Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[Noelle610]

Seaweed, defintely the ibuprofin!

 

[seaweed eater]

Twister, how's it going?

 

[polaris]

DS's schedule was very similar to Charlotte's, except that he was always awake by 6 a.m. at the latest and usually in bed by 6.30 p.m. Naps were 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. so far as I can remember (but maybe 1.30, not sure now).

DD's schedule is similar except that she tends to sleep later in the mornings.
At the moment at 8.5 months:
Wakes: usually between 7 and 7.30.
Nap 1: 10 to 11 (if she wakes earlier than usual she will nap 9.30 to 11)
Nap 2: 2 to 3.30
Bedtime: 7 p.m.
What happens after that is totally unpredictable from night to night! But at least she's in a good routine in the daytime now!

A good routine during the day is great... You can have some predictable alone time!

LOL, some predictable one-on-one time with my three year old! No but a good routine during the day is still good, even if I can barely remember what alone time is!

 

[bananaz]

LO only had one hour-long nap today and has been really grumpy and tired all afternoon. I'm wondering if it would be appropriate to put her to bed a little early, and if so, how early? A half hour? An hour? I realize this is probably a silly question but I usually just stick with her bedtime regardless of how the day went. Given how she's acting I'd put her in bed right now if I thought I could get away with it lol

 

[Aimee4311]

Tonight I've tried 2 things new with Josalyn.

1. I didn't let her nurse herself into oblivion like normal. Normally I get her mostly sleepy, then she wants the boob again for comfort, so I give it to her. Then I chill in bed with her playing on the internet on my phone for 30-45 mins while she's happily latched. Not tonight! I left my phone in the other room, put her to sleep without the boob and laid her down.

That leads me to 2. I laid her on her stomach. I've only done this once before, and I'm wondering if part of the reason for all the wake ups is because she's uncomfortable.

Of course I'm paranoid about her sleeping on her belly even though she's 6 months old. She's only been in there alone 10 minutes now and I've already checked to make sure she's still breathing twice!

 

[seaweed eater]

Bananaz, I would have said at least half an hour, I think, but that's just a guess. What did you end up doing?

Aimee, I know what you mean about belly sleeping. It still makes me nervous, especially since we had to stop using the Angelcare for now (since he sleeps up at the top of the crib and it keeps going off) and he doesn't know how to roll back yet. But he does sleep better that way. I hope Josalyn does too. It's really good that she was able to fall asleep without the boob tonight!

 

[Aimee4311]

It wasn't painless, but it was better than I thought it would be! I've never refused when I knew that was what she wanted til now. Three times as she was drifting off she started rooting, but I didn't give it to her. So she started screaming. But each screaming session was shorter than the last. So I'm hoping this semi-night boob weaning won't be too painful!

 

[bananaz]

Tonight I've tried 2 things new with Josalyn.

1. I didn't let her nurse herself into oblivion like normal. Normally I get her mostly sleepy, then she wants the boob again for comfort, so I give it to her. Then I chill in bed with her playing on the internet on my phone for 30-45 mins while she's happily latched. Not tonight! I left my phone in the other room, put her to sleep without the boob and laid her down.

That leads me to 2. I laid her on her stomach. I've only done this once before, and I'm wondering if part of the reason for all the wake ups is because she's uncomfortable.

Of course I'm paranoid about her sleeping on her belly even though she's 6 months old. She's only been in there alone 10 minutes now and I've already checked to make sure she's still breathing twice!

Good luck! Those are some big changes, I hope you see good results

 

[bananaz]

Bananaz, I would have said at least half an hour, I think, but that's just a guess. What did you end up doing?

I was going to do an hour but she got a second wind after her bath so it ended up being just a half hour early. She was soooo ready to go down though, she conked out immediately. Here's hoping she doesn't wake a half hour early!

 

[seaweed eater]

Glad it was better than you thought. Hopefully it will be even easier from here!

 

[Aimee4311]

I don't want to jinx it, but it's already been longer than it normally is before her first wake up. She's been asleep an hour and its usually 45 minutes. Fingers crossed!

Bananaz- I hope she doesn't wake up early!

 

[stephie_corin]

Hi Aimee! That's great news

We had a predictably bad night. Around midnight I bought him into our bed and ended up snuggling and feeding and rocking in bed most of the night. I know it's not ideal but I'm so tired, just being able to lie down and feed him makes a difference.

I feel like I'm textbook doing everything wrong at the moment but I need to do those things to survive.

Twister how did the sleep training go?

 

[stephie_corin]

Bananaz, I would have said at least half an hour, I think, but that's just a guess. What did you end up doing?

I was going to do an hour but she got a second wind after her bath so it ended up being just a half hour early. She was soooo ready to go down though, she conked out immediately. Here's hoping she doesn't wake a half hour early!

I suspect she will wake up at her usual time, I find with Cully his sleep is like a pie that's always the same size, just cut into different sized slices during the day and night. If he has really short naps I've put him down at 530 and long naps at 7 and his waketime is the same. Good luck!! (One 1 hour nap?? That's rough!)

 

[stephie_corin]

Stephie, I can't say for sure that the Monday night fiasco was due to teething pain, although it seems likely given that the tooth cut the next morning -- but Munchkin did settle when held and then scream when put down. So I don't think the pattern you are describing is inconsistent with teething. But I think it is consistent with a lot of other things as well. Sorry, that's about the least helpful response I could have written, maybe?

Last night wasn't bad. We gave a dose of ibuprofen at 7:30 and LO woke once before 3:30, but then every 45-60 mins. 3:30 is when the dose was supposed to wear off, so I'm thinking it may not be a coincidence? I don't know how to tell whether to give him another one. He was actually not difficult to put down, just, as NN said, never seemed to really sleep deeply afterward. Will probably give a second dose after 8 hours tonight.

Not unhelpful at all! Thank you! I didn't end up giving pain medication. I can actually see the teeth under his gums, it's so strange, but they haven't cut through yet.

How many teeth does your boy have? Have any popped through yet? I hope tonight is better for you! X

 

[Aimee4311]

Hi Stephie! Sorry it was a bad night.

Josalyn slept 2 hours before her first wake up. 2! Josiah and I actually had some time together (minus me going and checking her breathing every 5-10 minutes )

 

[stephie_corin]

Aimee, I do that too! We have a video monitor and if its been an hour since he woke I stare intently at the screen and if I don't see him breathing I have to go check (because who would believe our babies are actually sleeping, right!)

Glad you guys had some nice adult time xxx

 

[Twister]

Hi everyone!

Sleep training went great. It was so unbelievably hard but she slept so much better when she was finally asleep.

She woke half an hour after falling asleep as usual and it took 3 attempts of cc to get her back to sleep properly. Every time she fell asleep she'd wake 5 mins later. It was so hard not to go in and nurse her. Eventually she went to sleep at 8pm and stayed asleep till just before midnight when she woke for a feed, and then slept till 4am when she woke for another feed! Then slept till 7am! She also settled really well after the feeds when I put her back in her cot and didn't cry like she usually does.

 

[MrsButterfly]

Yay twister! Bet you feel great for some sleep too.

 

[Boo44]

Twister that is so great! Well done mama

 

[stephie_corin]

Wow, what great progress!! That's awesome twister, really happy for you.