Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[AmyS]

I'm dreaming of watching an entire episode of the new Vampire Diaries without having to run upstairs because baby boy is about to climb off the bed!

Amy, I'm so sorry you are struggling with insomnia. I get it too - it's hard to switch your mind off sometimes. I find reading before sleep really helps me unwind.

I've been looking for a good book to get into, that just might be the ticket to winding down for the night.

OT - But are you a VD fan???? My favorite show! Yes, I know how old I am. But seriously, I love it. And not just for the hot looking men.

 

[polaris]

Update - I finally tried the 4.5 hour wake-time before bed and it worked really well! Hard to stretch her for the extra half an hour and she was getting really tetchy by the end of it, but it only took me 15 minutes to settle her which is really unheard of recently! Thanks for the suggestions everyone and for encouraging me to try it. Hopefully it keeps working! It would be just an added bonus if she sleeps well tonight too but I don't want to be too optimistic.

Sorry for not commenting on others' posts, will try to come back and comment later.

 

[gaiagirl]

Amy, he's wearing a diaper still!!!!!! Omg I would not let him just poop directly INTO the exersaucer...

Vampire Diaries huh? I keep seeing it on Netflix, maybe I should try it! I'm nap hostage often enough!

Polaris that's great! I hope tonight goes well

 

[polaris]

SE - What time are daycare trying for his second nap? Might he need a longer wake-time or maybe a shorter morning nap? Could you post his current approximate schedule? I think the second nap is generally harder to achieve than the morning nap so it might be worth trying to have him take the morning nap in daycare if you want them to do sleep training with him there. Just because in my experience they generally settle much easier for the first nap of the day.

Amy - so sorry you are having a hard time sleeping even now that Chloe is. There definitely is an adjustment period and I actually never went back to sleeping as well as I used to before having Thomas. Hopefully your sleep will settle down soon!

Stephie - arggh, just as well you are keeping a close eye on the video monitor! Hope you are enjoying the holiday and that your DH is beginning to unwind now after such a hectic work schedule in the lead up to the holiday.

Bababas - Clara always did the 45 minute wake-up too so I could never get out in the evenings. Now she has finally started doing 2+ hours in the evenings (yay!) so I thought I could finally get out to a class, but she's not actually going to sleep until 8.30 which is too late! Clara won't take a bottle at all, we have given up.

Gaia - LOL at getting bunged up from BM and blueberries! It is a big adjustment for their system though starting on solids. I do remember Thomas's sleep was quite disrupted by digestion issues while he adjusted to eating solid food. Clara's sleep was awful when she was starting solids too but when is it any other way? LOL.

 

[bababas]

Bababas - Clara always did the 45 minute wake-up too so I could never get out in the evenings. Now she has finally started doing 2+ hours in the evenings (yay!) so I thought I could finally get out to a class, but she's not actually going to sleep until 8.30 which is too late! Clara won't take a bottle at all, we have given up.

yay that the 4.5 hr stretch worked wonders hope it continues.

yea all i dare to do is go to the pool which is a 3 minute drive (i would so rather wanna walk). ofcourse i drive so i can be home early so that OH wont be home with grumpy aron in case he wakes up. luckily he didnt today.

oh i gave up on this bottle thing i have pumped myself when i go somewhere with ds1 and OH is at home with aron, but most just gets to waste. it is like he only wants to nibble 20ml. ones he drank though, but it never happened again. i gave up, but still i leave OH with pumped milk just in case.

 

[AmyS]

Gaia - You made me laugh so hard! I assumed he was wearing a diaper - I just meant Chloe makes a mess when she jumps around while pooping! She manages to get it everywhere. WITH a diaper on haha

And yes you should watch Vampire Diaries! It's addictive!

 

[stephie_corin]

Vampire Diaries is fantastic! Even DH loves it!

Polaris, I'm so glad the longer wake time worked for you! x

 

[seaweed eater]

I'm sorry I've been such a terrible thread citizen. This week has been very busy, and I'm very confused. LO is barely napping and seems tired during the day, but he is sleeping much better at night. Last night was actually the best one ever (asleep 7-4:30 and 5-6, and I got my longest stretch since he was born, too). Is it possible that he's too overtired to be waking up at night? I didn't think that was possible.

He was at daycare the whole day yesterday and he had one 35-min nap in his crib. Which is a success, but one that's hard to get excited about! I can't really rearrange my schedule next week to go in and sit with him while he SS for all his naps, and I'm not going to ask them to sleep train him without me there. I'm not comfortable with it.

Hope you are all feeling well today and had a good night last night

 

[AmyS]

I'm sorry I've been such a terrible thread citizen. This week has been very busy, and I'm very confused. LO is barely napping and seems tired during the day, but he is sleeping much better at night. Last night was actually the best one ever (asleep 7-4:30 and 5-6, and I got my longest stretch since he was born, too). Is it possible that he's too overtired to be waking up at night? I didn't think that was possible.

He was at daycare the whole day yesterday and he had one 35-min nap in his crib. Which is a success, but one that's hard to get excited about! I can't really rearrange my schedule next week to go in and sit with him while he SS for all his naps, and I'm not going to ask them to sleep train him without me there. I'm not comfortable with it.

Hope you are all feeling well today and had a good night last night

We are going through the same thing with very short naps at daycare. Yesterday, she had two 30-minute naps, and the other day she took one morning nap for 35 minutes. And she is sleeping really good at night. Weird, isn't it? Not at all what we've read to expect!

Maybe by the time you are able to sit with him to SS, things will have gotten better on their own! I would call 35 minutes a success too, since it is progress in the right direction.

Glad you got a nice stretch of sleep in last night!! That's the best!!

 

[Noelle610]

I'm sorry I've been such a terrible thread citizen

This made me LOL

I just wanted to throw some sympathy out for the short naps.

Charlie has been a victim of short naps or NO naps at daycare recently. She has always slept with her buddy. They're the same age (Jane is one day older than her!) and they used to comfort each other. They napped so well together! Now it's a huge distraction. They just stand in their cribs and talk to each other. And if one wakes early, it wakes the other. It's awful! My provider wants to separate them, but she has limited room.

Thankfully she's still STTN, but I worry it will start to catch up to her. She's had a lot of sleep cries early in the evening and I know she's overtired. And she's a fussy mess before bed. Yuck.

 

[stephie_corin]

SE, Amy and Noelle - I'm so sorry about the short day care naps! That would be a huge source of anxiety for me so you have my sympathies.

SE, wow - munchkin is just sleeping so well at night!! That is amazing! I know you said he is tired during the day but I'm convinced some babies do need less day sleep. Anecdotally, good friends of ours have a chronic cat napper who used to take 2 x 30 minute naps and STTN. I hope Munchkin either gets used to the short naps and is back to his happy self or you are able to sort his naps out at day care. Big hugs to you both.

Amy, I hope gorgeous Chloe sorts her naps out too, but congratulations on the great night sleep! Have you finished season 4 of VD? I'm up to episode 6 and this season is fantastic!!

Noelle, that is such a cute story!!! I love the thought of the two of them napping together and now chatting away at nap time. I can totally see them as naughty teenagers!


Things with us seem to change on a daily basis. I'm sure his front teeth are so close to cutting through. He's been consistently taking a short cat nap around 830am and a longer 1.5 hour afternoon nap around 12.30 and pushing through for a 5 hour awake time before bed. Last night he was up and down all evening trying to crawl off the bed (Gaia - please take a video monitor on your trip!! It's so scary having them on a high bed!). He finally settled at midnight and slept through until 3am! And then after a feed and some rocking, slept trough until 530am!!! It could be similar to the short nappers and he was just too tired to wake, but that 3 hour stretch felt amazing!

Seychelles is really great, the fresh air is wonderful and I am drinking lots of fresh coconut water! It's lots of fun... The local guys sell them on the beach and hack them open with a machete in front of you. Cully is loving practicing his new straw drinking skills with the coconuts.

Oh, one exciting development I forgot to mention: since shaking up his routine he is now breast feeding at 830ish, 1230ish and 7ish... But I am having some success with an afternoon feed around 5pm! I'm so pleased!! It's the first time he's feed at a non-sleep time for months and months.

Hope everyone is well xxx

 

[gaiagirl]

Stephie that's fantastic! So glad you are having a good time! I can't imagine F only eating at nap time. I swear the other day he nursed 7 times in 12 hours...how I'm going to work 7-4 in 4 months is beyond me...

Also glad to hear vacation with a baby can still be awesome! I'm already nervous that Hawaii in March will just be exhausting and no fun. Lol.

I asked the hotel next weekend about the bed on the floor and they were pretty thrown for a loop lol. We may just put the mattress on the floor ourselves. OR just use the crib mattress on the floor. I am bringing our foam bed bumpers too and also we can use our tablet and an iPhone as a video monitor!

 

[polaris]

Just a quick update - the longer wake time before bed really seems to be working well. This evening I brought her up after 4 hours 20 minutes and she nursed to sleep and was fast asleep within 10 minutes! A few other factors: her tooth is also fully through the gum now and she is 47 weeks old so we are just coming out of a WW and I also managed to get a fan for her room so it's a bit less stifling up there. So between everything, tonight was the easiest bedtime in a long time!

Stephie, so pleased that you are having such a lovely holiday. Just as an aside, Clara usually only nurses at naptime and bedtime. She does have the occasional random feed during the day but not every day, so most days she only has three feeds a day (plus numerous night feeds). I guess maybe if she would take more milk during the day she wouldn't need to feed so much at night. But to be honest I'm just letting her do her own thing and trusting that it will all sort itself out with time.

Sorry to hear that so many babies are suffering from short/no naps at daycare. I do think it must be hard for them to settle to sleep in a daycare environment especially once they are a bit older and nosier! Interesting that they all seem to be sleeping well at night though!

 

[Noelle610]

Every time Charlie takes an hour plus to fall asleep I think of you girls

 

[seaweed eater]

Stephie, Seychelles sounds amazing! So glad you're enjoying yourselves. Glad to hear about the extra daytime nursing session, too!

Gaia, Munchkin nurses/takes bottles 7-8 times in 13 hours most days (and sometimes it's more). It just requires a lot of pumping, but it can be done! Also, it seems like F is doing better with solids so maybe that will be replacing a little more of his milk by the time you go back.

Polaris, hooray for easier bedtimes! Hope it continues!

Noelle, what's going on? I hope everything is ok! I couldn't help smiling at the description of C and her buddy at daycare, but I'm sorry it has meant crummy naps!

Poor Munchkin has a fever today he just woke 20 minutes after falling asleep so I'm a little scared for tonight. At least we had a few good nights in between.

 

[polaris]

I take it all back - the B&B curse got me good last night! We had a really terrible night and I really have no idea why. She was just really unsettled, waking very frequently and unable to get back to sleep for ages. I did give pain relief even though I don't think she is teething but it didn't seem to help much. Sometimes I just run out of reasons why she's not sleeping. I really hope it was just a once off or I will be picking all your brains for suggestions.

 

[Noelle610]

NOOOO BnB curse. I think Charlie is just in this weird transitional phase where 2 naps are too many and 1 is not enough. She woke at 7 yesterday and then napped from 9:30-10:30 and again from 1:45-3:30. So of course she wasn't tired enough to sleep at bedtime. For some reason, I just find that really stressful!

Sorry about the fever SE- hope tonight goes well! Sometimes Charlie sleep better when she's ill, so perhaps that will be the case for you.

Stephie, very jealous of your vacation! So glad you are enjoying yourself.

 

[seaweed eater]

Aww Polaris, I'm sorry you had such a rough night. Really hope it was a one off and tonight is back to being better.

Noelle, darn nap transitions! I can understand why you would find it stressful that she's not tired at night. It's hard when you can count on that to be a special, relaxing time and instead you have to worry about it!

Munchkin has never been a baby who sleeps better when he's sick, and last night certainly followed the pattern...hoping for a better one tonight!

 

[gaiagirl]

Awwww Polaris that is rough! So hard when things take a step back. I'm sure it'll just be a blip and she will be back on track.

SE I hope Munchkin is feeling better today! That is another thing I'm not looking forward to about day care - the germs!

Noelle, I get stressed over battling bedtime too, obviously since I write about it constantly here! Lol. I know I have lots of nap transitions ahead so maybe I should just get over it. Soooo hard though!

Ok so to avoid the BnB curse ill word this carefully. We had some good and some bad last night. F took forever to settle for bedtime, even though he was clearly tired. But once he fell asleep at 8:30 he slept until 1:30!!!!!!! For him, that long of an evening stretch is unheard of! Night was great after that too, even though we tried cloth and had a leak by 7am. It didn't wake or disturb him though.

So I know this wont be every evening but I was so pleased with him!

 

[seaweed eater]

Gaia, that's wonderful! Stay away curse!!

Munchkin had two colds in a row right after he started daycare, but then nothing until this. I was expecting he'd have something every three weeks for months at least! He missed most of the winter cold season though so next year will probably be pretty bad for us.

Poor LO, such a rough day. He can't stay asleep at all. Broke down and gave him ibuprofen during the day, he was just soooo miserable. I really hope this is the worst of it and it starts getting better on its own.