Sleep Sense Support Group!

[polaris]

Well Thomas must have been exhausted after his weekend away, bless him. He didn't wake for his feed until 5 a.m., and then went straight back to sleep until an unbelievable 8 a.m.!!! I feel so well -rested this morning!

 

[jacs]

AG- 11 days is a lovely, long time. Hope you have a great time, and the routine will be sorted in no time.

TG - commiserations However, like you say, imagine it with no SS! Maybe a few days of 3 meals will settle her down a bit. I'm not sure about what happened with Evan, as his 3 meals coincided with starting SS.

Polaris - Wow! I am very jealous of your lie-in (although hubby did get up with Evan today, so can't really complain!). Wouldn't it be great if Thomas thought 'hey, I don't need to feed at night after all!'?

We had a funny night. One feed, which is normal for us, but Evan was very upset before getting it, then woke up for the day at 5.30am (early by even his standards!), again crying really hard.
He wasn't crying for food, as he refused a bottle, and has long since stopped taking a morning bottle anyway until about 10am.
He's fine though, been playing and had a nap!

Have a good day folks x

 

[aimee-lou]

If it's not one thing it's another

Any ideas how to stop Earl from rolling into the bars of his cot and getting stuck? I had to re-position him 4 times last night.....he was great though, went straight back off but it was every 2 hours like clockwork!! Knackered now lol.

TG - Hope the 3 meals a day works - Earl's eating is still massive, although his weetabix breakfast this morning (first time he's had it ) seems to be keeping hunger locked up til lunch lol.

Polaris - Awwww, congrats on the lie in.....what's one of them again? lol

Oh and, during the day we're struggling to time monster's naps as he's currently extending his sleep cycle between 2-2.5 hours. Used to be 2 hours on the dot......darn it. Also got ubby at home for 4 days this weekend and while I love having him at home he just doesn't get how important naps, and the timing of naps, is to a LO. He keeps him up far too long but I hate stopping them playing.......

 

[aimee-lou]

jacs - could it be teeth?

 

[Arcanegirl]

Aimee sorry to say it was a phase we had to ride out, At that age Alex kept rolling front to back then waking because he wouldnt sleep on his back.

 

[history_girls]

Hi there!

Having a quick forum whilst in a free at school.

Well she slept like a log last night and I had to wake her this morning in order to be able to get to work. I'm so grateful I got nighttimes sorted before I came back to school,

Don't know about naps today and it is my biggest worry. She was still amazing last evening for being so tired.

TG - was it another mega feeding night?

Polaris - my lo loves the mesh on her travel cot and has taken to drumming nunu against her proper one!

Hope you are all having good days! Year 8 next for me ...

 

[shampain]

Hiya ladies! Hope you dont mind me joining in. We started SS last night and it went really well. Just a bit of background for you: Paddy has alway gone down to sleep no problem and has gone down awake and sent himself off to sleep but for the past 3 months he first started waking at 1am and slowly it got earlier and earlier until this wk it got to 10pm, there was no way he would settle back down in his cot and as a result of this hes either been in bed with me or on the sofa with me and im one tired fed up mummy and daddy aint much better.
So after pulling my hair out AG suggested SS and we tried it last night for the 1st time.
Paddy woke at 11.30 and we left him for 10mins and he was still crying so i went in and resettled him and left the room and he settled down just on 12mins! Then lasted 20mins and started crying again and just settled on 10mins. That was that then until 3am and he cried for 8mins and went off to sleep again til 8.45!!! Im amazed its worked so well so quickly but i am so nervous about tonight...will it get worse??I was expecting last night to me a nightmare and because it wasnt now im dubious!! xxx

 

[history_girls]

Hi there!

Having a quick forum whilst in a free at school.

Well she slept like a log last night and I had to wake her this morning in order to be able to get to work. I'm so grateful I got nighttimes sorted before I came back to school,

Don't know about naps today and it is my biggest worry. She was still amazing last evening for being so tired.

TG - was it another mega feeding night?

Polaris - my lo loves the mesh on her travel cot and has taken to drumming nunu against her proper one!

Hope you are all having good days! Year 8 next for me ...

 

[redpoppy]

SOOOOO after the weekend I decided to get in tune with my baby and I'm not going to do any strict method or training as of yet. Im' going to bond with my baby and follow my instincts. Hopefully. if I don't fall apart!

but just wanted to say: baby fell asleep after 11 mins of grizzling. It's kind of like crying but the "i'm sleepy I don't know what to do" type of half hearted crying. She's been in the cot now for nearly half an hour. I can quickly do a quick tidy up hopefully! I'm so happy.

I think when she's in a bad mood or I've missed her window she's just not going to be able to sleep so I'm not going to push it by trying for an hour. I don't feel right doing that. I also don't think there's anything wrong with it but my emotional state is too weak to deal with it!

 

[polaris]

SOOOOO after the weekend I decided to get in tune with my baby and I'm not going to do any strict method or training as of yet. Im' going to bond with my baby and follow my instincts. Hopefully. if I don't fall apart!

but just wanted to say: baby fell asleep after 11 mins of grizzling. It's kind of like crying but the "i'm sleepy I don't know what to do" type of half hearted crying. She's been in the cot now for nearly half an hour. I can quickly do a quick tidy up hopefully! I'm so happy.

I think when she's in a bad mood or I've missed her window she's just not going to be able to sleep so I'm not going to push it by trying for an hour. I don't feel right doing that. I also don't think there's anything wrong with it but my emotional state is too weak to deal with it!

Redpoppy, that sounds very similar to what I do - if it really doesn't look like Thomas is going to fall asleep then I am not able to keep trying for an hour, I just don't feel comfortable with it either. I know that normally he is asleep within ten minutes so if he isn't asleep after twenty five minutes or so then I just get him up and feed him or bring him out for a walk or whatever I think will help. I don't see anything wrong with this for the moment. If he had really bad sleep problems and what I was doing wasn't working, then I would definitely try to be totally consistent - but I do think that there is room for some flexibility once things are generally moving in the right direction.

 

[Arcanegirl]

Shampain lots of luck for tonight

 

[jacs]

Hiya ladies! Hope you dont mind me joining in. We started SS last night and it went really well. Just a bit of background for you: Paddy has alway gone down to sleep no problem and has gone down awake and sent himself off to sleep but for the past 3 months he first started waking at 1am and slowly it got earlier and earlier until this wk it got to 10pm, there was no way he would settle back down in his cot and as a result of this hes either been in bed with me or on the sofa with me and im one tired fed up mummy and daddy aint much better.
So after pulling my hair out AG suggested SS and we tried it last night for the 1st time.
Paddy woke at 11.30 and we left him for 10mins and he was still crying so i went in and resettled him and left the room and he settled down just on 12mins! Then lasted 20mins and started crying again and just settled on 10mins. That was that then until 3am and he cried for 8mins and went off to sleep again til 8.45!!! Im amazed its worked so well so quickly but i am so nervous about tonight...will it get worse??I was expecting last night to me a nightmare and because it wasnt now im dubious!! xxx

Hi, welcome!
That's such a great start!
For us, it was exactly the same. After the first bedtime we never looked back! I couldn't believe it was that easy, and that fast.
Of course, we have times when Evan takes longer to go to sleep, but he often sleeps through, if not, he has one feed then straight back to sleep. Naps have also got longer, but I don't know if that's an issue for you?

AL - Guess it could be teething, although he's showing no signs today. I'll see what happens tonight.

 

[polaris]

Hiya ladies! Hope you dont mind me joining in. We started SS last night and it went really well. Just a bit of background for you: Paddy has alway gone down to sleep no problem and has gone down awake and sent himself off to sleep but for the past 3 months he first started waking at 1am and slowly it got earlier and earlier until this wk it got to 10pm, there was no way he would settle back down in his cot and as a result of this hes either been in bed with me or on the sofa with me and im one tired fed up mummy and daddy aint much better.
So after pulling my hair out AG suggested SS and we tried it last night for the 1st time.
Paddy woke at 11.30 and we left him for 10mins and he was still crying so i went in and resettled him and left the room and he settled down just on 12mins! Then lasted 20mins and started crying again and just settled on 10mins. That was that then until 3am and he cried for 8mins and went off to sleep again til 8.45!!! Im amazed its worked so well so quickly but i am so nervous about tonight...will it get worse??I was expecting last night to me a nightmare and because it wasnt now im dubious!! xxx

Hi Shampain, welcome! Your LO is a good bit older than mine so it is probably a bit different - I haven't actually read through the sections of sleepsense for older babies. However my experience is that it gets better rather than getting worse - although there is always the odd day/night where things just don't go smoothly. Good luck for tonight and try not to worry too much, hopefully it will be even better again.

 

[jacs]

SOOOOO after the weekend I decided to get in tune with my baby and I'm not going to do any strict method or training as of yet. Im' going to bond with my baby and follow my instincts. Hopefully. if I don't fall apart!

but just wanted to say: baby fell asleep after 11 mins of grizzling. It's kind of like crying but the "i'm sleepy I don't know what to do" type of half hearted crying. She's been in the cot now for nearly half an hour. I can quickly do a quick tidy up hopefully! I'm so happy.

I think when she's in a bad mood or I've missed her window she's just not going to be able to sleep so I'm not going to push it by trying for an hour. I don't feel right doing that. I also don't think there's anything wrong with it but my emotional state is too weak to deal with it!

Redpoppy, that sounds very similar to what I do - if it really doesn't look like Thomas is going to fall asleep then I am not able to keep trying for an hour, I just don't feel comfortable with it either. I know that normally he is asleep within ten minutes so if he isn't asleep after twenty five minutes or so then I just get him up and feed him or bring him out for a walk or whatever I think will help. I don't see anything wrong with this for the moment. If he had really bad sleep problems and what I was doing wasn't working, then I would definitely try to be totally consistent - but I do think that there is room for some flexibility once things are generally moving in the right direction.

Totally agree. I think it says in the book that after 20mins they probably won't sleep. That's one of the great things about SS though. It gets that you know your child's sleeping habits so well, that you can be confident saying 'oh they're ALWAYS asleep by now, so I know it's not going to happen this time'.
A few times recently, Evan hasn't has his last nap at all, despite showing sleepy signs. We just get him up for a bit, and start his bedtime routine a bit earlier. I'm thinking this nap may be on the verge of getting phased out.

Does anyone know what to expect in the way of naps at say, 8 months/10 months/12 months?

Jx

 

[Arcanegirl]

I think at 12 months youre looking at naps being phased to one long one in the afternoon, though were not there yet. Id say for the past 2 months weve been at 2 naps a day each one 1-2 hours long.

 

[TennisGal]

RedPoppy - sounds like a plan, and sounds like you already have some good news! Keep us updated on how things go!!

Shampain - welcome!! Let us know how things go tonight, like Polaris says, things tend to get better rather than worse.

P - sounds like a fab night, well done Thomas!

HG - how was today? How are you? How's Phoebe? She's a little star sleeping so well!

AL - I know, I have to tell DH and DD that games are stopping when it's time for a nap...I sound like my Gran, tsking over them and saying 'there'll be tears soon, if there is no nap'

AG - nearly your LO's first birthday!! Have you got something planned?

Jacs - hope Evan is ok tonight...any signs of teething today? Agree with AL, sounds like it could well be a sign of a little pearly coming through

On the nap thing, DD has started to phase out her late afternoon nap, too, Jacs...she has a long nap in the morning, and a decent long nap in the afternoon.

She's gone to sleep a bit earlier tonight, as she was jumping around so much - she seemed tired!

Well, we'll see how those feeds go tonight...she had three, good solid feeds...good BFs (six) and a long chat with Mummy and Daddy regarding the huge importance of having a good sleep

 

[Cattia]

Hi everyone! Wow, I am so bad at keeping up with this thread, every time I come here there are about ten more pages. Well, it sounds as though things are mostly going well.
HG, I hope the return to school has gone well, sounds as though Phoebe is coping well with it. It would be great if you can manage fewer hours next year. I'm going back 4 days and telling myself that if I really can't hack it we can somehow find a way for me to drop down to three (hopefully I'll be pg again some time next year

TG - glad that your hideous growth spurt is nearing an end. I am dreading the 6 month one, the 12 week one almost finished me off! They do say that things settle down after 6 moths though so maybe you will notice her getting more settled with her sleep now. I think you've done well to keep going with SS during a growth spurt, I barely knew what I was doing during the last one!

Shampain, welcome, sounds as though you are doing fab with your LO already!

Polaris, glad you had a good trip, sounds as though Thomas has settled right back into his routine again

Redpoppy, I think what Polaris says is right, you have to use any sleep programme just as a guide, at the end of the day your judgement call as a parent is the most important thing. I know that oif I have left Abigaul to self settle for a while and it is not happening I tend to throw her in the pram (well, not literally throw her but ykwim) and take her out. Sometimes I think I do this sooner than I should, because I think, 'well, I'll just wlak into town and get a hot chocolate in Costa...'

Well, things are going OK for us, we have had a few nights recently where we have had just one night feed, but Abigail has a bit of an upset tummy at the moment, doesn;t seem too serious, but her feeding is a bit disturbed, so I think she might wake up more tonight.

Here is the really weird thing, OH has managed to settle her two days running for her afternoon naps. She is terrible at afternoon napping! In the morning she will self settle in her cot, but in the afternoon she goes down OK, then her cries just escalate and escalate until she is full on screaming, and 9 times out of 10 I end up getting her up and taking her out. The other day my mum was over and she said I should leave her for longer, so we left her for 20 minutes and after that even my mum admitted we'd have to give up. Anway, OH just goes in and says in quite a firm voice 'It's sleep time now Abigail, night night' then if she keeps crying, he goes in again, and even from full on screaming she has stopped and gone to sleep! How does he do this? It's not fair! Shame he is not around every day for her afternoon naps!

 

[TennisGal]

Cattia!

Glad to hear things are going well - and hope lil Abigail shakes off her upset tummy asap. That's some quick result on the afternoon nap, thing! I've noticed DD settles much better for DH than she does for me...

Am waiting to see if the growth spurt has calmed down...everytime I say 'surely it must calm down', DD has a 100 feeds in the night, lol! Perfect excuse for lots of choccie!

 

[Cattia]

TG, I think I was producing nesquick during the last growth spurt, I was eating so much chocolate!

 

[Arcanegirl]

TG: were having a family get together at the house, no idea how im going to fit everyone in here