Sleep Sense Support Group!

[Kiddo]

Sorry to butt in but how long did you wait between contacting the Sleep Sense website & getting your report emailed? I filled out the online form over a week ago and haven't had any emails yet.

 

[polaris]

Sorry to butt in but how long did you wait between contacting the Sleep Sense website & getting your report emailed? I filled out the online form over a week ago and haven't had any emails yet.

I got an email back pretty much straight away - maybe double check that it hasn't gone into your spam filter?

Let us know if you have any questions if you are thinking about trying the programme!

 

[polaris]

Ah, I take it back! Am just so cross with my HV at the moment!! Team ALL contradict each other with advice, so am phoning GP for a good ole rant today.

When are you starting weaning? So exciting, isn't it!

Right, DD has been in her cot for 20 mins...but I can hear hamster sounds on the monitor

Thomas has a new noise too - he puts both hands in his mouth and kind of moans through the hands, it sounds really funny - he was practicing it for about ten minutes after his night feed last night!

We have managed a 35 minute nap - he settled really well for the nap with no real crying (Yay!) - but I think I hear him stirring now. Fingers crossed he goes back to sleep for a bit longer but I'm not too optimistic.

Edited to add: I spoke too soon - he didn't wake up at all, just went into a light sleep and sighed to himself for a bit, all has gone quiet again now - he's been asleep an hour now! Does anyone else just feel stupidly excited when they actually manage to get over that 45 minute barrier?

 

[Kiddo]

Sorry to butt in but how long did you wait between contacting the Sleep Sense website & getting your report emailed? I filled out the online form over a week ago and haven't had any emails yet.

I got an email back pretty much straight away - maybe double check that it hasn't gone into your spam filter?

Let us know if you have any questions if you are thinking about trying the programme!

Thanks. My email system has a pretty much non-existent spam filter so it can't be that. I've tried again using a different email address. I'm at the stage that I'll try (almost) anything to get even a half decent nights sleep!

 

[history_girls]

Ah, I take it back! Am just so cross with my HV at the moment!! Team ALL contradict each other with advice, so am phoning GP for a good ole rant today.

When are you starting weaning? So exciting, isn't it!

Right, DD has been in her cot for 20 mins...but I can hear hamster sounds on the monitor

Right whizzed to shop (not ripples today but cookies yum) and bubba only fell asleep for last two mins in car so I woke her up and we're attempting a nap in cot.

Weaning is very exciting! On sunday lunch at my dads she was in her bumbo but kept trying for the food so we gave her a carrot, an de-pead sugar snap pea and a bit of caulifower. Gummed the carrot, sucked the pea and mushed the cauli with her hand! didn't eat anything but not supposed to really. She hasn't had anything since, but highchair arrives via kiddiecare today! Yippee!!

Hope the hampster noises turn into sleep ones!

 

[history_girls]

Polaris - i email oh at work when we get anything on her own over an hour!!!! Good Thomas! Phoebe is supposed to be nappy but is snogging her sock. hey hum.

 

[CatStorey]

Morning ladies!

Well, last night was hard but worth it to see Chloe smiling instead of yawning thismorning

Chloe woke at 23.45. She just grumbled for 15 mins so I didn't go in but then she started crying so I went in and took up my position on the chair. I didn't want to feed her as I don't normally feed that early and it really wasn't a hungry cry. She cryed for 60 mins!!! All the time you could see she was desperatly trying to go to sleep. After 60 mins she found her thumb and sucked that and started dropping off. It took another 20 mins of part crying part thumb sucking before she eventually went back to sleep. I held her hand and tryed hard not to cry myself. Am I awfull for letting her cry so long? Just the past few days she has been getting histerical cos she is over tired. I can't let it carry on.

She woke again at 4.10am but just grumbling so I waited. 25 mins if grumbling and she went back to sleep. Woke again at 5.30am and chatted with herself until 5.55am when we got up for the day.

I hope that was ok. I do worry cos I didn't feed her but it really didn't seem as though she was hungry. She wieghs nearly 17lb so is well over the weight for going all night without food. Also she didn't drain her morning bottle, just took 5oz and was happy with that!

I am proud though as that was the first night with no dummy and no White noise!!

Congrats History_girl on the birth of your niece x Sounds like you have a busy day

 

[CatStorey]

Sorry to butt in but how long did you wait between contacting the Sleep Sense website & getting your report emailed? I filled out the online form over a week ago and haven't had any emails yet.

I filled in the form 2 days ago but haven't recieved a reply yet. I didn't want to wait so went ahead and bought he program. Got that imediatly.

 

[history_girls]

we might drop the feed tonight as she woke up and was a bit half hearted with her feed!

I think it was a good effort to stick with leaving her to self-settle - she needs to get used to the routine and as the book says if after an hour you pick them up then the hour was unfair on them. why let them cry for an hour if you will pick them up? harder to do in reality so well done you! i cry with her sometimes. Oh is getting better than I am at that.

 

[polaris]

Morning ladies!

Well, last night was hard but worth it to see Chloe smiling instead of yawning thismorning

Chloe woke at 23.45. She just grumbled for 15 mins so I didn't go in but then she started crying so I went in and took up my position on the chair. I didn't want to feed her as I don't normally feed that early and it really wasn't a hungry cry. She cryed for 60 mins!!! All the time you could see she was desperatly trying to go to sleep. After 60 mins she found her thumb and sucked that and started dropping off. It took another 20 mins of part crying part thumb sucking before she eventually went back to sleep. I held her hand and tryed hard not to cry myself. Am I awfull for letting her cry so long? Just the past few days she has been getting histerical cos she is over tired. I can't let it carry on.

She woke again at 4.10am but just grumbling so I waited. 25 mins if grumbling and she went back to sleep. Woke again at 5.30am and chatted with herself until 5.55am when we got up for the day.

I hope that was ok. I do worry cos I didn't feed her but it really didn't seem as though she was hungry. She wieghs nearly 17lb so is well over the weight for going all night without food. Also she didn't drain her morning bottle, just took 5oz and was happy with that!

I am proud though as that was the first night with no dummy and no White noise!!

Congrats History_girl on the birth of your niece x Sounds like you have a busy day

Well done - that is easier said than done to stay with her for 60 minutes - you deserve a huge pat on the back and big hugs!!

It is so hard seeing them crying but I think it helps once you can see that the reason why they are crying is because they want to go to sleep - and that's the skill that you are teaching them. And it is SO worth it once you see the change in them due to getting a proper night's sleep!

I think you were right not to feed her, believe me, she will let you know if she is hungry! My LO is quite a bit smaller, he was still only 13 lb 13 oz last time I got him weighed - although I think he has put on quite a bit over the past week.

 

[flowers04]

yep i second TG regarding Nelsons powder - dd loves it and gets excited when she sees the packet lol

Catstorey - well done for hanging on - 60 mins is a long time - the longest i've sat with dd so far is 1.5 hours and i was crying with her most of the time - hope you have a better night tonight

well we have another problem now - lo is suffering with her eczema - she's had it since she was about two months but never itched or i didn't notice her itching until yesterday - HV said to introduce all foods so i have been giving her dairy, fish and chicken so i think she must be reacting to that - i can't believe it - she is so restless

Polaris i noticed you were hanging on with weaning Thomas - good idea - my HV said to go for it and don't worry as dd wasn't gaining well - im so gutted

happy napping all

 

[polaris]

yep i second TG regarding Nelsons powder - dd loves it and gets excited when she sees the packet lol

Catstorey - well done for hanging on - 60 mins is a long time - the longest i've sat with dd so far is 1.5 hours and i was crying with her most of the time - hope you have a better night tonight

well we have another problem now - lo is suffering with her eczema - she's had it since she was about two months but never itched or i didn't notice her itching until yesterday - HV said to introduce all foods so i have been giving her dairy, fish and chicken so i think she must be reacting to that - i can't believe it - she is so restless

Polaris i noticed you were hanging on with weaning Thomas - good idea - my HV said to go for it and don't worry as dd wasn't gaining well - im so gutted

happy napping all

Oh no, the poor little thing. I had bad eczema as a child which is why I am a bit paranoid about Thomas. My mum reckoned my eczema started when she weaned me onto cow's milk at about 6 months so it could definitely be a reaction to something. I can't imagine that will help her sleep either - I had to wear socks on my arms all through my childhood as I would scratch myself all night.

 

[TennisGal]

well done, Cat just think, things will only get better...

Flowers poor LO, hope you find the culprit asap. We noticed DD had a little bit on her arms and tummy....turned out it was her organic baby bath! Stopped using it, and it cleared up really quickly. Fingers crossed you find the cause v.soon.

Polaris - cute new noise!! So funny how they just discover these things!!
Any joy with the naps today, anyone? We didn't - hamster noises progressed to 'get me out of this cot noooooooooooooooooooow' wails. So, naps have really been on me again. Just don't seem to be getting far with them, but I do think I'm probably not very consistent...

Anyway, she's currently terrifying boy cat by throwing herself into some serious jumperoo bouncing!

 

[history_girls]

Wow! how do people have more than one child? 4 hours of my LO, a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a derranged over excited dog who kept sniffing the HV's crotch has left me needing therapy!

To be honest they were great - Thank God for Peppa Pig and kids tv!!! I'm a bad auntie but needs must! I also got possessive on the colouring in....

LO managed to fall asleep on me during the bedlam, upstairs into her cot for 30 mins but the asda delivery ended it.

Like you TG I don't think she knows it is nap time. For the middle nap she had chilled on me for 20 mins and was so relaxes. So maybe tomorrow we will try chilling out for 20 mins, read the forum out loud etc... We have talking to feet noise that turns into 'I do know the number of childline scream....'

She just manages 20-30 min bursts on her own. will persevere.

 

[polaris]

Wow! how do people have more than one child? 4 hours of my LO, a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a derranged over excited dog who kept sniffing the HV's crotch has left me needing therapy!

To be honest they were great - Thank God for Peppa Pig and kids tv!!! I'm a bad auntie but needs must! I also got possessive on the colouring in....

LO managed to fall asleep on me during the bedlam, upstairs into her cot for 30 mins but the asda delivery ended it.

Like you TG I don't think she knows it is nap time. For the middle nap she had chilled on me for 20 mins and was so relaxes. So maybe tomorrow we will try chilling out for 20 mins, read the forum out loud etc... We have talking to feet noise that turns into 'I do know the number of childline scream....'

She just manages 20-30 min bursts on her own. will persevere.

That's funny, that is exactly what I've been thinking. I've realized that we tend to go straight from loads of activity to bringing him upstairs and putting him in the cot and expecting him to nap and I think he just finds it really difficult to wind down from it all. I have been trying to figure out what's different about the naps that he does go longer than 45 minutes and I think it might be when he's had a proper wind down so that he's reasonably calm going to sleep. So I've also decided that we need a 15-20 minute chill out time, not doing anything too stimulating in the lead up to the nap. Will let you all know if it works.

 

[history_girls]

Polaris - what sort of things are you gong to try to chill?

I thought maybe reading to her or cuddling on sofa listening to music. Not sure what else? We never made it to baby massage so can't do that. She relaxes in her pram but danger of sleep there.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[polaris]

I was thinking of putting on some nice classical music and either cuddling on the sofa (but he's not normally too keen) or 'slow dancing' round the room (which he loves). That's what we did for his third nap today and he was lovely and relaxed and didn't cry going down for it - which makes a nice change. I don't know how practical dancing round the room with him for 10 minutes will be though as he gets bigger and heavier.

He seems to find books pretty stimulating and also is always desperate to eat them (even when they are not baby books, LOL). And he's not really too keen on cuddles on the sofa. Would love to hear other people's ideas too?

ETA - I did the baby massage course and to be honest there is not a whole lot to it. Just strip her off and give it a go, you can't really go too far wrong! Maybe start with the legs and feet as babies are used to being touched in those areas so they take to it quite well. Thomas loves having his back rubbed too but I don't even use the strokes we learned in baby massage for that, I just do my own thing. The woman who was teaching our class said the whole way through that it didn't matter if we didn't do it exactly the same way as her, the most important thing was that baby was getting lots of skin to skin contact and if they are enjoying it that is all that matters. Just use a little bit of oil (we used a mixture of vegetable oil and olive oil in the class) to make it easier to massage her.

 

[CatStorey]

Thanks for the support ladies x It was tough so praying tonight wont be as bad.

For some reason im more worried tonight than i was last night! I actually feel sick thinking about it. I thought i would feel better after getting through night one?!
I dont really know what to do as Chloe is asleep in her pram (im not starting on naps until ive got the nights figured out), she has been there for 4 1/2 hours!! She wont wake
up! Its her bedtime in an hour. I think she might be catching up on all the sleep that she missed this last week. But now she has skipped a feed and ive no idea what to do. Maybe i shoud wake her?

Do you think i should make her bedtime a little later because of this? Or is that going to mess up the program? Help!!

Flowers - Poor lo having exema Its hard to then tru and work out what its from. I hope you will be ok x

 

[TennisGal]

HG, your post did give me a good giggle. I actually quite like Peppa Pig - my niece loves it - I like the little grunt George makes, lol. And nightmare with HV and dog!! Did you get good weaning advice?

I think you and Polaris are right with the wind down time before naps - DD loves dancing too, so may try that. We have Classic FM on most of the day...so perhaps I should break that up a bit. She also likes 'In the Night Garden' when she's seen it...so might try ten minutes of that. We rarely watch anything...so could have ten mins a day. Not sure whether it's a habit to get into or not...thoughts?

Books are far too much, like you say Polaris! She LOVES her 'faces', mirror and crinkly books...and all (inc ours) end up in her mouth, lol.

Massage I do at bedtime, she gets a bit annoyed with it during the day.

I think if we lie down next to each other for a cuddle, that would work. Also, if I sing to her quietly (not my usual belting out that gets her laughing!) she tends to become very calm.

Tbh, she's v. calm when lying on me (when tired) - but as soon as I put her in the cot, NOT happy! I love her lying on me! I know I am not being consistent sometimes...

Cat, I'd probably push bedtime back a little bit - we always do this if DDs nap overruns a little or if it's been a hectic day and things haven't gone as planned. We try not to make it too much later, but I don't think a bit here and there matters.

I know, it's hard and horrid the first few nights. What kept us going was knowing we were teaching DD a real skill, and also knowing she knew we were right there beside her - so no abandoned feelings at all.

Come and have a rant on here before/after

In other news...I am laughing my head off, as boy-cat now looks at the jumperoo as if it's some kind of monster. He was quite curious, but as soon as DD performed her gymnastics - it's totally freaked him out. His ears were back, lol.

 

[polaris]

I normally do wake Thomas from a nap if it's getting too close to his bedtime - yesterday he had to have a late nap as he wasn't going to make it through to bedtime, so I woke him from the nap at 5.30 as he wasn't showing any signs of waking up. He still went to bed at 6.45 although I'd say it took him about 10 minutes of chatting to himself before he fell asleep whereas he's normally asleep in well under 5 minutes at bedtime. He's very used to a 6.45 bedtime though so that's why I wouldn't mess with it more than a quarter of an hour either way. I normally find that he is sleepy at bedtime even if he hasn't been awake very long. But since you are just starting out with the programme, I might move her bedtime a little bit later so that she has a better chance of being ready for sleep. How long does she normally stay awake for before getting tired?