Sleep hell :'(

[cazi77]

Sorry to read all these babies don't really like sleep! It is reassuring to know I'm not alone tho!

My dd is 6 months and up until 5 months was a brilliant sleeper! She would sometimes do 7-7 but at most wake once or twice.

At 5 months we had 2 weeks of sleep hell.she seriously would not go to sleep it was the most frustrating time ever. Things did improve and some nights she just wakes once.

Some nights tho it's constant! 5+wake ups a night and sometimes it takes ages to get her down again!

How is everyone doing? Has anyone come out the other side?

 

[lauraemily17]

Nope, no improvement here. Other than 1 2 hour stretch Reuben would up every 30 - 60 minutes last night. I think he has a bad case of separation anxiety. He wakes then screams hysterically until I go into him.

I'm slower loosing my mind over the lack of sleep. We're in the process of moving house & once we're in I'm doing some proper sleep training. I think pick up/put down is going to be the best option for us. I accept there's going to be lots of crying (possibly hours) but at least it'll be in my arms & not by himself.

 

[LeannieB]

Still sleeping badly here. He pretty much sleeps in our bed every night now. He starts off in his cot but always ends up in our bed. For the last two nights he has fallen asleep on his own in his cot with his lullaby on and this has helped with him being more settled until around 1am/2am which is when he comes in our bed. I have always fed him too sleep x

 

[Princesskell]

We were getting better, down to 2 feeds/wake ups and they were getting later, but then K got poorly and its sent us right back to the beginning!
We are going on holiday on Saturday so I'm sure that will cause more problems!

 

[lauraemily17]

Oh ladies, I'm at my wits end. Another night of reuben waking every hour. I was falling asleep with him in his rocking chair which I know is really dangerous so I just bought him into bed. I keep hearing from friends who have bad sleepers that co-sleeping was the only thing that got them through it. Well not my baby, no, he screamed & screamed & screamed for 45 minutes, while lying in my arms, in bed as I stroked & shh'd him. I'm a mess, and very ashamed to say I totally lost it & shouted at him. DH has taken over & is back to rocking him to sleep. It'll no doubt work & he'll sleep for an hour before waking again. I can't keep waking up hourly and neither can DH. He is a police officer & works long shifts & I have a very energetic toddler who I am too exhausted to deal with by the afternoon so we often end up watching hours worth of CBeebies.

I can't carry on like this but don't know what to do.

 

[cazi77]

Feel your pain but sadly have no answers. My dd has woken at 11, 12, and 1.30 it's now 3 and I can't get her to settle at all. We are taking our 2 year old to the zoo today which I'm so looking forward to but I'm Gona be too tired to enjoy it
I'm too scared to even try co-sleeping. Wish I had answers sorry

 

[izzlesnizzle]

I've just read the whole thread and come in on it late. My 5 mth olds slerp is appalling at the moment. He hasn't slept through one single night since he was born and he kept me awake every night from 30 weeks pregnant so I haven't had one full nights sleep for months and months and I'm like a dead woman walking. Last night he was up at midnight, 3, 4 and 6. That doesn't sound too bad when I read some of the post on here but I'm still a total wreck. I have a 3 yr old who is very high energy and tends to repeat herself over and over and over and over unt I end up shouting at her. Her refusal to get ready in the mornings drives me to breaking point most mornings. Ds has started taking longer naps rather than 30 min cat naps but it hasn't improved his night sleep. I've introduced a dummy lately which I'm beginning to regret as that may be part of the problem but it helps naps so much. Night time is a disaster at the moment. He's wide awake at 3-4 most mornings then at 5 again. I'm holding out for 3 meals a day when he's weaning then I'm hoping it will help. I sleep trained dd at 6.5 months and she's been a brilliant sleeper ever since but I think Ds will be different.

 

[cazi77]

Ugh had a rubbish couple of weeks whilst she cut her bottom 2 teeth! The last few nights had been better waking every couple of hours but tonight she is unwell with a temp and I'm struggling to get her to settle at all
I'm so so so tired and my dream is 4 hours sleep in a row! I'd love that so much ha ha! How is everyone else doing?

 

[lauraemily17]

Oh no. I hope it's just short lived until she's better.

We've seen an improvement thank god! We did some gentle shh/pat sleep training but we've also luckily been illness & teething free. We're in a new house now & I also wonder if he's happier in his new bedroom?! Reuben now wakes only once or twice a night. Usually around 12ish then 4ish. To me that's heaven compared to what it was. We even had 1 night where he went from 10 to 4.30!! Im still stupidly tired but not feeling quite so crazy as I was

I'm enjoying it while it lasts, gotta be realistic, he's got another 18 teeth still to cut!

 

[Princesskell]

Eeeeeek sorry cazi
Good news Laura :thumbsup:
We had a lovely 2 weeks holiday but terrible sleep from K (he was in our room though) since we've been home he's been slightly better and some nights we've had just one wake up which is fab. I'm hoping it's turned a corner xxx

 

[cjwn]

Not posted on this one in a while but pleased to see a bit of improvement from most babies. My (now) 7 month old is doing great at sleep after being really shit for the first few months.

Although Sunday night he was up 10pm to midnight, 1am, 3am and then 6am, that's the worst it's been in weeks. He's got a bunch of developmental things going on, he's got a cold and I also think he's teething. However, last night he slept 8pm to 6.45am with only one very quick waking when we went to bed at 10pm. Amazing! Normally he will just have one or two night wakings and occasionally sleep right through. Daytime sleep is getting better too, I can persuade him to nap in his cot for 1-2 hours late morning with one or two afternoon naps of 30minutes or so.

He's like a totally different child and I'm starting to remember what it's like to not be chronically tired every day. Light at the end of the tunnel I hope.

 

[Princesskell]

That's fab news cjwn! Xxx

 

[cjwn]

So the baby slept through Mon, Tue & Wed nights - but my toddler who has been having 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night for the last year or so has suddenly stopped sleeping through!!! And then tonight they've both been up a few times already. FML

 

[lauraemily17]

That is so the story of our lives too. My poor DH has ended up sleeping on the toddlers floor a couple of nights this week! Talk about Sod's law!! :sigh:

 

[susan_1981]

We went through this with my second child. My first was just an angel when it came to sleeping. He started sleeping through from 5 weeks and that was that (although he has regressed somewhat recently and he's now almost 3!) but my youngest was not and still is not a good sleeper. At 4 months, we had just got him down to waking once in the night when boom, he started waking every hour or so. Then at 6 months, we hit our worst phase. He would literally wake up every hour at the very least. It was so draining, especially as we'd kind of got used to him sleeping a bit better (although not all the way through).

At 4 months when he kept waking, we just got rid of his dummy because this is what was waking him - the dummy keep falling out of his mouth. At 6 months, we did the controlled crying. I know it's not for everyone and it's very difficult but it worked for us. We went from waking at least every hour to going through the night. The first night, he woke, I didn't make any fuss or get stressed (which I was finding I was doing because I was so exhausted). I just got him out of his cot, didn't speak to him (know they say not to make eye contact but I couldn't help but do that!), fed him, then laid him back in his bed. Literally didn't say a word to him. Then whenever he woke again, I'd just go in, give him his comforter (if I knew he wasn't due milk) and go back to bed. The second night, he slept for 4 hours straight so only woke once in the night. Third night, he slept straight through although he's still an early riser but I can live with that. He does also occasionally wake in the night but he generally goes straight back off without me even needing to get up. He's just a very light sleeper.

Hope you get some rest soon. It's so exhausting. My second was definitely a much better sleeper as a newborn than when he was between 4-6 months old! x

 

[lauraemily17]

How's everyone's little ones sleeping now? Better I hope.

Reuben turned a corner and actually started sleeping through fairly regularly. Not the 12 hours his brother did but a good 8. It was great, was being the operative word...

It's currently 2.30am & Reuben hasn't slept for any longer than about an hour. I've been downstairs with him while he plays & chats since 1am after giving up trying to rock him to sleep. We appear to have hit a new sleep hell, I actually don't know whether to laugh or cry!! It's been gradually getting worse so not a 1 off unfortunately.

What's even worse is I very vividly remember my eldest going through a sleep regression like this around the same age & it lasted months. it was linked to a big development spurt (which Reuben is also clearly going through) so his poor little brain couldn't switch off. It was really really hard & ive been dreading Reuben hitting it too.

This too shall pass....

 

[cazi77]

We have thankfully turned a corner - for now!!! A few weeks ago she was waking every 40mins! At thd moment she sometimes sleeps through 7-6 or sometimes wakes 1-2 times. This to me is amazing compared to what if was!

Sorry to hear things are tough Lauraemily. I hope it's a short regression

 

[Princesskell]

We've still got one or two wake ups and the only way of getting him back to sleep is with a feed.
And then we have those horror mornings where he thinks 4am is morning!
When will these babies sleep??!

 

[cjwn]

I don't often get bragging rights to anything but J is sleeping 8/9pm to 6/7am most nights, and on nights that he does wake it's only once and it doesn't take us long to get him back down. Hallelujah! I've now packed in breastfeeding apart from when he really needs the additional comfort and I'm so pleased to have my body back. I'm turning 30 in two weeks and feel like I'm finally (joyously) waving goodbye to all the rubbish parts of having a baby.

Although I've gone and said it out loud now so it will probably all go to shit very quickly.

 

[cjwn]

And as I predicted, karma intervened, immediately following my above smug post J was up 4 times between 8pm and midnight, then up for the day at 6.15am, so I am eating my words for breakfast.