Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[NotNic]

We had a baad night. In fact we had a bad 24hrs. He woke at 5am but OH got him resettled and he slept until 7am (I should have realised that we were in for a bad day. My son does not do lie ins!!) We then drove to my sisters early, got stuck in traffic and rather than have a cat nap like he normally does on the motorway he made an agitated moan and tried to close his eyes. After an hr in the car, out of nowhere he projectile vomits all over himself and the car seat. We then get into my sisters house and within a minute of being there he projectile vomits again all over her kitchen floor, and is sick 3 more times. Doesn't nap until 11.30 and has 30 mins. Refuses to sleep the rest of the day, or go to sleep until 8pm and was up 4 times before 2.30am. We ended bringing him in with us as I was just too exhausted to console him properly. Today he's off his food and we have very angry gums. At least I'm getting lots of cuddles.

Hope everyone's night was better. xx

 

[Noelle610]

So sorry Notnic! We never get a lie in either

 

[polaris]

Noelle/Polaris/SE/any of the other experts, I forgot to ask in my essay of a post whether the new routine sounds ok?

I'm aiming for 2.5 hours (nap) 3-3.25 (nap) 3.5 bed. We did 2.5 hours this morning and he has already been asleep for an hour which is massive progress (without me rocking him!) as he normally takes 30 minutes now. Xxx

Hi Stephie,
this is exactly the daytime routine that I aim for with Clara, I find it works really well most of the time.

 

[polaris]

Notnic, so sorry that your LO is not well. The only time Thomas would have slept till 7 at that age was if he wasn't well. Hope you haven't had any more vomiting and that he feels better soon.

 

[aliss]

Its gotten so bad Im implementing sleep training tonight. I wont be using CC/CIO but he is clearly dependent on the pacifier/boob in between sleep cycles (hasnt gone 1 hour without waking in several weeks) so for his own sake, I'm going ot have to help him learn on his own. Wish me luck!!! I told OH to sleep in our toddlers room or downstairs for a few nights, I cant do this with him in teh room, he cries and whines more than the damn baby.

I cant leave my toddler to sit and watch movies all day while I fight with the baby

 

[Aimee4311]

Good luck Aliss, we were having the same problem. Putting Josalyn to bed without nursing to sleep has already helped.

Last night she gave me a three hour stretch at the beginning of the night, which is the longest stretch in months.

 

[Noelle610]

Good luck aliss! What technique are you trying?

Aimee, glad to hear you got such a nice long stretch!

 

[aliss]

I'm glad to hear that Aimee, you must feel so refreshed!!!

Noelle- Ummm not sure lol. Since Alex was only on bottles & hated pacifiers, I'm in new territory. I think (what I just did too) is the sleep sack, on his belly in his crib, with the pacifier and a back/bum rub. It probably worked out of sheer exhaustion.

Philippe, all things considered, is actually a fairly adaptable baby. I think part of me has used too many "colicky baby" techniques on him and hence he has gotten into a habit of too many props. It was just natural for me to use them, although I probably did not need to. I don't think it will take long for him to learn or resist, he is certainly not a high needs baby at all and 2-3 days, is probably going to be enough. If I stick to it!

 

[Boo44]

Ok well yesterday was like this:

6.40am wake (yes I know this is not early to many, but for Jack it is creeping earlier and earlier)
10.10-10.55 nap - had to wake him from this as we had to go out
14.25-15.25 nap
Bed at 7.40pm (aiming for half 7 but we were out)
Woke this morning at 6.15.....

I just feel he's overtired and whingey. And today is my first day back at work. I've asked OH to give him a longer am nap and I've heard he had 9.30-10.40. My mum will give him his hour this afternoon around 2.30pm. And I'll aim for 7.20 bed so that If he cries etc he should still be asleep by 7.30

What do you think?

 

[Noelle610]

I'm glad to hear that Aimee, you must feel so refreshed!!!

Noelle- Ummm not sure lol. Since Alex was only on bottles & hated pacifiers, I'm in new territory. I think (what I just did too) is the sleep sack, on his belly in his crib, with the pacifier and a back/bum rub. It probably worked out of sheer exhaustion.

Philippe, all things considered, is actually a fairly adaptable baby. I think part of me has used too many "colicky baby" techniques on him and hence he has gotten into a habit of too many props. It was just natural for me to use them, although I probably did not need to. I don't think it will take long for him to learn or resist, he is certainly not a high needs baby at all and 2-3 days, is probably going to be enough. If I stick to it!

I think that's a great approach!

Honestly, I just think we do the best we can with the experience we have. Don't be too hard on yourself. Alex taught you how to be a mom, it's not your fault your second wasn't just like him!

Consistency is key. All methods work, it's just the parents ability to be consistent that varies. You can do it!

 

[Noelle610]

Ok well yesterday was like this:

6.40am wake (yes I know this is not early to many, but for Jack it is creeping earlier and earlier)
10.10-10.55 nap - had to wake him from this as we had to go out
14.25-15.25 nap
Bed at 7.40pm (aiming for half 7 but we were out)
Woke this morning at 6.15.....

I just feel he's overtired and whingey. And today is my first day back at work. I've asked OH to give him a longer am nap and I've heard he had 9.30-10.40. My mum will give him his hour this afternoon around 2.30pm. And I'll aim for 7.20 bed so that If he cries etc he should still be asleep by 7.30

What do you think?

Sounds good! He might need more daytime sleep.... I'd try an hour/1:10 for the first nap. You could even do 90 minutes for the afternoon nap, keeping bedtime at 7:30pm. Hope it works!

 

[polaris]

Good luck Aliss, I hope it all goes well. Clara is an easy-going and adaptable baby too in general but her sleep is still pretty awful. I think it's hard not to use sleep props with your second anyway because you often just need them to go to sleep quickly because you have to see to the toddler. So you just do whatever works best at the time.

 

[bananaz]

Its gotten so bad Im implementing sleep training tonight. I wont be using CC/CIO but he is clearly dependent on the pacifier/boob in between sleep cycles (hasnt gone 1 hour without waking in several weeks) so for his own sake, I'm going ot have to help him learn on his own. Wish me luck!!! I told OH to sleep in our toddlers room or downstairs for a few nights, I cant do this with him in teh room, he cries and whines more than the damn baby.

I cant leave my toddler to sit and watch movies all day while I fight with the baby

Good luck!! Let us know how it goes, we'll be rooting for you

 

[gaiagirl]

Are my 6 monthers still here or did you all just decide to jump off a bridge? I wouldn't blame you.

We've had some very minor progress, no staying awake for 1-2 hours for 2 nights in a row and I feell like a real person again, but still lots of disturbing wakeups. That's okay, baby steps fine with me.

Hey Aliss. I still try to read through every now and again, but I don't really have anything interesting to post so I just lurk in the background lol. I did see you've had some crazy nights, hope your plan works!

Actually we had a chatting session from 4:30-5:30 this morning which was sooo irritating. But his top teeth are making their move so I think his sleep has been especially disturbed from that! I hope it doesn't become a habit...

He still wakes every 2-3, sometimes hourly if there's something going on. But I don't really think there's anything more I can do sooooo just rolling with it

 

[easyrhumba]

Hello! Its me again with new developments in my babies horrible sleep!
He is fighting his naps sooooo bad.

Saturday we were in the car alot and he had 3 really good naps during the day. Went to bed around 8 and woke up at 11:30 and then slept the rest of the night.

On Sunday he woke up at 6:30.
Napped from 9:30 - 11
Napped from 1-3
Fell asleep very early at 6:30 (which is very unusual) and slept until 12:30 and woke up starving. He guzzled down a bottle and was happy and awake as could be. To my suprise though he fell asleep as soon as I set him back in his crib. He woke up around 3 and then 6 for the day.

When I picked him up from daycare yesterday they said he has taken two naps for a total of 45 min They tried absolutley everything and he just cried and cried. Rubbing his little eyes and yawning.

We got home around 6:30 and he was out. I put him in his crib and slept until 8 and had a bottle. Fell back alsleep and woke up at 11 (husband got him to go back to sleep) . He woke up at 1:30 screaming, I picked him up and he started frantically sucking on my chin LOL so I made him a bottle and he guzzled it down and fell right back asleep and woke up 5 for the day.

Around 7 I tried to get him to go down for a nap because he was very tired. We leave for daycare around 8:15 so I figured if I got him asleep he could get a good snooze in... no that didnt happen. Screamed and rubbed his eyes until we got in the car. If I set him down he would scream, but when I picked him up he would smile and be happy as can be.

When we got to daycare he was almost asleep but when he say the daycare ladies he caught a second wind and was all smiley and hyper again!

I had such a good night routine for months and months and now everything is out the window. Everyday it gets worse and now he wont nap and that is the one thing I could count on.

He has been waking up 3-5 times a night since birth so really Im not concerned so much about my sleep. Im more concernced about him and when he is at daycare.

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

[Noelle610]

Hi easy, what are the napping conditions like in daycare? Is it dark, quiet, etc? How do they soothe him to sleep? How often do they put him down?

 

[stephie_corin]

I haven't read all the other posts, sorry, just wanted to update before he wakes up again. What a disaster. The day was amazing. It went perfectly to plan. 6pm he was asleep in my arms, crept over to cot where he slept for fifteen minutes only to wake... And it took me three hours to get him back to sleep. I'm so tired and frustrated. I guess I cut his awake time from 10.5-11 down to 9 so I can't expect him to settle immediately into the new routine. I'm just so tired. 530am - 9pm full on baby care solo, quick dinner and to bed only be woken all night sorry just feeling really sorry for myself. We have such great days. We play all day, take outings, be physical, do stimulating activites, then the night just goes crazy!! I wake optimistic every morning and go to bed depressed at the moment.

Argh! Ok, rant over! Hope everyone has a great night.

 

[Noelle610]

Stephanie.

 

[Radkat]

Good luck, Aliss!

Boo, going back to work is hard enough. I'm sorry you have to do it during all of this sleep craziness.

Stephie, thanks for the ideas for transitioning to 2 naps and the schedule.

My question is... How do you know when your baby is ready to drop a nap? I'm a little hesitant to mess with her schedule right now because we're going on vacation in a week and a half. I'm sure things will be all over the place there, but we will try to stick to our schedule as much as possible. Is it worth trying to change her schedule now and work on it for 10 days before we leave? Or wait until we come back? I guess that's only if she's actually ready to drop a nap. Hmmm... Any of you have thoughts on this?

Last night was pretty much the same as the night before. Up a lot, difficulty settling. OH did say she didn't do a good nap until the afternoon though. 1st and 2nd naps were minimal, then 1:15 nap in the afternoon.

 

[easyrhumba]

Hi easy, what are the napping conditions like in daycare? Is it dark, quiet, etc? How do they soothe him to sleep? How often do they put him down?

Well for the longest time they could only get him to sleep in a swing and swaddled. I had to put an end to that though because I felt it was hurting the whole crib cause at home. They started putting him in a crib with him swaddled and now he is too big a strong and can bust out of them. He does not take a paci either. They say that the infants are on there own schedules and eat when they are hungry and sleep when they are tired. Im sure thats the problem right there.Although he has a bottle every 2-3 hours and has a little solids in the morning and afternoon. The sleep part though they say they just watch his signs. He used to be pretty consistant 11ish, 2-3ish and sometimes a late afternoon cat nap before I picked him up.

The room is usually quiet (minus some occasional baby crying) with lullaby music playing and they have parts of the day where they encourage naps by turning the lights on low.

I trust them and I the only thing I can do to keep my sanity is hope they are telling me the truth about what they do. Although they could very well be the problem by giving up to soon on helping him soothe