Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[bananaz]

Okay so my LO had two appropriately-timed naps and went to bed 15 minutes earlier than usual, so cross your fingers and all other appendages that she will sleep in until at least 5am tomorrow. WTF, how ridiculous is it that I'm HOPING I'll be waking up at 5?! Is this really my life??

 

[seaweed eater]

Active thread today...I'm sorry to have gotten a bit behind! to all. I hope tonight is going well for everyone. Gaia, since I know you're in my time zone, is F in bed yet?

Bananaz, fingers crossed for a nice late morning for you guys

I totally agree with you, Bananaz, and others about how some sleep advice is just useless for some babies...for a while I thought all babies cried and protested those things and their mothers were just persevering despite the crying. But I guess there are some babies who really do just fall asleep. Never seen it, but if you say so!

Things have been a bit better over here. Still not back to where we were a week ago, but LO is at least accepting comfort from DH and crying for only about two intervals. And night sleep has been quite good, sometimes short (9-10 hrs) but usually two feeds, which is great. So, chances are we will press on. However, I did give some thought to what Plan B is in case it does start to seem like we should change course: probably take a break from sleep training for a week, and then give another try to the NCSS "gentle removal" technique. We'll see.

 

[stephie_corin]

We had another terrible night but today I managed to get him down for his first nap 2 hours and 15 minutes after waking rather than the three hours he had been staying awake before. I'm going to rock him and try to prolong his nap beyond 30 minutes.

I would love to do EASY and will keep trying but don't like my chances with this stubborn little baby!

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

 

[stephie_corin]

Okay so my LO had two appropriately-timed naps and went to bed 15 minutes earlier than usual, so cross your fingers and all other appendages that she will sleep in until at least 5am tomorrow. WTF, how ridiculous is it that I'm HOPING I'll be waking up at 5?! Is this really my life??

Hahaha I ask myself the same thing every day!! X

 

[stephie_corin]

Stephie - I know, our LOs seem very similar. Hopefully they will both improve soon.

Noelle - We don't have a room for her to be moved to, unfortunately. We can move the side of the cosleeper up so that it will be harder for her to see us when she does stand up though. We will do that today. I'm still feeding her to sleep at night. Do you think that has anything to do with it? I'm just confused as to why the past two nights have been so awful. Before that we were having 2 night feeds and then maybe 2 other wakeups that just needed shush and pat to resettle her. Not sure what has changed so much in the past two nights.

In order to switch up when I feed her in the bedtime routine, what do I do if she falls asleep when I'm feeding her? Just wake her up and then change her into pjs, story, etc? I'm anticipating lots of fussiness, but I guess that's just how it goes?

I know we always blame teething, but could it be teething making things awful the last two nights?

 

[gaiagirl]

Stephie I know teething had been disruptive for us absolutely!

Bananaz thanks, I agree completely! I have totally vowed to stop reading any sleep books and only come on this thread and a support group for WIO (wait it out) style on FB. It just gets so hard sometimes to not stress about what seems normal for my little guy.

Ok so today...sleepy boy probably because he has been up late the last few days. He took 4 short naps, went down easily for all of them (even one in the car which is unusual for him). The last one ended around 5:30 (usually don't allow it that late but he was sleepy). So 7 rolls around and he rubs his eyes so upstairs we go. Got him all ready and then nursed/rocked until he was almost out then tried putting him down. He woke instantly when I attempted to and so I tried to just rub his head/back and shhhhh him but he became fully wide awake and wanted to play! Rolling around, munching on his feet, happy as a clam. Wtf!? I'm not going to he doing CIO but even if I wanted to...how do you get a baby like this to CIO when they won't cry!?

I tried leaving him in there but he just goofed around sticking his limbs through the crib bars which makes me nervous so I kept going in to reposition him.

At this point he was fully awake and had a total second wind...

Fell asleep 40 min later nursing on the couch while I watched How I Met Your Mother, lol. Then I transferred him to my bed upstairs just to get some alone time downstairs with DH!

Soooo yah same deal. Naps no problem. Seriously no issues transferring him to the crib allllll day. But for bedtime it's a huge issue!

I would think he wasn't tired enough but then why the eye rubbing?

 

[NotNic]

Bananaz - if it helps early self-settlers can still be dodgy sleepers! Finlay has been excellent at soothing himself to sleep, has from almost birth gone to sleep on his own (he stopped getting drowsy after a feed really early) but..... he didnt sleep for very long, was a dodgy napper and an early riser! Far from perfect!

Noelle - what do you mean there's a sleep regression at one year?!!! Eek! I go back to work when he's 11.5 mths. Such bad timing.

 

[NotNic]

Gaia - I've just seen your post. F quite often wants to play in his cot. I put the nightlight on and the dimmer switch right down and sit in the room next door. I give it 5mins or so and then go back in to lay him down. Now he's older if he's playing quietly I switch on the monitor and get on with my chores downstairs. Once its quiet (or if he's calling out for me) I go back in and tuck him in. Sometimes he's just standing quietly at the end of the cot, and is waiting for me to come and tuck him in. Othertimes he's fallen asleep over his toys. You can leave them to ss without crying being part of it. Much more pleasant for everyone if you can sleep train without the tears!

 

[Twister]

Bananaz I agree about the whole drowsy but awake thing. That NEVER worked for my LO when she was newborn, yet it worked for everyone else I know who'd had a baby!?!? Hmmm...

Another decent night last night! Only woke twice. Although when she woke at 3:30 am the monitor was turned down low and she was crying. I don't remember turning it down! So she must have woke three times. I hope she wasn't crying for long

 

[mellyboo]

Bananaz- I hope your night was better last night.

Twister- you had a pretty decent night, the same happen to me last night my mointor was low well i had to sleep with the fan on its so hot here all of a sudden i had the worse time getting to sleep and the sound of the fan with the mointor... wasnt extremely loud!
Usually i leave her bedroom door open so i'll hear her anyways but i've been shutting both doors mine and her's and just using the mointor.



My update.. She woke up once last night, I'm not sure if its the heat that's playing her out we've been spending huge amounts of time's outdoors and walking..I live down town but we never seem to walk because traffic is crazy so we always drive but we've decided to walk more... i think she likes it ...

I also put her to bed at 8 again ? not sure if the slightly later bed time and fresh air before bed is making her sleeping better??

Also she has dropped her feeds like crazy, I've been offering her water like crazy and she will take a few drinks of it and i dont think that would make her drop them this bad she's down to 3 bubba's.

according to my hospital sheet she is only suppose to drop down to 3 bubba's when 8 months and she's a month shy of that.

 

[polaris]

Bananaz - if it helps early self-settlers can still be dodgy sleepers! Finlay has been excellent at soothing himself to sleep, has from almost birth gone to sleep on his own (he stopped getting drowsy after a feed really early) but..... he didnt sleep for very long, was a dodgy napper and an early riser! Far from perfect!

Noelle - what do you mean there's a sleep regression at one year?!!! Eek! I go back to work when he's 11.5 mths. Such bad timing.

Yes, Clara self-settled from about two months old, I just needed to swaddle her and pop her in the basket and she would rub her head back and forth for a bit and drift off to sleep. She was such a great sleeper until she turned four months! I was so sure that I had lucked out this time round.

Re sleep regressions at 1 year - I went back to work when Thomas was 11 months and he immediately dropped all his daytime feeds and went back to waking up at night for a feed. I didn't really feel that I could refuse since he wasn't taking any milk during the day except morning and bedtime feeds. However his sleep then got progressively worse over the next couple of months until I night weaned him at about 14 months. So yeah, even once they are sleeping through it's not all plain sailing! I don't remember a sleep regression at 18 months but he was very unwell at that age and sleeping a lot in general so that might have masked it.

 

[polaris]

We had an absolutely awful night last night. I think due to illness though, either a return of the cold or possibly she's coming down with chicken pox which my older boy is just getting over. Awake crying inconsolably at least every hour (sometimes more like 20 minutes) and usually taking at 30 to 60 minutes to get her to settle back to sleep again. I slept in her room (what little sleep I did manage to get). Horrible seeing her so upset.

 

[bananaz]

Twister - I'm sure she wasn't crying for long if it was still loud enough to wake you. Glad you had a good night

melly - Yay for good nights! How is her solids intake? Maybe that's what's making her drop bottles faster?

polaris - Ugh, that's awful. I remember several members of this thread had babies waking that frequently due to ear infections, which usually happen after colds - maybe something to get checked out if she doesn't start feeling better?


So I got my wish - LO "slept in" until 5:03am. Unfortunately I still woke at 4:30 and spent that half hour stressing about when baby was going to get up

Anyway, I decided to wait it out and she fussed off and on until 6am when I got her up for the day. She never really cried during that time and actually seemed to fall back asleep twice but then woke after 10 minutes and started whining again. Does anyone else's baby do that? I wish I knew what was stopping her from actually falling asleep and staying asleep for another hour or so. She really needs at least 10 hours of nighttime sleep.

 

[mellyboo]

Mine does that some times i actually see her playing in her crib for awhile before she calls me LOL..

Her solid intake is pretty good she is mostly BLW but she does enjoy her food..

I feed her puree for supper and BLW for breakfast haven't introduced lunch yet she has her bubba around 1

 

[Noelle610]

I'm a big believe in the fact that moms are programmed to hear their babies when wake. If they need you, you will know! I don't use a monitor and I hear everything!

Melly, so happy for you! Keep doin' what you're doin!

Polaris, yes do get her checked for an ear infection! They're sleep killers.

Bananaz, good for you on not getting her up until 6am. Keep at it. Her body just needs time to adjust, I think.

Re: sleep regression at 1 year - It doesn't seem to be as big as the 4/8/18 month ones, but I've seen it. Some of our BnB folks have posted about it and some of the moms in my mom and baby group are going through it now. I'm hoping we skip it, because sleep is better than ever!

Re: self-soothing. An important skill for sure, but I'm sorry... If your baby self-settles at 2 months old it's personality and not your parenting. I could NEVER put my girl down awake at that age. I always fed her to sleep!

 

[Shadowy Lady]

eeeek I hope this one year sleep regression doesn't happen to us. Of course that's also when I'm due back at work :/

 

[seaweed eater]

Ugh, 8 month regression is as big as 4?! Is that the same as WW37?

 

[Noelle610]

Ugh, 8 month regression is as big as 4?! Is that the same as WW37?

You know, all of the sleep regressions are different for everyone. And yes, this one is typically referred to as the 8/9/10 month sleep regression and correlates to wonder weeks 37 and 46 in addition to the development of physical milestones such as crawling, pulling up and cruising.

For us, 4 months well hellish, but this sleep regression came and went pretty quickly. We had a few disturbed nights, but STTN sprinkled in too. Sleep was a bit "restless" like it was at 4 months (I'm guessing because they're learning and growing so fast!) but she was better at settling herself so it required less intervention from mom

 

[polaris]

Thanks everyone, I've made a doctor's appointment for tomorrow morning to get her checked out. Her temperature is up and down and her left eye is all gunky as well so I think she has conjunctivitis as well as a cold and possible chicken pox. And a possible ear infection. Poor girl, no wonder she's not able to sleep.

 

[stephie_corin]

I hope she is ok Polaris. Sorry to hear she is so unwell