Sleepless Nights Support Thread

[shmoo75]

well, I am hoping for a much better night tonight from my youngest as, all the signs are pointing in that direction. TMI ALERT!!today for the first time in 3 days she has had a normal colour poo nappy. she has had geen mucas poo nappies due to swollowing the rotten stuff so, at least I know that has virtualy gone now. she has been asleep since 20:40 and I have seen her on the video monitor fidgeting, turning her head and going from laying on her side(I put her down on her side to start off with)onto her back she hasn't actually woken up plus, I have been moving some stuff around in our makeshift bedroom and all is still good. giving it until 20 past before I go to bed.

Now just need my toddler to sleep through as, she is being a pickle and disturbing 3-4 times in the night the last couple of nights. I think her problem is her bowels she hasn't really been very much and, her appetite and drinking has gone down hill rapidly so, will be giving her some lactolose tomorrow morning and before bed tomorrow and the same on sunday to see if that will improve her easting, drinking and sleeping.

here is to us all having a better night tonight. baby sleeping being sent to one and all.

 

[anne.hopeful]

had a fantastic improvement last night. She slept 7-7.40, then 8.15-0.40 in her cot!! And then she was awake for 2 hours kind of cluster feeding, before sleeping again on and off until 9 this morning. I hope this trend continues and that she will manage to sleep for an even longer stretch! But we are breastfeeding so I appreciate that she still needs feeds through the night.

 

[vintagecat]

We're having some success tonight so far. I put her down to sleep at 7:30 PM and it's now 10 PM... This is the longest stretch of sleep she's had since she was about 2 weeks old. Otherwise she has only been sleeping in stretches of about 40 minutes. I'm hoping that we can continue to help her sleep better. It will make all of us much happier!

 

[AngelofTroy]

LO seems to sleep longest and deepest from 6am! Been up all night just feeding, burping, changing, then he'll doze on me then need to burp again and suddenly there's space in his tummy for more milk lol! Just like yesterday though, he finally went to sleep in his cot at about 6am and is still asleep now.

 

[anne.hopeful]

very mixed last night....she slept for 2 hours, then a one and half hour stretch both in her cot....then wouldn't settle so back in bed with me....then back in cot for last morning sleep until 9, fed and now she is playing on her playmat. Was nice to finally get some "Mum and Dad time" though ;-) just wish she would stay in her cot all night! Want my bed and proper duvet back. OH had to go to other room unfortunately because he snores and I think was keeping LO from settling well. Haha....oh well, baby steps! Hope everyone else's nights are also slowly improving.

 

[lysh]

We had 11 wake ups Fri. night, down to 7 wake-ups last night with a few 2 hour stretches. We are also working on training her to sleep in the cosleeper for naps and during the night. I had to hold her for 95% of naps for the last 3 months and she would spend most of the night in bed with me. My bed has a quilted top and I have not been comfortable with that. The other night, when she was in bed with me, I was smooshing her face with my hand.....so enough is enough. So yesterday she slept in her cosleeper for 3 naps and she spent 80% of the night in it. Now all I need is for her to have longer stretches of sleep and to settle down quicker when transitioned into her cosleeper. Once she gets this down, we can eventually get her into her crib. I am one tired mama though.

 

[Noelle610]

Lysh, that sounds exhausting! But great progress. I've found consistancy is key, even when it's slow going.

A few nights this week, by baby has sounded really restless... Just kind of shuffling around in her crib all night. I can hear it on the monitor and its waking me practically every hour. I wonder what could be going on.

*sigh* I keep telling myself the day will come when I won't obsess about sleep. It seems light years away.

 

[lysh]

Lysh, that sounds exhausting! But great progress. I've found consistancy is key, even when it's slow going.

A few nights this week, by baby has sounded really restless... Just kind of shuffling around in her crib all night. I can hear it on the monitor and its waking me practically every hour. I wonder what could be going on.

*sigh* I keep telling myself the day will come when I won't obsess about sleep. It seems light years away.

lol....it is amazing what we obsess about as parents. I find I am obsessing about sleep and/or poop. My lo sometimes shuffles a lot too...I think she will wake up and then she does not.

 

[Noelle610]

Lysh, that sounds exhausting! But great progress. I've found consistancy is key, even when it's slow going.

A few nights this week, by baby has sounded really restless... Just kind of shuffling around in her crib all night. I can hear it on the monitor and its waking me practically every hour. I wonder what could be going on.

*sigh* I keep telling myself the day will come when I won't obsess about sleep. It seems light years away.

lol....it is amazing what we obsess about as parents. I find I am obsessing about sleep and/or poop. My lo sometimes shuffles a lot too...I think she will wake up and then she does not.

Ah yes, poop... I hear you!

I was chatting with a friend today about Charlotte's reflux and she said, "Oh, is that why she doesn't sleep through?". I don't know why this bothered me. I like this friend! I wanted to say, "No, it's because she's a baby!". I know her reflux likely contributes to night waking, but I also know that there is a wide variation of normal in terms of how 4 month olds sleep. I guess I just don't like to be made to feel like there's something *wrong* with my girl because she doesn't yet STTN.

 

[shmoo75]

I hear you on that one. My LO was STTN until this last cold coinsided with her starting the 4mth sleep regression early, teething and trying to roll over(which she did for the first time last night from back to front) I would never ask if a friends or family members baby is STTN yet or not as, we know they can do one week and the next 4wks are hell for one reason or another and, I think sleep is the main thing us Mum's(especially 1st time Mums)obsess about and stress out over at the drop of a hat.

I've still been having a nightmare with LO(toddler is STTN thank god!)this bloody mucas is hanging around something awful. Looks like I will still be sleeping downstairs on the blow up bed with LO in her crib for part of the night and on me for the rest. Roll on Saturday 27/10 as, that is when the grandparents are having the kids so, me and DH can have some sleep and rest and relax.

 

[anne.hopeful]

LO is having a nap now....but been awake all morning so not sure what that means for tonight. She is now sleeping in 1-2 hour stretches during the night but is allowing me to put her in her cot repeatedly so I guess it is progress of a kind. Am exhausted, but kept going through the process until about half three this morning and then brought her into bed with me. Tonight will be the 7th night since moving her to her cot...hoping just a few more nights and she may sleep a bit longer in one go?? Friday night she did almost 4 and a half in one go but not repeated it so am wondering if it was just a fluke

 

[Samiam03]

I have a newborn and a two year old who seem to be double teaming me! I'm always exhausted and when my 2 year old actually takes a nap during the day, that is when my newborn decides to have her crying fits. The moment she finally goes down to sleep, my 2 year old goes down! And the newborn doesn't like sleeping until midnight. Just awful. I hope this will pass soon!

 

[BlondeShorty]

I'm losing my mind.
I need some suggestions and I warn this may be a little long.. so I apologize but I want to make sure I have all the info that's needed..

My 6 month old stopped STTN at about 4 months. Part of the reason has been teething, sleep regression and now I think separation anxiety.

DH kept bringing him in to sleep in our bed which I don't think helped matters. I was also quite ill at one point so would cuddle him in bed till anywhere between 9 and 11 am so I wasn't walking downstairs with him while feeling dizzy as hell.
This past week I've been trying to get him into a routine of

5-7AM- up
7-9AM - breakfast (depends on how hungry he is, I usually start prepping things once he's up and feed him soon as he gets fussy)

Then I'm trying to keep him up until 11 or noon so he can nap before lunch and then have lunch.

After lunch I want him up till about 3 and then he can have another nap.

5pm- supper and then usually bath time
7-8 pm - bedtime

This has not been happening to say the least. But this used to be what worked out perfectly.
Here's what happened yesterday and the start of today. Any advice would be welcomed as I'm getting frustrated.

He's been napping sometimes around 11AM which I've been fine with because then he gets lunch once he's up.
So yesterday I woke him up at 8:30 - I wanted to get him up at 6 but he'd been up all night nursing and I was too exhausted to move. Instead I've been getting him up a half hour earlier each day in hopes of building up to getting up at 5 or 6 again. Once DH got up at 10 I went back to bed and he watched him for me and he had a nap from 11-12 when he woke up screaming.
I put him in his crib around 3 but he refused to nap so I took him out after a while and let him stay up. He fell asleep around 6- I was unable to keep him awake. Then he woke up at 7 pm which I was sort of expecting. I was able to then keep him up until about 9 as he fell asleep when nursing and I was unable to get him to wake up. The plan had been to try keep him up till 10 or 11 at this point but I figured 9 was just as good. .. Then he woke up about 11. .. Then at 1 or 2 and then at 3.
.. And then I woke up this morning with him in the bed with me. He was all full of energy and I'm beyond exhausted. I know he nursed throughout the entire night.. I just don't get where he's getting this energy as from what I can tell, he only slept for about 8 hours total in a 24 hour period yesterday. .. And that's me being generous.

So this morning I got up with him at around 6:30 (closer to when we used to get up) and he had breakfast at about 7:30. At about 8:30 he was starting to nod off and was fussing quite a bit so I put him in his crib and tried to nap in my bed. .. He woke up screaming and crying at about 9ish. .. I ended up breaking and brought him into my bed and we both napped until 11 as I had been unable to fall asleep and desperately needed sleep at this point. I couldn't keep my eyes open..
I feel like I failed by letting him nap with me and for napping so long but it was needed so I figure I'm just going to move on from it.

Now what? I'm going to feed him lunch as usual and try to get him to nap again at 3 in his crib.. but what do I do tonight? Put him down at when he used to sleep through at 8PM and just hope for the best?

I'm trying to sleep when he does but this is getting bad. I felt like I was coming out of a coma this morning and almost wanted him to go back to sleep with me so I could sleep longer!

Has anyone gone through this and gotten their baby back to SSTN? For the most part at least? I thought for sure he'd be back to STTN by now!

 

[MommaAlexis]

Maybe one thing at a time?? I figure trying to get him to sleep on his own AND on a schedule may be a little too much?

 

[Samiam03]

Wow! My kids' sleep actually overlapped and I got a 10 minute nap before the newborn started fussing...=/ Go me?

 

[daneuse27]

My baby has been an excellent night sleeper since she was born. She's 8 weeks now and has been sleeping anywhere from 5-8 hours per night ever since she was a month old. Even before that when I had to wake her up every 3 hours, she would go straight back to sleep after night feedings so I still got rest. Its not until reading other horror stories that I realize how lucky I am.

My tips may or may not be helpful, since I think a large part of why she's a good sleeper is her personality, but I hope some of them will help nonetheless. So you may have tried a lot of these tricks, but I'll write them down anyway:

1. Become in tune with WHY your baby is crying when they wake up. In my daughter's case, its often just a gas pain. If its hunger, or something else, I'd have to take her out and fix the problem. However if its just her gassiness again, rather than pick her up and disrupt her sleep even more, I offer her a pacifier while she's laying down in the crib. This calms her back down into a sleep, and then I remove it from her mouth (to prevent a future dependency on the pacifier, which I heard can also affect sleep)
2. Really bundle them up. My daughter sleeps better when she's warm. Dress them just a little warmer than you yourself would need to be. There have been a few nights where temperature has dropped below zero where I live, and on those nights (only) I let her sleep in my bed for the added warmth and that was the only way she could sleep.
3. The cot is a hard surface, maybe try putting a blanket down first where they'll sleep in case they prefer a softer surface. Obviously you don't want it to be too soft. But I find my baby prefers how cosy it is with a little cushion rather than lying flat on the mattress.
4. Make sure they're in a deep sleep before you put them down. My daughter grew out of needing me to do this, but it was a requirement in the beginning. Look online for signs that your baby is DEEP asleep rather than only lightly asleep. And then put them down as softly as possible.
5. Try white noise. I use a fan pointed at the wall occasionally.
6. Gripe water If they're fussy, or if the reason they have trouble sleeping is gas pain.
7. Have a routine. My daughter has a sleep-wake-feed-activity-sleep schedule, and it works very well. Its so important! It means she has a balance of eating, awake time and sleep. It ensures that she's not hungry and is completely tired by nap or bedtime. If she needs extra food, I'll nurse her before sleep but not every time. She's awake for 2-4 hours at a time usually, and then sleeps for 2-4 hours.
8. Try a bedtime ritual. Currently, my ritual is that I nurse her to sleep, which may or may not be a bad habit but its working for us now. Some people do a story, song, or bath. Whatever it is, it'll trigger "bedtime" thoughts in them.
9. Swaddle them, if they like it And do it tight enough so they can't kick out of it. My daughter needed it tight in the beginning, because she always fought her way out, waking herself up.
10. Don't talk to them, sing or play with them when they wake up at night. Keep quiet and keep the lights low. They need to learn that its down-time and not play time. I play and am active with my daughter during the day, but I use a dimmer at night and keep it as dark as possible (so that I can still see) but talk to her in almost a whisper. I believe it sends good signals!

I'm sorry if you've tried these or if they're very standard, I'm a new mom and this is what is working for me. I hope there's at least one new idea on the list you can try, and even more so that it makes a difference!

Good luck!

 

[Nona]

Thanks again for comments. I've tried a bedtime routine since he was born having playtime, bath, jammies, bottle, singing to him then bed. I still persist with this routine even though it doesn't work I'm hoping that if I carry on he will eventually get the message. He suffered with relax for a while between 3 and 4 months which he was prescribed Zantac and I had a sleeping wedge in his bed. He grew out of the reflux and got fed up of the wedge on his cot which I first thought could have been the problem. He used to like being swaddle as a young baby but soon got fed up with it when he could wriggle out of the swaddling, he also get very sweaty clammy feet so I figured he could b like me and get hot feet when he sleeps, so I tried switching to pjs that didn't cover his feet instead of him wearing a onesie to bed. I'm considering buying a grow bag for him to sleep in as he does fidget an tend to kick his covers off. I've always done night feeds etc in complete darkness and never spoken to him or made eye contact during that time and I don't change his bum unless its a stinky one! �� When he was born I downloaded an app for my iPhone called comfort sleeper where you could choose from a range of noises to play ad it automatically came on if baby made a noise or stirred, he seemed to like the womb noises for a while but like everything else that soon changed. He's staying with his nanny tonight so I can recharge my batteries with a full night sleep I'm feeling very anxious about being away from him for the first time but in hoping that with me being refreshed ill be able to be more afficiant and he will feel the difference too.

 

[Kat541]

My pediatritian told me babies "shuffle" around when they are working on a poop...

My guy makes it obvious because he grunts and groans, pulls his legs up to his chest, and his face gets all red. He really seems to have a hard time, poor guy! He seems to shuffle around if he's gassy too.

 

[anne.hopeful]

Wow, my baby slept the whole night in her cot last night!!
7-7.50 fed at 6
8 - 0.45! fed 1am
1.20 - 4.30 fed 4.30
5.15 - 7.30 fed and now changed and playing
still doing 2 night time feeds as you can see, but talk about progress....have transitioned her from co-sleeping to cot in our room in under two weeks and with pretty much no tears! I read the no cry sleep solution and I liked it. Also bought the Prince Lionheart slumberbear that has womb sounds and it really helps. Hope others are seeing some progress too

 

[Momma2Nessa]

Oh God help me...

My LO is 12 weeks and she is just an angel all day... but 2am hits and shes a terror! she screams and screams until 7 am when i give up and get her up for the day... I nurse her until she falls asleep, but once i put her down shes awake in 10 minutes... i'll walk with her, bounce her, rock her - doesnt matter, she just screams.... 6 days now... before that she was sleeping through the night, but we just moved. I'm so exhausted.