Sleepless Nights Support Thread

[ShelbyLC]

I'm having a hard time processing the fact that my two month olds are just now actually reaching the newborn stage and there are still many months of sleep deprivation ahead of me.

 

[MommaAlexis]

Honestly, Lara has been STTN since 2 weeks old. It's not necessarily months. Now, she's getting hungrier and ready for some solids so she's waking at night again. But I knew this and was expecting it between 4-6 months. She wakes every 3 hours to eat, then back to bed she goes. I don't think about long term like that, you'll just wear yourself down. I focus week by week, what am I doing this week. What days do I need to make sure she is asleep, and wear her out completely the day before. Etc. Keep your chin up

 

[Fuze]

We have been up ALL NIGHT!! She has been constantly on the boob mostly comfort sucking - take her off she cries, try to put her down she cries.
I think this may be the sleep regression, if it is I don't know how I am going to cope with this for any extender period As I am back at work now too......

 

[shmoo75]

my LO was an angel up until 3.5mths then the teething kicked in as she cut her 1st tooth bang on 4mths old and the 2nd popped up 11days later plus, she rolled from back to front and pretty quick after that she rolled from front to back. I used to get 7-12hr stretches of sleep out of her at night now I call it a good night of she has 3!!! as a result of her bad night sleeping she is a terrible napper most I get out of her is 45mins. me and DH have had enough on 09/02 we will be doing CC. I know it isn't for everyone it worked with my eldest so, I am doing it with DD2. My poor DH said he is starting to feel his ME is coming back he hasn't felt it for years and his migraines are a lot worse so, for everyone in the house we are doing CC on 09/02 as long as she isn't having a teething night. I wish us all luck in our fight to get our LO's to sleep better no matter what method we use.

 

[lightweight]

D's is 2 weeks old tomorrow. He just doesn't like sleeping at night. In the day he naps for 2-3 hours at a time and we sometimes wake him for a feed. At night dh often takes him downstairs to let me sleep and he settles better in moses basket. Its probably too early to expect much but I don't recall did being as bad at this stage. Poor duh is more knackered than me at no and am dreading him going back to work next week.

 

[angelady]

I'm having a hard time processing the fact that my two month olds are just now actually reaching the newborn stage and there are still many months of sleep deprivation ahead of me.

can empathize with you, i had ~ 1 month premie and experienced the total sleep deprivation initially + colic fussiness for ~ 3 months in total. can't imagine this scenario with twins, but lack of sleep is the same with one, two, or three babies and it isn't easy. i will be hoping that you can just "get through" the first two months...it does get someone easier after that. i ebf for 3 month until lo didn't want my bm anymore, had to put her on soy formula.

good luck!!

 

[teresapk]

my 5mo has been sick for the last 3 weeks, RSV, ear infections, congestion, another double ear infection. we're getting no sleep around here. he used to sleep 5hrs in a row, now we're lucky if he's down for 2. i really hope this new antibiotic helps, i feel bad for him because he's obviously very uncomfortable and in pain and i don't know how to help him. right now he's in his swing and i'm considering trying to move him to the crib in a bit.

 

[angelady]

hi ladies,

just wondering for those of you who are lucky enough to have baby take naps during the day...my little one 4 months--is able to nap now with LOTS of encouragement, but i'm having a timing issue. usually we start our day (i mean out of the crib start to day) ~ 930ish--feed, play, and down for a nap ~ 1130ish..on days like today where she sleeps till ~ 330ish...i have to start my routine all over again but we start to get close to the late afternoon, early evening but not close enough to bedtime to put her down for the night so i end up having to do a 2nd nap kind of late in the afternoon and have to restart her "routine" around ~ 8pm which is when im usually aiming to put her to sleep.

i find the day goes quickly and its hard to get the 2nd nap in without bumping into bedtime hour...not sure how to get around this, timewise, especially since there is no way my lo can stretch her evening playtime till later, she will get way, way, way too fussy and then not be able to sleep at all.

can anyone advise??

thank you!!

 

[girl friday]

DS2 has generally been a good sleeper (aside from growth spurts and illness), however for last couple of nights he has either stirred or woken properly EVERY HOUR.

I don't know what to do or what has changed. we've tried everything we can think of - swaddled, unswaddled, heating a little higher and lower, an extra blanket, fewer blankets, nappy changed when he wakes for a feed, leaving the nappy if it's only a little wet.

As he sounds like he's got a stuffy nose we've put karvol on a teddy in his basket, propped the end of his basket up, tried clearing his nose with a nasal aspirator and even giving him some calpol. He's been stuffy for a while (longer than the bad sleep), so that might just be a coincidence.

We've had the 12 week growth spurt already and it's a little early for the 4 month spurt/sleep regression (he generally hits a spurt a few days "early").

Any advice on what I could do/try? I'm shattered and finding it hard to have the energy to do fun things with a toddler too.

 

[Noelle610]

hi ladies,

just wondering for those of you who are lucky enough to have baby take naps during the day...my little one 4 months--is able to nap now with LOTS of encouragement, but i'm having a timing issue. usually we start our day (i mean out of the crib start to day) ~ 930ish--feed, play, and down for a nap ~ 1130ish..on days like today where she sleeps till ~ 330ish...i have to start my routine all over again but we start to get close to the late afternoon, early evening but not close enough to bedtime to put her down for the night so i end up having to do a 2nd nap kind of late in the afternoon and have to restart her "routine" around ~ 8pm which is when im usually aiming to put her to sleep.

i find the day goes quickly and its hard to get the 2nd nap in without bumping into bedtime hour...not sure how to get around this, timewise, especially since there is no way my lo can stretch her evening playtime till later, she will get way, way, way too fussy and then not be able to sleep at all.

can anyone advise??

thank you!!

I'm generally not a fan of waking a sleeping baby, but I would wake her after she naps for 2 hours. If she goes down at 11:30am, wake her gently at 1:30pm. Then you can put her down for a second nap around 3:30pm. If it's an hour or two, that should work out nicely with your 8pm bedtime.

You are very lucky that LO is taking such great naps at such a young age! That said, 4 hours is too long of a sleep during the day and will cause schedule issues and possible day/night confusion.

Hope this helps!

 

[Noelle610]

my 5mo has been sick for the last 3 weeks, RSV, ear infections, congestion, another double ear infection. we're getting no sleep around here. he used to sleep 5hrs in a row, now we're lucky if he's down for 2. i really hope this new antibiotic helps, i feel bad for him because he's obviously very uncomfortable and in pain and i don't know how to help him. right now he's in his swing and i'm considering trying to move him to the crib in a bit.

I am so sorry! This too shall pass. We went through a month of illness/teething and it really threw sleep off.

 

[Noelle610]

DS2 has generally been a good sleeper (aside from growth spurts and illness), however for last couple of nights he has either stirred or woken properly EVERY HOUR.

I don't know what to do or what has changed. we've tried everything we can think of - swaddled, unswaddled, heating a little higher and lower, an extra blanket, fewer blankets, nappy changed when he wakes for a feed, leaving the nappy if it's only a little wet.

As he sounds like he's got a stuffy nose we've put karvol on a teddy in his basket, propped the end of his basket up, tried clearing his nose with a nasal aspirator and even giving him some calpol. He's been stuffy for a while (longer than the bad sleep), so that might just be a coincidence.

We've had the 12 week growth spurt already and it's a little early for the 4 month spurt/sleep regression (he generally hits a spurt a few days "early").

Any advice on what I could do/try? I'm shattered and finding it hard to have the energy to do fun things with a toddler too.

That's tough, I'm sorry. My LO started her sleep regression at around 3.5 months - went from waking only once at night to every hour. She was also 10 days late, so I think that was a contributing factor.

Does he have any sleep associations that could be making it difficult for him to go back to sleep when he wakes, like a pacifier or being fed to sleep?

 

[girl friday]

No, we do a variety of things, cuddles, rocked, pat & shh, feed, he will self settle to a point. When he stirs but doesn't wake, rocking his basket helps (and I can just stick my arm out of bed to do it!), but it's the frequency of the stirring that's the problem. Feeds are still every 3 hours.

 

[BigAl]

Officially fed up! Not even 2 hours since bedtime and he has been up 3 times already. Can't see this changing anytime soon, thoroughly depressed.

 

[AC1987]

I swear 6 months is so far the hardest I've dealt with, I mean newborn she had a reason for not sleeping. But now I'm just so... annoyed. As SOON as I fall asleep I wake up with her crying... so far 3 times and its not even 10pm.
Its like I don't see a point in sleeping if I know I hafta be awake before I feel rested.

 

[Lauki]

My 19 month old still goes through phases . There's so many reasons they don't sleep well! We are in a bad phase at the moment with her not sleeping well unless she's in bed with us.

I'm thinking it will just pass again as did all the other phases and she'll go back to sleeping through in her bed!

This too shall pass, however crappy it might be at this moment!

 

[MommaAlexis]

I've been running on an hour or two of sleep daily for almost two months now. How I'm not dead and still fully functional is beyond me. She goes to bed at 8 and doesn't wake up til three, but I'm doing homework that whole time. Then I get into bed around 4, at which points she's up at 5,6,7 and 8.

 

[Twister]

The 4 month sleep regression is really hard LO hasn't even been going 2 hours between wake ups and I'm exhausted. I hope this passes soon because i'm so tired during the day that on struggling to enjoy my baby

 

[angelady]

The 4 month sleep regression is really hard LO hasn't even been going 2 hours between wake ups and I'm exhausted. I hope this passes soon because i'm so tired during the day that on struggling to enjoy my baby

yes it is hard, 4 months and a few days now...weird sleep and crankiness with squealing (she learned how to do that a couple weeks ago, and so much fussiness for a ~ 2+ weeks. getting sleep when i can...starting to feel quite depressed and really hoping for a break soon, dont see one in sight yet. so tired, exhausted...thinking of going back to work part-time...

 

[daisydaisy83]

I've been running on an hour or two of sleep daily for almost two months now. How I'm not dead and still fully functional is beyond me. She goes to bed at 8 and doesn't wake up til three, but I'm doing homework that whole time. Then I get into bed around 4, at which points she's up at 5,6,7 and 8.

How about trying to get a few hours (or at least one or two) when she goes to sleep at 8, then doing your work during the night in between her waking?