Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[bababas]

so Aron got a bottle (first bottle) before sleep.

but we had a bad night. i wonder if it is coz i sleep near him or co sleep

bed 8:30pm
BF 10:ishpm
BF 11:30pm
then again again, so i stopped counting, prolly 6 times by 3am

then he woke up again, but this time i just changed his diaper and went to the bathroom. he continued to sleep, fell asleep by himself for another hour then boobie again.

dont remember much, maybe 2 more BF then woke up 800am.



i wonder if it was coz i went early to bed. and he was disturbed. or it is just the 26WW.

or, well yesterday i only fed him downstairs. (he got used to feed on the bed, coz OH and ds1 were in vacation for 1 month, and he just wouldnt drink otherwise) so yesterday he was not much interested in BF, neither BF in bed. like he just wanted/was more interested in the world, maybe thats why he drank so much at night.... any idea?

 

[bababas]

today drinking went well on the sofa.

sometimes i just think i think too much, and aron is just pretty random. like he just has good days and bad days.... i will try again tonight to let him sleep alone in the room. (which i already have tried. * sigh just wont give up )

 

[AmyS]

polaris - So exciting that Clara is walking now! I hope her sleep starts improving soon for you - I bet once she gets the walking down good, she'll start to sleep better.

bababas - Wow, he took the bottle good,huh? Sorry for the rest of your night though, it sounds rough! I think we were closer to 7 months old before Chloe came out of that wonder week.

NotNic - Great update! That's a lot of teeth in one weekend though - ouch! And walking too!! How exciting for him!

Stephie - I saw you had a rough night too! So sorry! Hope you can get some sleep during naps today! Give him lots to chew on today so he can break that next tooth out.
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Daycare naps went better yesterday! Half an hour in the morning, and over an hour in the afternoon - both in her crib. My mom is watching her today though, so I'm sure she will snuggle her for all naps - hopefully it doesn't ruin daycare tomorrow! I don't mind if Mom doesn't try to put her down - I understand the need to cuddle.

Nights are still good here - she typically needs me once a night, and the rest of the time she self soothes. I watch her on the monitor, and when she wants me, she will crawl over to the side, pull the mesh bumper down, and look around for me. When she doesn't need me, she just fusses a little and rolls around to get comfortable again. I'm very proud of her!

 

[stephie_corin]

Polaris, sleep has to get better for you soon! Clara's birthday tomorrow! Woohoo! I hope you guys have a fantastic day!

NotNic, I'm so glad things are going so well for you guys. That is a lot to cram into a short amount of time - I'm impressed his night sleep stayed so great! What time is he taking his one nap? Is it still in the am? You must be enjoying the 'sleep-ins'

Bababas, you poor thing! What a horrible night! It could be crawling or the wonder week - 6 months is such a tough age! There is so much going on, it's really hard to pinpoint exactly what is causing night wakings. Did he seem in pain, or just awake?

Amy, what an amazing update from you! Chloe is adorable. I love that you can see when she wants you. You must be feeling so happy! I'll keep my fingers crossed that being snuggled for naps today doesn't impact naps at daycare.

Well, we had another one nap day! He woke at 630am, napped from 10.30-12.50 and has just fallen asleep at... 7.45pm! That's almost 7 hours awake. And he was in good form. From 7-7.30 he was giggling and crawling around the bed looking over his shoulder waiting for me to 'catch' him and tickle him. I'm sure he could have stayed up longer but I ended up rocking him (under much protest) to sleep.

I really hope he sleeps well tonight and his tooth stops bothering him. I told DH that I wouldn't give pain relief tonight no matter what, but I've decided if he's waking frequently again I will give him some pain relief. I'm going to go with SE's one week maximum and then I will give his body a break 'no matter what'.

I hope everyone had a lovely, sleepy night

 

[NotNic]

Still going down at 11am and having 2hrs, though a few times we've needed to go out during nap time and we've managed to hold off the nap until 1.30/2pm. He's been tired during lunch, but apart from that coped well. I think it's been a matter of timing with him. Dropping 98% of the time to one nap means he's having a longer deeper sleep night sleep which has just helped him manage. He cries in his sleep, but it wakes me not him!

Also I have a confession, I didn't notice the teeth come through until they were there. He was grizzly, but nothing extreme. He has a new trick. When I tell him off (he's a naughty pickle) he puts his hands in his mouth, cries and pretends his teeth hurt. That week he was especially pickly and so got told off a fair bit and I didn't realise his mouth genuinely was sore. Oops - mummy fail!

 

[polaris]

Notnic, if they were really sore then you would definitely know about it! Thomas was like that, he was never very bothered by teething, I often would only notice the teeth when they came through. Whereas Clara honestly seems to be in agony with them for ages before they appear. Congratulations on the walking, it's exciting isn't it?

Amy - so glad to hear that daycare naps are going so much better. You must be so relieved, that was so stressful for a bit! Also that her night time sleep is still so good, yay!

Bababas, sorry you had such a bad night. I think you are right that they do just have good days and bad days and sometimes it's not easy to find a reason. Clara doesn't nurse well during the day at all and she definitely makes up for it at night. I do wonder sometimes if I am disturbing her by co-sleeping but she tends to wake even more often than usual if I'm not there (e.g. if I stay up later than usual).

Stephie, I really hope tonight goes better than your recent nights. Can't believe he stayed up for almost 7 hours!! And was still in good form at the end of it! Thanks for the birthday wishes - it's actually not until Saturday (24th) - we are just having a small family get-together with a nice dinner and birthday cake etc. My mum is coming over from the UK so I am looking forward to having her here for the week. And then the first week in September Thomas will be starting preschool! I am excited and dreading it at the same time!

 

[bababas]

AmyS - your nights sound great

Stephie - he did not seem in pain. just the usual whining. if i give him the pacifier he screams. just whining for boob coz when he gets it he is off to sleep again. but he was rather drinking a lot, which might be to the fact that he drank so little during that day. coz i BF him on the lazy boy again since the big boys are not on vacation anymore.

NotNic - congrats to the tooth. If I remember correctly after ds1 had 4 teeth i kept less attention on it. and forgot to write down when they came


Tonight I gave Aron a bottle again (i think i gave him too little milk seemed like he wanted more, but seems like he wants to fall asleep on it. so i gave him the pacifier he was not so happy. 2 minutes of complaining and he fell asleep. i felt bad about it though). he has been drinking well during the day today. we had 3 naps today. but a long one around 1pm, since I fell asleep too then all in a sudden it was 3pm. but i felt so well rested sleeping alone in the other room. so he had a short catnap at 5pm.

i think i will just go with the flow. i have realised he has good or bad days randomly. doesnt matter if i drink coffee, i have blamed the coffee, so i havent been drinking any for 6 months. then i try again, but the same night he only wakes 3 times, for example. so i feel like i am trying to find something to blame.... or something to fix it. he is just like that. he is super cute, that makes me happy just hope for a good night today and that he grows it out. prolly will go back to this thread after 1.5 years when i want a 3rd baby and scream NO haha.

 

[bababas]

polaris - yes i am leaning to stop thinking to much about it. there just are bad and good days. just one thing though.... i just noticed a new thing. he always seems to bang his head in his crib. and that wakes him up. maybe i can experiment one more time having him in my bed waaaaa

 

[lysh]

Wow...lots to read and catch up on! My birthday went well...the day itself was nice! I went for a pedicure which I have not done since being pregnant.

gaiagirl- I agree with what you said about just being consistent right now- until our babies are verbal, it is sometimes hard to be 'strict' with things!

bababas- Ouch....I remember nights like that. You must be exhausted!

Amy- Glad to hear the nights are going well!!! That is cute that she pulls the mesh bumper down looking for you!

Stephie- I know it is hard to sometimes decide whether to give pain relief or not. I do sometimes give it to LO- when I notice she is having a ROUGH day (beyond normal teething pains) I give it to her. I once did not give it to her and she was up constantly and miserable. Usually I find there is only 2-3 days where she is THAT miserable....the rest is manageable.

Notnic- I do not know about your LO, but my LO barely allows me to even look in her mouth, so if my LO did not have big teething symptoms, I probably would not know either!

My girl took a 50 minute nap this morning in her crib and then another hour on me. She woke up at noon though and did not nap again! Usually her bedtime routine starts at 7:30 and she is in bed by 8....she was SO tired that we pushed it up a half hour. So it will be interesting to see if her night is really crazy (just hoping we do not have another 4am morning!)

 

[gaiagirl]

Well, it's 10:40 and I finally just wrestle/pinned/nursed him into submission...

Not sure what went wrong today. Nothing out of the ordinary...he was fussy though and has really seemed teething-ish so gave Advil before bed at 7. He slept for 30 min latched on then was WIDDDDDE awake. Ahhhh, deja vu. We have been here!

 

[stephie_corin]

NotNic, I've got a friend in the UK with a girl a similar age to Finlay and she also takes a morning nap and dropped her afternoon nap. It's interesting! It sounds like you have a rascal on your hands what a cutie!

Polaris, I must stop commenting in my sleep deprived state... Clara shares a birthday with my mum I hope Saturday is wonderful for you guys. Enjoy spending time with your mum, too! I also couldn't believe he was awake for so long. I think WW 46 is causing the current nap craziness.

Bababas, I'm glad you're feeling ok about sleep. I agree, it's hard not to look for something to blame when sometimes the bad sleep just is bad sleep. I've spent the last 6 months looking for something to blame but the reasons change so quickly, I think it's a mystery that I'll never solve! I'm glad you snuck in a nap!

Lysh, that's a long time for her to be awake. She did well! I'll keep my fingers crossed that the night goes really well and she sleeps until at least 6am!

Gaia, oh no!!! That's such a late bedtime. How frustrating for you. I feel irrationally robbed when I don't get some time to myself. Do you think he is napping too long in the day?

As for us, I thought we were in for a terrible night. He was awake crying at least 6 times between 7.45-11, when I came to bed. I had the pain relief ready to go but he nursed around 11.30pm and he only woke 3-4 times until 6am! And they were easy wakeups too - I managed to snuggle or feed him lying down for each waking except for 1. It was amazing! I hope we have another good night tonight! I think we are in for a bit of a wait with the second front tooth. It doesn't look like it's cutting through the gum at all.

 

[NotNic]

Thank you for the reassurance. Normally F is a horrific teether. He screams and wails, and his gums bled with the first two molars. The only thing I can think of, is that now he has so many teeth through the pressure has eased off so he didnt react in the usual way. He's also dropped the dummy for a lot of the time now. He has it for night sleep and naps in the cot, but not for naps on the road. Nursery have been really good at limiting it as he was using it for reassurance again. We do allow him to have it when he's ill or the teeth are bothering him, but we have a good system.

Stephie - don't feel bad about medicating. F has had so much pain relief medicine. As long as you stick to the guidelines on dose and frequency, you will not harm him. The limits on the packets are way, way lower than levels of medicine that could cause any harm. Not allowing
your son to feel pain and giving him a chance to sleep are all good things.

Polaris - happy birthday Clara! That's gone quickly. Any plans for a third

Gaia - consider it a minor blip. Normal service will resume shortly. I think they through us a bad night just to keep us on our toes.

As for everyone else - sorry to hear that bad nights are kicking your behinds. Stick with it. I'm hoping F and the fact almost none of the original mamas need the thread anymore gives you some encouragement that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Not perfection obviously, but sleep does manage to work it's way into getting somewhere near normal eventually. Big hugs xx

 

[bababas]

this threads birthday is soon as well nov 11. how is noelle? anybody knows.

lysh - hope she didnt wake up too early

gaiagirl - so sorry for the late bedtime. could it be like something like his inner clock. now i dont know much about it. just also have some friends whose kids just wont go down until 10pm. hope though he just grows out of it.

polaris - have a great saturday!

talked to my neighbour with 5 kids. her boy has the same nights as Aron. yey, im not alone.

about his crib. i really think he doesnt know how to sleep in his crib. he likes to move a lot. i heard it yesterday.... a big bang. he just always bangs his head on it really loud, then ofcourse wakes up and screams. so we have been trying the crib for a week now and he has been waking like 10pm earlier than usual. maybe i just try my bed tonight. see if that stretches it better. thats the last thing i am gonna try. after that i will stop wondering

 

[polaris]

Bababas, Clara was like that when she was sleeping in the cot, she kept rolling around and bumping her head and waking herself up. She moves around so much in her sleep. When we sleep on the futon, in the morning we are often facing completely the other direction because she moves around the bed and I follow her in my half asleep state! I did think it's one reason why she didn't sleep well in the cot but she doesn't sleep any better in the bed, so maybe not?

We had a much much much better night last night - she slept from 8.30 p.m. until 12! and then just two or three brief wakings I think, I didn't even wake up properly for them because they were really short. We both slept in until 7.30 a.m. so she went for her first nap late at 10.30 and is still sleeping now at 11.45. I think I am just going to let her sleep and see what time she wakes up. I'm sure she will probably need a cat-nap later on.

 

[lysh]

Polaris- Yay for a decent night's sleep!!! My lo did that early/long nap yesterday.

bababas- I know crib bumpers are considered bad now, but what about mesh? I know they are not well padded, but maybe help a little bit? Poor baby!

NotNic- There is light at the end!! My dd wakes up early, but she typically STTN now!!! Naps are our struggle, but I would rather take on nap challenges than night challenges!

Stephie- I am impressed how positive you sound, must have still been an exhausting night for you!

gaia- dd would have these occasional weird nights too where she was hard to settle for unknown reasons.

So baby girl slept until 5! 7:30-5 is not bad for her...9 1/2 hours is a long night for this one! So I cannot complain. However, it is 7:20am and she is catnapping in my arms which is unusual- did this twice this week.

I have an inservice for my job today, so dd is getting a transitional day with my SIL who watches her a few days a week when I am back at work- she never naps well there so curious what I am in for later.

 

[polaris]

It's 1 p.m. now and she is still asleep!! So maybe today will be a one nap day. I have had such a relaxing morning as OH brought Thomas swimming so I've had a few hours to myself. Got all the washing done and I finally got round to backing up all the photos on the external hard drive, yay!! Have been putting that off for ages. OK my life sounds really dull now, LOL. But these little things make a big difference sometimes.

Stephie, I forgot to comment on your post earlier. I am sooo happy for you that you had a better night, even if the early evening was still rough. Hopefully the acute teething phase is over for the moment and you will have a bit of a breather before tooth number 2. Just shows you that it was definitely the right decision to give pain meds the other night. He must have really been in pain since he slept so much better last night now the tooth is properly through.

 

[bababas]

polaris - yea im not that hopeful, just gonna try and see. prolly it is just the WW26 anyway.
happy for your good night today seems to be a nap weather. Aron has been napping a long morning nap. and i just let him nap since he is cranky, prolly due to WW26.

lysh - good to hear that you are happy about the long night sleep. at least not 4 am. maybe i can take a look at better bumpers. the thing is he rolls and wants to roll on his stomach. he rolls with his head up in the air, not like an adult would do and stay in place. so his head is kind of over the bumpers that i have. his bed is too small for him i remember with ds1 his bed got too small when he was closing 2 years. he got angry but continues sleeping. but slept without getting angry the minute he had a child bed.

the past days aron wants to go nap after a 2 hr stretch. prolly coz OH and ds1 and grandpa arent at the house anymore. you think it is ok 2 hour stretches between naps? last night seemed good even with the late nap.

 

[AmyS]

NotNic - How funny that he can pretend when his teeth hurt! It's like the little boy who cried wolf story - I wouldn't have known the difference either.

Polaris - They grow up too fast! Is Thomas really looking forward to preschool? I hope Clara has a lovely birthday - so nice your mom can come over for it!

bababas - I think "go with the flow" is a good option right now when you're in the middle of developmental stuff! Like lysh suggested, I have the mesh crib bumpers, and I do think they help a little. Does he roll one way usually? Chloe always rolls to her right, so when I put her down, I make sure she is closest to the left side of the bed to give her plenty of room to roll.

lysh - Sounds like you're having good luck with crib naps! I call 50 minutes a success! Hope she naps well for your SIL today!

Gaia - That happens to me a lot - it will appear as if she's almost asleep, then BAM! wide awake and ready to play. It usually happens when we are waiting to have supper after she goes to bed!

Stephie - Glad you had a better night! I agree you did the right thing giving him pain meds - I know it's a hard decision sometimes! Hopefully you get some more good nights in before that other tooth decides to break through!
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So nervous about daycare today! I really want to call at noon to see how she's napping, but I don't want to bother them either.

She didn't go to sleep until 8:15 last night!! That is so late for her - and then I had to wake her up at 7am to get ready for daycare. I think I'd rather wake a sleeping bear than a sleeping baby!!!

 

[polaris]

Amy, wait until you have to wake a sleeping toddler! It's an almost impossible task to wake Thomas from a nap and he behaves like a cranky bear for a good 30-45 minutes afterwards! LOL

 

[lysh]

What a day....dd did not nap AT ALL at SIL's house. So basically, she took a catnap from 8-8:30am with me and that was it. So by the time I picked her up at 4:30, she was beyond exhausted! She fell asleep on the way home and then slept in my arms while nursing. My best friend had a baby, so then at 5:30 my MIL showed up to watch dd so we could go to the hospital and dd freaked out because I had to take her off my boob and she was still beyond tired!!! We had to leave with her screaming, so I am crying on the way to the hospital like a wuss. Get home at 7, she is passed out. She apparently fell back asleep 15 minutes after we left. So she basically slept from 4:30-7:30 (when she finally woke up!). Just got her to bed @ 9:15, so hopefully the rest of the night can go back to normal (hopeful thinking probably).

Ugh