Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[Aimee1003]

Oh and Noelle- I had /have postpartum anxiety that caused insomnia. It is a real thing. I couldn't sleep at all after he was born. I was so nervous. I would watch the clock and count down how many hrs of sleep I could get if I fell asleerp. 5. No now 4. Now 3. It was horrible. I started taking Cymbalta and within 2 days I was sleeping. I can't imagine have insomnia now. I only got 5 hrs sleep last night and that was with falling right back asleep after a wakeup.

 

[Noelle610]

Aimee, it is so real and so awful. I did the same thing counting the hours. I've been taking zoloft for two weeks now and I feel like a new person. I also have klonopin for when it's really bad, but I've found that since the zoloft kicked in I haven't needed it much. The first night I got the perscription, I resisted taking it - I don't like meds that are mood altering. I was awake until midnight after going to bed at 8pm. At midnight, but husband convinced me to take a pill and that he would care for Charlotte if she woke. At 12:05am I said to him, "It's not working!" and at 12:10am I was asleep. That night was a game changer for me. I felt like a new person the next day.

Aimee, on Colton's sleep - what time does he go to bed? I agree it sounds like he isn't getting enough sleep. Do you think he's overtired? We had some success moving Charlotte's bedtime back. Even if she seems tired at 5:30pm, I put her to bed. Interestingly, it's very rarely resulted in an early waking. Sometimes I think she just needs the extra rest.

 

[lysh]

Aimmee- I know how you feel- my LO is having such a regression right now and I go back to work tomorrow. That alone is giving me anxiety! I honestly think that is why I have been sick most of this winter season so far.

So LO had a terrible night again. She is not resettling well either. She is regressing with naps too....does not want me to put her down. It would be nice if I could hold her for all of her naps, but I can't. I did it for the first 4 months of her life so she could have that needed security as a newborn, but it is not feasible right now. I am wondering if it is because I have been home for 10 days- I don't know. She is exhausting us though.

She pretty much has taken a half hour nap (which required a half hour of crying) since 5:50 this morning. It is now almost 11. Now we have to go to my MILs to see family who we have not seen in a long time (first time meeting baby girl) which means her afternoon naps will be messed up too.

Okay, done venting. I am just feeling done in today- trying to find the humor in the situation all morning but after her last half hour meltdown I am just done. ugh

 

[Aimee1003]

Noelle- bedtime is between 7 and 7:30. Usually he sleeps until 6:30 or 7 and gets 10 hrs after factoring in wake ups. This last 8-9 days something other than a regression is going on...teething, maybe..A couple of nights he wakes up shiny and I can't get him back to sleep for a while. He will nurse, pull off then whine and nurse some more.
I am glad u are on medicine. There is nothing wrong with taking it!!!

Lysh- I see you work in the school system as well. My LO went on a nap strike for me over the last 4 weeks. He just came out of it...he would only sleep 30 minute naps when I was home but slept 3 plus hours for my husband. I chalked it up to object permanence.
Coleton is just in a full-on nighttime regression. He is not self-settling at all anymore and our sleep training has been fully reversed. Oh well.

 

[lysh]

Aimee- Yes, I am a teacher.....thankfully LO finally went down tonight after two attempts. She as getting to a point where she would unlatch herself from my nipple and then I would place her in the crib and she would be fine. Lately, the minute her back hits the mattress she is screaming. Thankfully tonight only took 2 tried. I feel like mine is regressing too- all the sleep training seems to be doing nothing right now as well. I just do not have the energy to start over with it at the moment! UGH

Well, I am praying LO goes easy on me tonight since I start back at work tomorrow. My head has been pounding ALL day.

Wishing you all restful sleep!

 

[Shadowy Lady]

Ughhh the cold has messed up with Sofia's sleep and we're back to 2-3 feeds per night. She's looking better today so hoping we can get back on track tonight :/

Ipad is dying I'll log in again soon to catch up with everyone. Happy new year!

 

[Noelle610]

Baby colds are the worst for sleep! Charlotte has been waking herself up coughing. Also, I went to her around 3am last night and she was on all fours rocking back and forth and crying with her eyes closed! Poor thing, practicing in her sleep. I rocked her for a few minutes and she quickly calmed down. Darn these developmental milestones.

I'm getting scared of this so called 8/9 month sleep regression. Just as things are getting better for us, I fear something else is around the corner. Anyone else? I think it has to do with these crawling/pulling to stands milestones, though, and is a true regression unlike the 4 month one where baby's sleep permanently changes.

 

[Shadowy Lady]

Aimee - I've suffered from anxiety most of my life but I got worse after baby. The first thing affected is of course my sleep. Right now I'm on melatonin and it works most of the time but not always. My doc is on leave till Monday but after that I wanna make another appt to see what can be done for me in terms of medication

Lysh - good luck to u hunnie! I think with babies it's more persistent on our part that makes them accept to sleep a certain way. That's what I did with Sofia and so far at least she goes to sleep ok (even if she does wake up through the night. Hope you have a great night

Noelle - totally agree! I'm actually a winter kinda person and love the cold weather but not since having a baby. We were doing so great and then bam Sofia catches a cold she still only woke up twice but it was just to cough and cry and not to eat hope this phase passes for both of us soon.

I'm starting to put Sofia in her crib for naps. I tried today at 10 am and she just fussed and after an hour, I got her out, played with her and then put her down again after 30 mins. This time I put her in her Woombie. She's been napping now it there for an hour which is the longest she's ever napped in her crib. I know I need to break the Woombie habit at some point but for now I like that she can nap somewhere other than living room.

 

[Aimee1003]

Shadowy- Congrats on napping in the crib. Huge step. C still naps in the swing. We will tackle that one day...eventually. but for now it is fine. Cymbalta works great for physiological anxiety. It is great. I wish I could do melatonin but it is not compatible with breastfeeding.

So our nights just keep getting worse and worse. He woke up at 9:45. Went back down at 10:20. Woke up at 10:25 and wouldn't go back to sleep again til 12. Same story as night before. Whined and cried when I rocked him. Pulled off the boob whining. Then he woke up at 3:30and 5:30. Luckily he slept in til 8:30 but if I was back at work I wouldn't have been able to go back to sleep after the 5:30 wake up. I would have only gotten 4 hrs sleep. I am so scared to gp back to work. I cannot function on that little sleep.

 

[Noelle610]

Aimee, have you thought of doing some sleep training for the night wakings, like a refresher? I know you mentioned you did it before, but it might be worth a try. If your other efforts to soothe aren't working, perhaps C is ready to do it on his own? \

I'll never forget a time around 4 months old when Charlotte was so overtired and screaming and crying as I tried to rock her to sleep. I placed her in her Rock-n-Play, where she was sleeping at the time, just to catch my breath... and she promptly fell asleep! I guess you wouldn't really call that sleep training, but she was definitely ready to settle herself and didn't want my intervention.

 

[Shadowy Lady]

Aimee - no Melatonin should be ok. I ebf also and it's supposed to be safe. I've been taking it for a month now and know many other moms who take it every single night and bf'd too

I agree with Noelle on some kind of sleep training. I don;t think training is once for all kinda thing. Every once in a while babies may need a refresher.

 

[mrsbeano]

Hi Girls! Have been busy busy over the festive period but just got all caught up and it seems that a few of the worst offenders have been being quite good

We have just been poorly and travelling so pretty unsettled and lots of night wakings. Also lots of night feeds but attributing that to the 6 month growth spurt. Fingers crossed its a short phase. He settled himself without a peep tonight which usually bodes well. xx

 

[Aimee1003]

Shadowy- My Dr said no to melatonin but just looked it up via the Infant Risk Center and it seems ok. The % that passes into milk is high but no negative effects on baby. I use this site a lot. I used it to figure out which anti-anxiety med I wanted.

https://www.infantrisk.com/forum/showthread.php?310-Melatonin&highlight=melatonin

Noelle-We cannot night train. I did bedtime b4 and it seemed to help but in last 2 weeks he has not gone down by himself at bedtime. I am getting ready to try again. It is just emotionally draining. We have to feed him if he wakes at night. Doctor's orders due to his weight problems.

 

[libbylou]

Aimee oh man you're having a rough time of it right now Hard to deal with the constant wakeups when you have to feed LO every time he wakes. When you can get them back to sleep without that feed I find it kind of breaks the constant wake up cycle a bit.

Shadowy - we had to swaddle LO until she was around 4.5-5 months because she didn't lose her startle reflex until then. Luckily when we started to transition her it was pretty smooth. Congrats on the crib naps! I was so happy when we were able to get LO napping in her crib because it gave me a break to clean the house or have a shower or even try to nap myself!

Last night was great and terrible at the same time. Great because LO went down easily and slept FIVE HOURS (longest stretch she's done in 2 months). But terrible because she then woke up and refused to go back to to sleep for two hours I spent two hours trying everything to settle her (even taking her to bed with me didn't work). Finally settled her back in her crib which was lovely because normally she is in bed with us by that point. She slept another 4 hours (YAY!!!) and then came to be with us from 7am-9am so I even got to sleep in!

Of course tonight she has already woken up within 20 mins of going to sleep and screamed hysterically for almost an hour unless I was patting her back while she lay on her tummy in her crib, not fun because my back is still messed up and bending over her crib is super painful.

I'm not sure we'll see any issues with developmental milestones because LO's been able to crawl and sit for ages and has been pulling up and walking along things for a couple of weeks now and it doesn't seem to have made her sleep any worse than it was before...maybe it was already so bad that it couldn't get any worse?

Also...is it just me, or do you ladies want to defriend people you know whose babies actually sleep. Most of my friends babies don't have sleep issues and it kinda makes me want to kick them especially when I hear "I just put her down and she goes to sleep and sleeps for 12 hours with one wakeup at 3am for food"

 

[Larkspur]

Another eight-wake up night last night. Not sure what to blame it on... could be holiday disruption (trip to inlaws house for three nights), the humid weather, noise (loads of fireworks over New Years), the infamous Wonder Week 19, or a combination thereof. Am just soldiering through. Good luck to all for tonight...

 

[Aimee1003]

Libby- your good night sounds like most people's bad nights.lol. And yes I hate hearing how everyone else's baby sleeps so well.

Larkspur- 8 wakeups??? Wow. How long does it take u before u are back in bed?

Last night was the best night in last 2 weeks. He woke up at 9:45. He was back asleep by 10 and didn't wake back up until 5:30!!! Of course I have been up since 4:30. I had to check on him but the main issue was my breasts were so engorged. I usually sleep on my side and it was hurting me....oh well. Maybe when he is done nursing, we will go back to sleep.

 

[Noelle610]

Larkspur, that's rough... how old is your LO?

Aimee, I think doing bedtime again could help. Maybe talk with your ped? I'm sure it's important you feed at night if your LO needs to gain weight, but I'm sure he could tell you what a reasonable amount would be (i.e. twice a night but not ten times a night). And I took melatonin while breast feeding - it should be fine. Basically every medication says "ask your doctor if nursing or pregnant", but it's just a precaution. You could also try "Simply Sleep", which is basically Tylenol PM without the Tylenol and also safe.

Libby, nice long stretches should be reassuring!

MrsBean, sorry about the inconsistency! The 6 month growth spurt is a big one. I bet it passes soon.

My night was okay. Charlotte has a terrible cough that's keeping her up, but nothing unmanagable in the least. I was able to get a solid block of sleep between midnight and 6am so I feel okay today, despite having a cold.

 

[bananaz]

libbylou - The two hours awake is horrible, but the rest of the night sounds pretty awesome! Sleeping in until 9 must've been great. I always wished my LO would do a second longer stretch of sleep but once she's up the first time she almost always wakes every 2 hours after that.

Larkspur - Ugh, awful How do you resettle him? Hopefully he goes back down quickly?

Aimee - That's a seriously amazing night! I sympathize with you about the engorgement though, I had the same thing last night, it does make it hard to sleep!

Noelle - Aw, when is your poor kid going to catch a break? Can you give her anything to help with the cough? I feel so lucky that Elsie hasn't gotten sick yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.


The past two nights haven't been the best ever, but they're not bad at all compared to how she used to be or what some of you are going through now. She's been waking around midnight for some reason, and then last night she also woke at 1am because of some idiot yelling outside Then she woke at 3am and I immediately got up to go nurse her but by the time I reached her room she was already settling herself, much to my surprise. It took her almost a half hour of tossing and turning, but she finally went back to sleep and stayed down until 6am. Unfortunately I don't feel rested at all, thanks mostly to the hot flashes that now seem to be happening all night every night right now. Ugh.

 

[Shadowy Lady]

Libby - I know what u mean about friends whose babies sleep, lol! Luckily only two moms I know have babies that sttn since 3 weeks (or so they claim) and for some reason they won't shut up about it! Yesterday I saw one of them at the playgroup and she's like "so how's Sofia sleeping these days? William slept 12 hours last night!" Almost wanted to punch her

Larkspur - awww honey I have a feeling the noise might be a big factor. Btw we're also going through ww 19

Aimee - congrats on a great night! And damn boobies that happens to me to everytime Sofia has a good night!

Noelle - glad your nights are still ok. Hope the cold passes for both of you guys soon.

So our nights are still hit and miss. For the past 2 nights, Sofia goes to sleep within seconds with no fuss at 7 pm. However, she wakes up at 11 pm. She's not hungry or cold, but she cries and nothing soothes her it goes on for an hour or so and she gets more irritated when picked up. So finally I offered the breast after an hour and she sucked for like a min and fell back asleep. I know she's not hungry, so why does this keep happening?

Typically after that she sleeps till around 3-4 when she actually wants to eat and this time goes back to sleep right away. Is this WW19, teething or what? I'm totally at loss...it may also be her messed up nap since she's learning to nap in the crib and missed a nap yesterday...

I'm exhausted today...only had 3 hours of broken sleep

 

[Noelle610]

Bananaz, hot flashes? Yuck! Glad to hear that Elsie is settling herself.

Shadowy Lady, we sometimes have a few days of an early waking for no reason and I don't know why. Sometimes I think it's from being overtired, but I'm not sure.

Charlotte being in daycare has really made her sick often. As much as it sucks, I'm kind of just accepting it as inevitable. My pediatrician said this happens to all kids at some point, just earlier for those in daycare. They have to build their immune system some time. For many, it's kindergarden, but for us it's now! Unfortunatley there's nothing that can really be given for a cough over the counter for a young baby, so you just have to wait it out.