever reason blah.

 

[polaris]

I don't want to jinx myself but for the last few nights I have been getting Clara up when she wakes 45 minutes after bedtime, i.e. treating it like a third nap instead of bedtime. I've been putting her back down again by 8.30. It could be a fluke but she has been sleeping so much better on this schedule! It goes against everything you read about early bedtimes being better, but with the late third nap at about 6 p.m. and bedtime at 8.30, she has been sleeping straight through till 7 with only one waking for a feed!

She'll probably be up every hour again tonight though, now that I've said she's sleeping better. LOL. I think she is actually teething now, I can feel one of her bottom teeth under the gum.

 

[Noelle610]

That's great Polaris!

 

[charlie15]

That's great Polaris! Hope it stays like that for you.

I also hate MOTN parties, I think it's because there's so little that you can do about them.

Sorry about nappy rashes, teething babies and poorly ones. Seaweed, seriously all of them said their babies had no sleep problems! What a lucky bunch!

Noelle, yey for good nights! But sorry you're not sleeping well, that happened to me last night which was my night off! Boo.

Naps with S are getting better, but now getting her to sleep has got harder! She use to be out like a light at 7 pm but since tackling naps she no longer is like that! Now it's more common that it takes ages to get her to sleep! I don't know, I'm thinking it's a developmental thing, she'll be 6 months in 2 weeks and seems to be developing so much recently. Other than that nights are the same with one feed waking before midnight and then random wake ups after that. However tonight my OH managed to get her to sleep without the dummy am hoping it makes a difference tonight!

 

[MiniKiwi]

Poor Sofia Keep her nappy off as much as possible, just letting her bum dry off after a wet wipe is good too. Lots of cream should clear it up in a day or two. I hate nappy rashes!

Noelle, hope you get a better sleep tonight You deserve that!

I'm another that'd take the early waking over a motn party..any day of the week! I despise motn parties

We had a good night last night, bed at 7:30pm, wake up briefly at 10:45 and 2am and up for the day at 5:30. I'm so looking forward to the day that she can just get herself up and grab some breakfast and watch cartoons

 

[seaweed eater]

Polaris, that's wonderful news!! Babies are so different from one another. Trial and error is always scary but it sounds like it really worked for you in this case! I'm glad!

Noelle, hope you have a better night tonight

Charlie, how'd it go after your LO settled with dad? Did that make a difference?

Mini, glad things are going well

I really need to find a way to extend LO's naps. His teachers at daycare expressed concern today about how fussy he's been this week. They are not sure why but they said they assume it's from the napping stuff. He had two 50-min naps and a late mini nap today, which I would have said was pretty good, so clearly this schedule is not working for him quite yet. But I swear he wants those long wake times and seems undertired if I try to put him down earlier. Argh! I've never been able to extend his naps by trying to sooth him back to sleep, because he wakes up bright eyed and cheerful. Wake to sleep "worked" once out of seven times I've tried it, but I think it was a coincidence (and it backfired twice). I'm out of ideas. Do I just have to wait until he starts napping for longer on his own?

Poor guy.

I'm feeling really tired today. A good night would be nice.

 

[bananaz]

We had a good night last night, bed at 7:30pm, wake up briefly at 10:45 and 2am and up for the day at 5:30. I'm so looking forward to the day that she can just get herself up and grab some breakfast and watch cartoons

You know we're going to have the kids who wake up early and come jump on us until we get up with them on the weekends, right? There's no way we're going to get away with cartoons and making their own breakfast

 

[bananaz]

I really need to find a way to extend LO's naps. His teachers at daycare expressed concern today about how fussy he's been this week. They are not sure why but they said they assume it's from the napping stuff. He had two 50-min naps and a late mini nap today, which I would have said was pretty good, so clearly this schedule is not working for him quite yet. But I swear he wants those long wake times and seems undertired if I try to put him down earlier. Argh! I've never been able to extend his naps, because he wakes up bright eyed and cheerful. Wake to sleep "worked" once out of seven times I've tried it, but I think it was a coincidence (and it backfired twice). I'm out of ideas. Do I just have to wait until he starts napping for longer on his own?

Poor guy.

I'm feeling really tired today. A good night would be nice.

I was never able to extend naps except when my LO was super teeny, I just had to wait it out unfortunately. The good news is that your baby is getting to the age when daytime sleep should start to organize and consolidate, but it will probably take some time before it becomes consistent. Hang in there

 

[polaris]

Seaweed eater - DS was an awful short napper between 4 and 6 months (45 minute naps but waking still tired and cranky) and I was never able to extend his naps despite trying everything. He started napping for longer stretches at about 6.5 months, I didn't do anything different, it just happened naturally so I think in his case it was just developmental. Fingers crossed your LO will start napping for longer stretches soon.

Clara went through a phase of ultra-short napping too (20 minute naps) but I think for her it was related to general over-tiredness and not being able to get to sleep or stay asleep and it resolved pretty much immediately we started sleep training.

The one thing I have learned from having two kids is that they really are all different and apparently similar problems (e.g. short napping) can have totally different causes and different solutions!

 

[Leids]

Anyone have any information on getting little one's to sleep in a crib after bedsharing for almost 11 months?

He's waking very frequently (but going back to sleep). I honestly think he would do better in a crib.

Problems I'm having:
*The crib is firm, our mattress is not firm. I think this is a big one. If I put him down in his crib, he realizes a difference immediately. Any ways to make the crib not firm? I put a blanket underneath the sheet to try to make it a little softer but it didn't quite work out. Not worried about SIDS as he's pretty much entirely past that.
*Waking up and not seeing me. Has anyone overcome this issue? I was debating getting him a doll (or something with eyes that looks human like) for him to sleep with.
*He's used to falling asleep nursing, and not being moved afterwards. I think this is a somewhat big one. He can and does occasionally fall asleep without being nursed though and being rocked. He does not self settle. If I start CC/PuPd in his crib then I'm afraid he's going to have negative associations with it and never sleep there. If I do any sleep training then I'll need it to be after he's transitioned to the crib.

We're about to move and right now my DH and I sleep in 2 separate beds. we won't have the luxury of doing that once we move unless he sleeps on the couch, which is mean. I would prefer not to bedshare because DH smokes (very much trying to get him to quit atm) and because the bed simply isn't big enough. We could splurge and buy a king sized bed but with buying a house I don't want to crack into my savings much more right away!

 

[Noelle610]

Hi neighbor!

Honestly, I think he needs to learn to self-settle. This is a great article:

https://www.troublesometots.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-sleeping-through-the-night-part-i/

Let’s put this in perspective. Imagine going to bed in your bedroom. A few hours later you wake up on your front lawn. Would you simply roll over and go back to sleep in the grass? Or would you stand up and start screaming? Would you demand loudly to be let back into the house so that you could sleep in your bed? Do you think you would be freaked out by the mysterious force that somehow carried you out to the lawn?

Your baby is reacting to the surprise of finding out that the circumstances they observed when falling to sleep is no longer the circumstance they are finding when they wake up. There are lots of different surprises that can result in a baby who wakes up all night long.


Putting baby down 100% asleep
Pacifier use – fell asleep in mouth, wake up not in mouth
Mobiles or other timed devices – on when fell asleep, off when wake up
Music used at bedtime but not played all night long
Mommy/Daddy stay in room till baby falls asleep but then sneak out

Now you and your baby are up all night. Even worse, their longest window of uninterrupted sleep probably occurs before you even go to bed so now you are literally up all night.

You can pick any method of sleep training you want, but CIO/CC will have the quickest results. I don't think you'll create negative sleep associations. I have many friends who have used this methods and their kids sleep just fine. You might want to try and get him used to the crib first while awake - maybe play with him in there and make it fun. I also think a lovey is a great idea. My daughter has a little blankey that she cuddles. Create those positive assocations first and then teach him to fall asleep on his own.

 

[Noelle610]

Our night was shitty. Charlotte is really congested and she half-woke multiple times. On top of that, bedtime as been such a fight lately. She's been throwing all of her stuff (blankey, pacifiers, etc) out of her crib, screaming and then laughing when I come in to "save" her. It's very frustrating because I work a really long day and after bedtime is my time to relax and enjoy some alone time with my husband.

I know it could be so much worse. As I was putting her back down at 4am, I thought, "Don't complain, because you know just how bad this could be". But the truth is I am still tired and really feel the need for some alone time. I just need a break. Sorry, feeling a bit down today.