Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[aliss]

Zzzzz! My Philippe is officially not a good sleeper, HAH. I shouldn't say that, he goes right back to sleep most of the time. But every 2 hours is still tiring. I put Alex in preschool 3x a week so I can catch a nap b/c I can't when he does............. nope, not feeling guilty at all!!! He loves it!

 

[bananaz]

Well, last night little girl did really well! She slept from 7:15-midnight. I nursed her for 30 minutes and then she slept until 5:15!!! I of course had a hard time sleeping the second half of the night (I never had a problem before, but lately I am getting insomnia after the first nursing session). But at least she slept well! I am hoping for another good night in which I sleep too!!!!

Yay, that's great! I hope you're able to get some rest tonight. I get so mad at myself when my baby is finally sleeping but I'm not!

I remember weaning Lily. Do not stop once you have started. It will take a week or two for LO to adjust but she will get better at it! Persevere is all I can say. Maybe try it when you are feeling better though?

I agree, if you really need the transition to happen now then you just have to push through it. If it's not urgent then you might wait a little while, but chances are it's going to be tough no matter when you do it, unfortunately.


On a side note, I took LO to the pediatrician today because her cough has gotten a lot worse and I was told that if I think her congestion is disturbing her at night then I should go in and squirt saline into her nose while she's sleeping! First of all, LO is a tummy sleeper so that would be difficult but second of all there's no freaking way I'd intentionally wake her up like that The doctor said she would just snuffle and sputter and then go back to sleep. Um, I don't think so!

 

[socitycourty]

um yeah, I would NEVER do that when my LO was sleeping. she gets pissed enough when she's awake

 

[libbylou]

irish - ugh, those MOTN parties are killing us all. DH's family is useless as well. They live 2 mins away and we never see them and they never help. I find it really hard to ask for help (control issues here too haha) and even when I do ask for help I often feel like I've failed because I need help or I end up regretting it because it was more grief than help

angel - yes, I definitely feel cheated. I waited my whole life for my little girl and spent 3.5 years TTC and now that she's here I want to enjoy her and I feel like I can't

Noelle - I'm seeing my dr next Tuesday and have some counselling appts set up with a lady who specializes in treating PPD, so I'm hoping I can finally get the help I need and get my feet under me

socity - I could have written your post myself. I am SO SICK of people telling me to "count my blessings" or "welcome to parenthood". I'm actually really lucky in that one of my close friends also suffers from PPD and she is the one who brought me to the PPD support group and basically helped me see that how I'm feeling isn't normal and not everyone feels like this

shadowy - sorry to hear you guys are still having a rough time. Being sick and overtired is the worst because you never get a chance to recover. I agree with Megan, persevere! The first 2-3 days of taking LO out of her swaddle were the worst, but we saw a lot of improvement within 2-3 days

aimee - what a rough night!! I'm wondering if he's teething? I get upset when LO has a one hour MOTN party, I can't imagine 5 hours!

bananaz - not a bad night considering she's still sick! There's no way I'd squirt anything in LOs nose while she was sleeping, I can't imagine that going over well!!

lysh - glad you guys had a good night!

Last night wasn't great. LO slept for about 3 1/2 hours (very unsettled, waking and crying out every 20-30 mins), then woke up and nursed for 30 mins, then slept for 1.5 hours...then had a 2 hour MOTN party (I'd only had one hour of sleep by the time the MOTN party started).
By the end of it I was lying in bed grumbling while LO cried and DH got up and started yelling about how I needed to calm down and he'd go in and deal with her since my grumbling was keeping him awake anyway, so we had a giant fight at 2:30am, that was fun. She finally fell asleep and then was up every 1.5-2 hours all night long

 

[Sunnie1984]

Libbylou - You should definitely seek some assistance from your doctor etc. There is nothing worse than feeling down, and, as Noelle says, the quicker you seek help, the sooner you can feel much much better. I don't think we need to sleep training as she goes to sleep no problem, and settles herself all of the time. Just recently she's been more awake when she wakes at night, and takes an hour or so to tire herself out again. She also struggles as she doesn't know what to do when she gets onto her stomach, and she gets frustrated and cries out.

Socity and Irish Eyes - I also agree that you need to seek some support from your doctor. Noelle has great advice

Noelle - I think sometimes they can be really loud when they try to settle and we think that there's something wrong, and then we wake them up when we go to them. I love love love our video monitor as I can see what she's doing (usually on her front screaming!) and then I can work out how much I need to get involved.

Shadowy Lady - I think it depends on how sick you are. If you feel really rotten, leave her in the woombie for now, and then remove it when you feel better. If you feel well enough to deal with it, stick it out, it'll take her a few days to begin to adapt to it.

Aimee - That's just rotten. Glad you stayed home to try to catch up somewhat. Perhaps it's worth getting him checked out by a doctor? Maybe it's just a bad night, or just teething, but it sounds really bad all of a sudden, so maybe there's more going on?

Bananaz - Sounds like a good night considering she was poorly. I can imagine she was not at all impressed at having to be de-gunked!


As for me, last night was so-so. She woke a few times turning herself over in the three hours after she went to bed, but just turned her over and she went back to sleep.

She finally settled on her side (almost on her tummy) and feel asleep, but I ended up moving her into the middle of the cot, so I could see her on the monitor, and then she toppled over onto her stomach and woke up

Then awake for 30 mins at 3am and at 4am she woke and was really upset. I cuddled her with her dummy for 5 mins and back to sleep.

5am she did another 30 mins babbling and then up for the day at 7am.

I'm wondering if she's cold. We're in the middle east and her room temp is now 21 degrees. She usually has it about 25-26. Obviously we have aircon, but no heater, so I'm going to go buy an oil heater today to heat up her room before bed. I figure if I get it to 26 degrees, it can cool slowly overnight.

 

[Irish Eyes]

irish - ugh, those MOTN parties are killing us all. DH's family is useless as well. They live 2 mins away and we never see them and they never help. I find it really hard to ask for help (control issues here too haha) and even when I do ask for help I often feel like I've failed because I need help or I end up regretting it because it was more grief than help

Maybe you're me in another country?! That's exactly how I feel. I know I need help but I don't want to ask for it as it's like admitting I can't cope. The one time I did was over Christmas, I was so ill & LO was waking so often that I stayed at my mums (the whole family was there) and she had him in her room for one night. I ended up getting up at 6am anyway as if to proove I'm not lazy! Pointless!

well we had an hourly wake up call last night. Told hubby I think LO's just checking that I'm still breathing At the 2am wake-up I took a minute to come round and got in his room to find one of the dogs sat by his crib looking up as if to say "where the hell were you? he's been crying for a whole minute" On the plus side the night weaning is working, still only one feed of 5oz!

I'm pretty much running on adrenaline now and just realised that I haven't washed my hair in a week!! I was not going to be one of "those mums" that let herself go, now I'm leading those mums to greasy hair victory!

 

[Irish Eyes]

Sunnie the recommended temp for babies room is between 16-20* but LOs is always around 24-25* any lower and he wakes up cold! I've got one of those montiors that tells you the temp and it's constantly saying "too hot". There's snow outside, he's allowed a bit of warmth!

 

[aliss]

On a side note, I took LO to the pediatrician today because her cough has gotten a lot worse and I was told that if I think her congestion is disturbing her at night then I should go in and squirt saline into her nose while she's sleeping! First of all, LO is a tummy sleeper so that would be difficult but second of all there's no freaking way I'd intentionally wake her up like that The doctor said she would just snuffle and sputter and then go back to sleep. Um, I don't think so!

Surely he has lost his damn mind???

 

[Noelle610]

Aliss, I think you're officially allowed to be here! 2 hours IS tiring. That said, I still think it's in the range of normal for 2 months old. Don't give up hope on your potentially good sleeper yet!

Bananaz.... Your ped must be smoking something, really.

To the ladies having tough nights / weaning / breaking off the swaddle, my heart is with you! Stick with your plans. It's soooo hard when you're exhausted but babies learn super fast. Oh and on temperature - Charlotte likes it warm too. We used a space heater at my dad's over the holidays and she slept great, so we got one at home.

Our night was great! I decided to give C 10 minutes or so to settle herself when she woke around 2am and 5am and she went back to sleep both times. So less interference is definitely better for us! It did take her 30 minutes to fall asleep, which is unusual for her, but she was bust scooting around her crib trying to crawl . She woke up in a great mood. I love that after a good night of sleep for both of us.

 

[aliss]

See I don't mind the 2 hours, still normal for me... it's the 4am grunting, 430am,5am,530.... the light sleep cycles at the end

So glad you had a great night!!

 

[Noelle610]

See I don't mind the 2 hours, still normal for me... it's the 4am grunting, 430am,5am,530.... the light sleep cycles at the end

So glad you had a great night!!

UGH yeah.... Charlotte did that until recently and ssometimes still does. DH and I call it "the four o'clock shuffle". I hate that light sleep / fussy time in the early morning. I could never sleep through it!

 

[Leids]

Wooo William went to bed at 9:30 (earliest EVER) and slept until 8am (he did wake to nurse but went right back to sleep). So happy! Finally making more progress. Yay for routines.

 

[mrsbeano]

We had a sttn Tried to DF at 10pm but not really interested (only took 3oz) and then went through 6.30-6.30. Hallelujah!

It appears that my mum was right although this does mean 4 meals a day! Breakfast at 8, lunch at 11, dinner at 3 and I suppose supper at 6ish.

When he did a run of sttn a couple of months ago he did 9 nights and I relaxed to sttn myself on the 8th night. Then he stopped haha. Last night I was pretty much just dozing from about 3ish, doh! But that was my fault so go Quinn!

Aliss, how long is Philippe going between feeds in the daytime? I found that stretching it out in the day helped Quinn feed better and then go longer at night. 2 hours is sooo hard because you don't get a full sleep cycle in yourself. Saying this, you're practically a sleep professional so probably don't need my made up tips.

So sorry that so many of you are having tough times with the sleep. I know how you feel about not wanting to ask for help. My family are all in the mental health profession and I just don't want to tell them I'm struggling because they're always diagnosing Joe Bloggs with something or another and will be telling me I have PP Psychosis or whatever. Not crazy, just knackered LOL.

They also did it on their own and just want to continue their life without the disruption of grandchildren which is their choice I suppose.

Bananaz - agreed your Dr is def on something. FACT.

Hope everyones nights improve tonight.

 

[Noelle610]

Wooo William went to bed at 9:30 (earliest EVER) and slept until 8am (he did wake to nurse but went right back to sleep). So happy! Finally making more progress. Yay for routines.

I am thrilled for you!!!!!

 

[Noelle610]

That's great MrsBeano! I know it doesnt' work for everyone, but I have found that Charlotte sleeps best if she drinks / eats well during the day. I usually do a pretty heaty meal for dinner around 5:15pm and try to include some fat - avocado, yogurt and chicken are all good.

 

[Boo44]

Well Jack's ill AGAIN it really is one thing after the other! We'd just got over his ear infection and he was sleeping and eating (which I actually get more stressy about!) great. Last night he developed this deep chesty smokes cough Woke himself up coughing at 3, 4.30 and 5.30. He got back to sleep each time. I gave him calpol at the last wake up and he slept til 7.10

He's so sad today bless him been sleeping a lot and not interested in his toys

Also we've got about half a bottle of amoxicillin still in the fridge and its within date. It's from his ear infection which he has only been clear of about a week! We are tempted to give him another couple of days.....

 

[Noelle610]

Aw poor Jack. I'm sorry Boo! It seems like Charlotte has been ill all winter, so you have my sympathies. I get really anxious about her not eating well, too. Like Jack, she's always been funny with milk.

I would give him the rest of the antibiotic. We were always told to finish the bottle. Hope he is feeling better soon! It's good that he's sleeping a lot today - that should help.

 

[Sunnie1984]

See I don't mind the 2 hours, still normal for me... it's the 4am grunting, 430am,5am,530.... the light sleep cycles at the end

So glad you had a great night!!

UGH yeah.... Charlotte did that until recently and ssometimes still does. DH and I call it "the four o'clock shuffle". I hate that light sleep / fussy time in the early morning. I could never sleep through it!

We're having this too. She did this a couple of nights when she first STTN but then it stopped and she slept solidly through.

I think the rolling has shattered her sleep and she's struggling to get through the lighter sleep stages.

I'm on my own tonight as DH is away for work for the next few days, so I'm going to bed really early, and hoping she decides to STTN.

I couldn't find a heater in the whole of the UAE.... so I've put her in two sleepsuits and her sleeping bag and hoping for the best.

Boo - I would give him the rest of the bottle. You are usually supposed to finish the entire set of antibiotics, even if you are well before the end.

Well DD has gone down for the night, really tired and cranky, so here's crossing my fingers!

 

[Noelle610]

Ah Sunnie, the imfamous rolling in sleep! I hated that until Charlotte got comfy on her tummy. I had to "rescue" her all night long. It does pass.

 

[Sunnie1984]

Ah Sunnie, the imfamous rolling in sleep! I hated that until Charlotte got comfy on her tummy. I had to "rescue" her all night long. It does pass.

How long did Charlotte take to adapt? We're a week into it, and about to come out of WW 19, so I'm hoping it's going to get better soon.

Did Charlotte have to learn to roll back, or did she just get comfy on her tummy?

x