Rant - Feeling so hopeless about sleep!

[MrsPear]

I'm thinking of playing around with Jack's bedtime too. We had a 6am this morning which doesn't sound too bad but last week we had two 7.45's so I'm thinking 7 may be optimal for him?! He currently is down at 7.30pm. Do you sleep gurus think I should try 7pm?

Hoping I don't end up with a 5.30am lol

Hang in there bananaz I've a feeling she's getting the hang of it. Won't be long til she sttn more consistently

My SIL has a 17 month old who is still having MOTN parties mainly when she is cutting her molars. She told me today her LO has done 7-8 this week! 13hrs! And she said she has learnt that when her LO has a bad sleeping spell it always is over within 1-2 weeks. I found that reassuring

Yeah I would play around a bit, I have found that 6:30 tends to be good for Joni. The nights he slept later was he up in the night more? When Joni has a bad night she often sleeps in till about 7:30 (I know that's not the same for everyone on here though), when she has a better night it's about 6am. x

 

[L-C]

Between 6:30 and 7 pm and closer to half six def works better here xx

 

[NotNic]

It's reassuring to hear that it's not just Finlay whose an inconsistent sleeper. In the last week and a bit we've been pretty 50:50 on sleeping through. He does seem to know when you need to sleep though as they're the nights that are bad! Went out with the NCT girls last night. Was in bed at midnight but I had a few alcoholic drinks. Even though I had lots of water too, I knew I might feel peaky this morning so I was anxious for a good sleep. I was woken up at 2am, then a good 4/5 times betwen 3 and 4am I was up resettling F who thought it was a good time to 'sleep crawl'. I was up again at 5am and 6.30 I heard the chirpy, chatter / squealing of a baby who is ready for the day. This baby then decided 25 mins was an adequate length morning nap. Booo!

 

[Boo44]

Ok so I chickened out of putting him to bed earlier last night as he'd had a later nap. And I read some dr weissbluth stuff online (first time I've ever done that!) which said sometimes it can backfire and I really can't cope with 5.30am. But now I'm lying here awake at 7am and jack has been up since 6am. I left him until 6.40 as he was just mumbling and fussing but then I went and put his dummy in. Worked for 10 mins and he's still awake

I'm confused as earlier this week he slept until 7.45 twice in a row with no early morning wakings. Then suddenly out of the blue he's done four 6am starts. He's not ill (for once!) or teething and no major milestones happening. I'm feeling really tired and down about the whole thing now (pretty pathetic!) mainly as I'm aware it could get a whole lot worse!

His routine is bottle and breakfast 8am, have been putting off morning nap until at least 10am sometimes 10.30 (in an attempt to push his waking time later but no help!) this nap can last until 11.30, then lunch at 12, bottle around 3, nap 3.30-4.30 (is this too late? Often have to wake him up at 4.30...) dinner at 5pm. Then bath 6.30, bottle 7 and bed 7.30

Just wanted to tell you the full picture really and garner opinion on his whole routine. Will try for incremental moving of bedtime earlier starting with 7.15 tonight and pray that we don't get any earlier mornings..

Edit - he often has a dirty nappy now when I get him up which is a new development but doesn't seem to be going away!

 

[Sunnie1984]

Quick reply!

Boo44 I find that to get Seren to bed at 6:30 she needs to be awake by 4pm.

If she misses a nap, I let her have 15 mins after 4pm but no more or she'll be too awake by bedtime.

Bath at 5:30 then we chill out in her room and do bottle and story, then bed at 6:30pm.

We tried to do later bedtime but she's just so overtired!

 

[L-C]

I read Richard Ferbers book the other day and he suggested naps during the day day between, 9 - 10 am and 2 - 3 pm, we've been doing this and it seems to work better. The sooner I get DD down in the mornings the better the day is. Bed time is great if she naps until 3 or 3:30 pm.

I'm having a problem with solids, my DD is 9 months and won't eat. I offer mush and finger foods and she barely eats a thing. I think she is taking too much milk in the night but, if she needs it how do I cut it. It's like the chick and the egg. Would prefer that she took more solids, before cutting or reducing the night feeds..... any ideas??

 

[anti]

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Have had some very rough nights, but ashlynn has woken up with a tooth cut through today, her first one!! So I'm hoping its gonna get better now, although I can see another two teeth aren't far off so not sure when its gonna settle but I'm just gonna ride this one out for a while... I'm hoping it was that and not a regression.

 

[MrsPear]

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Have had some very rough nights, but ashlynn has woken up with a tooth cut through today, her first one!! So I'm hoping its gonna get better now, although I can see another two teeth aren't far off so not sure when its gonna settle but I'm just gonna ride this one out for a while... I'm hoping it was that and not a regression.

Congrats on the tooth!! Hopefully it won't be too drawn out getting the others.

Joni has been sleeping okay recently. Last night she was up only once! I did a dreamfeed at 10:30 then she woke up at 3:45. Unfortunately she thought it was morning but I was not up for that, so I just left her playing in her cot for an hour whilst I lay still as a mouse on the bed, then rocked her to sleep about 5am or so, and she managed 2 more hours!

She does still have bad nights (being constipated was really giving her pain for about 2 weeks but we are over it now fingers crossed), but we are really at a stage now where I feel that she is in fact happier in her cot than on me, and I never thought we would get there. I put her down in the night after a feed or a quick cuddle, and it's actually (generally) quicker now to get her to sleep by standing next to her or just putting my hand on her than it would be rocking her.

 

[Sunnie1984]

Mrspear you are incredible! Compare your posts now to your posts three weeks ago! Lora of great progress! Keep at it, Joni seems to be much better in herself now.

Imagine an hour playing by herself, not needing you to hold her!

C

 

[bananaz]

NotNic - Ugh, we've had way too many nights like that. It seems they always know when you really need some rest!

Boo - Your routine sounds good. I've heard that daytime sleep should be done by 4pm however for Elsie I haven't found that late naps have an effect on her nighttime sleep at all. I hope moving bedtime up a little works for you, though I understand how scary it is!

L-C - For my LO I think getting her established on solids had to be done before complete night weaning could happen rather than the other way around. She also wasn't really interested in solids for a long time but I just kept offering and eventually something clicked and she started eating. How much is your DD drinking at night? Have you tried gradually reducing that amount to see if she'll make up for it in the day instead?

anti - I hope you both get some better rest now that that tooth is in!

MrsPear - Wow, you two have made such amazing progress! Fingers crossed that it continues



Last night started out great - she slept straight from 6:45pm to 4:15am without a peep. Unfortunately after that she had a really hard time resettling herself and it took an hour and a half to get her back to sleep, even with a feeding and a diaper change

I'm very confused about how to handle these 4am wakings now that I've done night weaning. On the one hand I know I don't want her to expect night feedings, but on the other hand she's still a little baby and it seems reasonable for her to be hungry after 9+ hours of sleep. Not to mention that on a good night it usually takes her at least 20-30 minutes to resettle herself, at which point it's often past her normal 5am wake-up time and she's likely to want to stay up for the day. Thoughts?

 

[mrsbeano]

Bananaz from my reading about night weaning before I did it, it said that early waking is a common result. Quinn had a week of waking up before he was ready, but it passed. Still sounds like an improvement, even if you do end up going to bed when she does!

Mrs Pear - Shhh-pat is the puppies gonads

 

[Boo44]

Well, tonight ended up being completely different to normal as we went out for a family tea I found it refreshing to not worry too much and just write it off as a 'bad evening' - seems almost easier to accept that than bother worrying about getting stuff perfect lol!

He had a loooong nap 12.45 - 2.15 and then was ready to party! So we went out for tea at 5 and he didn't want a nap before. Infact he ended up being so happy and cute in the restaurant and not tired at all. Weird! Did actually manage to get him down for 7.15 tonight which was my aim. So let's see what happens.... Have a feeling that being awake for 5 hrs before bed may not be optimal, lol. But hey we had fun!

MrsPear that is so amazing that Joni now prefers being in her cot. I bet that seemed so far away recently!

Anti I'm pleased the teeth are through/almost through! Jack had an awful time getting his bottom 2 through and once they came up it was like a switch - different child!

Bananaz - I think giving her time to attempt resettling is the best idea, then if no joy, going in to see if she seems hungry. I would say waiting would just make sure the night weaning is cemented, but like you say, if she's hungry there's not much you can do! Hopefully like mrsbeano says, the early wakings are just temporary

 

[socitycourty]

chickened out and have not started sleep training yet

 

[Boo44]

Well putting him down 15 mins early resulted in him waking at 5.45, fifteen mins earlier than yesterday Tried dummy straight away but he's just awake. It's so weird as he often woke at 6.30 and I'd sometimes give dummy and sometimes not, but he'd always go back to sleep. I don't understand what's changed!

Shall I go back to bed at 7.30 and just stick with routine and hope it ends soon?

Edit - we left him in his cot babbling away. Hubby went and gave dummy at around 7 and he went back to sleep until 8...

 

[Noelle610]

Boo, I would just keep playing around with it. Sometimes Charlotte goes through a few weeks of waking early, only to go back to her original wake up time without my changing everything.

Socity, no need to worry. You will get there! No sense in starting sleep training until you are ready, because consistency is key.

 

[socitycourty]

it seems even worse now because her new wake up time is 6:30 a.m.!!!!

 

[Shadowy Lady]

hi ladies! I'm back!! I'm pretty beat now and need to refresh with a few hours of sleep and then catch up on all (or some) of the things I missed out on here when I was gone.

It was a great trip and Sofia got to meet her grandparents (my DH parents) for the first time. Sleep got super messed up though. She went from only waking up once a night or sttn for 3 weeks before the trip to waking up twice a night while we were there. The last two nights she woke up 3 times :/ The one thing was that my inlaws don't have AC and it was super warm so we couldn't put her in a sleepsack and she's not used to just sleeping in her diaper (it's winter here in Canada and Sofia has never really known heat).

I'm really hoping that's why she's been waking up coz she didn't really wanna eat each time...just fussing. Oh ya and since she was always held by someone there now she's super cranky the moment I put her down or she can't see me. I can get nothing done....again hoping it's temporary :/

Hope you ladies are well and your babies are sleeping. I srsly need to catch up on here tomorrow

 

[Shadowy Lady]

Ok, let me see if I can kinda sorta catch up now:

Bananaz - glad to hear Elsie gave you a sttn. I know she only did it once but it looks like an upward trend to me. Best of luck to you both

Sunshine - maaaan that time change is a killer. Sorry to hear Seren is poorly. Hope she feels better soon.

Socity - don't be afraid of sleep training. I think if you stick to it you'll both be better in the end.

Noelle - glad to see that Charlotte is still doing well. See how far she has come since you started this thread?

We had a better night so I think Sofia might be adjusting already. She went to sleep at 6:45 am, woke up at 1 am and then at 5:30 am. At 5:30 am though she didn't wanna eat at all, just took 1 oz and went back to sleep till 8 am.

This morning though she's been fighting her nap like crazy. She has her eyes closed but crying and crying wonder what's up...

 

[bananaz]

socitycourty - Like Noelle said, you're not ready until you're ready! I'm sure you'll get it worked out one way or the other

Shadowy - Good to see you back It sounds like Sofia's already getting back on track.


The last two nights have been pretty damn good. The night before last she slept from 6:30pm-4:30am (10 freaking hours!). I knew from experience that if I didn't get her back to sleep quickly she would just be up for the day so I ran in and fed her and then she slept until 6:30 I can't even tell you how amazing it felt to sleep in past 6am after these weeks of 5am wakeups.

This morning she woke at 4:30am again but after I ran in and fed her she didn't fall asleep straight away and I woke up at 5:45 to her crying hysterically. When I'd drifted off before she'd just been chatting to herself, but I could tell when I went to her that she'd been crying for at least a few minutes and it didn't seem like she'd gone back to sleep at all Anyway, I nursed her again and then had to stand patting her back for 20 minutes to get her to settle.

I'm not sure whether I'm ruining my night weaning efforts by feeding her at 4:30 but since her normal span of sleep was 6:30pm-5am it doesn't seem like a big deal? Especially if it means she might go back to sleep for a while...

 

[Noelle610]

Shadowy Lady, great to hear from you! I'm almost positive Sophia will go back to her usual self. I think travel messes with most babies sleep. They're creatures of habit.

Bananaz, I think it's fine to feed at 4:30am. Maybe you could set a feeding cutoff, like 9 or 10 hours. If she wakes after that time, you will feed.

Charlotte's naps got messed up on Sunday and she slept like crap - waking 5 or 6 times. She napped like normal yesterday and slept 7pm-6:30am without a peep. It was great. We have to opt out of our Baby Groove class on Sundays because this has happened six weeks in a row.