Sleepless Nights Support Thread

[sarah100688]

My lo sleeps from about 10pm to 8am. Gradually trying to bring bedtime earlier so we have an evening. X

 

[lightweight]

I felt human again today because dh let me have 2 hours sleep from 10pm to midnight which was solo nice and he took D's downstairs later on too. Was hoping for similar tonight but dh is snoring away whilst D's refuses to sleep I need to plan some more sleep before it gets me down and too exhausted to fiunction

 

[MommaAlexis]

Cosleeping saves my life. I'm a university student, I cannot afford to have her awake all night.

 

[lightweight]

OK so ds didn't settle and running out of ideas dh took him downstairs. I've now woken up and its so quiet. Part of me wants to go check on them but on flip side am waiting as don't want to disturb! My boobs are ready for feed so not sure will get back to sleep plus my mothers instinct makes me want to check on Ds. . . waiting for them to come up now

 

[brieri1]

I can't believe its taken me this long to find this thread! What a godsend for us exhausted parents! Here's my situation:

My baby girl will be 7 weeks old on Friday. She came after 41 weeks of pregnancy, 21 hours of labor, and an hour and a half of pushing. 9 pound girl. I love her to death and I would do all that over again for her. When we brought her home, she slept great. In her co-sleeper, all the time. Then we found out that it was because of the jaundice, but it didn't occur to me that that would end. Fast forward 6 weeks. We can't get her to sleep on her own. If we get her to sleep, no matter how long we hold her for, she won't stay asleep if we put her down. I can't nurse her to sleep in our bed and leave her there, she will wake within 15 minutes. Today we tried letting her cry for 15 minutes in an attempt to have her self soothe to sleep. Didn't work. She's been sleeping with us at night, but she's waking every hour or two to comfort suck. I'm at my wits end. I don't know what to do. How do I get her to sleep by herself?

 

[MommaAlexis]

First, relax. She's been with you for 9 months. Give her time. If it doesn't work tonight, try again tomorrow. It will work eventually. Babies aren't meant to sleep through the night without you, you can get them too but it's not always easy. You don't need to let her cry, for now just wait it out. I know it's hard, I did not put Lara down for 6 weeks cause she screaaaamed. I slept holding her every night. Now she sleeps through the night in her crib and naps there, too. Everything is changing constantly, what doesn't work today may work tomorrow.

 

[MLC20]

LO has been ill with bronciolitis and got 2 teeth last week as well. We were giving her panadol while her teeth came through but,now they are through I don't really want to give it to her anymore. It did help her sleep though. We have had some rotten sleepless night which I could understand. The annoying thing now is she is better but, she has a hacking cough which wakes her. It is now 1.30am and she has been waking every half hour to hour since 10.30.i have just given her some panadol as the coughing may be hurting her throat but, I am so tired and really need some sleep.

 

[MLC20]

Just read my post from last night not my best piece of writing ever. Well the panadol didn't work and we ended up with her in bed with us. Not sure what is wrong with her she had just started to sleep so well before she got sick. I feel as tired now as I did in those early days. I'm going to have, to take a nap this afternoon otherwise I'm not going to be able to function. My lo is 9 months old, I was hoping that she would finally sleep by now.i can see I have a lot of work to do to get her back into it, I just feel too tired to do it. If I am fortunate enough to have another child I am putting in an order for a sleeper please Mr Stork.

 

[Stressbucket]

Midnight, and LO is on my lap. It's been a lousy day, a friend came over and we ended up talking about my PMD, and I felt bad, and then OH called with some disappointing news. In tears. He's not the only one. I've been crying for hours. I feel like total crap.

Now he is asleep, and I'm holding a baby who will not go into her crib, and this is his shift, the nights. In the morning he wants to go to a friend's place for a toddler birthday party...except I doubt I will get three hours sleep tonight, and it's a very long trek on public transit.

She cries, and he sleeps, and I want to kick him in the head, but he's already had a full, lousy day.

 

[anne.hopeful]

We co-sleep although am trying to transition her slowly using a cot side-cared against the bed....but my question is this - how to get her to fall asleep on her own without cio? I normally feed her to sleep and she stays asleep for 3-4 hours, rinse and repeat.....but she is 7 months now and I think in order for her to stay asleep more than 4-5 hours at a time (which she will do on a good night.....once or twice even 6!) she must go to sleep herself. She is a horrible napper too so any advice would be most welcome. I really dont want to have to bite the bullet with cc or cio as she can sleep in long stretches I know she can settle herself later on.....should I try dream feeding?

 

[MommaAlexis]

What I've been doing is putting her down more and more awake. and I can snuggle with her in the crib, pat her, but do not pick her back up once she's down unless she's REALLY freaking. Once she's doing good with that I'm going to slowly cut out the cuddling/etc little by little

 

[girl friday]

Urgh, the 4 month sleep regression is killing me! He is sleeping worse than he ever has (even through other growth spurts/wonder weeks and bronchiolitis).

I've not had more than 90 mins at a time and am up most nights for 2+ hours somewhere in the middle.

 

[keese22]

Anyone have any tips on getting my 2 week old to sleep in his Moses basket at night ? He naps in I during the day and he's currently napping in his bouncer (although I do jig it a bit when he starts to grizzle)
He's currently sleeping on my chest which is ok but I'd rather he slept in his basket!

 

[gaiagirl]

Urgh, the 4 month sleep regression is killing me! He is sleeping worse than he ever has (even through other growth spurts/wonder weeks and bronchiolitis).

I've not had more than 90 mins at a time and am up most nights for 2+ hours somewhere in the middle.

I'm there!!!!!! Right there with you! We get 2 hour stretches when we used to get 4,3,2 which was totally manageable! I was actually HAPPY with my two wake ups.

Then 16 weeks hit and we went to 4+ wake ups once I was in bed, it's about 5/6 altogether from 7:30-7:30!

We are at 17.5 weeks now, I hope around 19-20 it starts correcting!?!?

Luckily he doesn't (knock on wood) stay awake longer than 20 min but I guess that could be the next thing to go!

 

[Kelly M]

Anyone have any tips on getting my 2 week old to sleep in his Moses basket at night ? He naps in I during the day and he's currently napping in his bouncer (although I do jig it a bit when he starts to grizzle)
He's currently sleeping on my chest which is ok but I'd rather he slept in his basket!

Our son only slept in his swing for the first three months. He just started sleeping in his crib a few nights ago and it's been going well (knock on wood). Before that, he would wake every hour or two if he wasn't swinging. Now, he sleeps in his crib with one, MAYBE two wake ups a night. I think it just takes time. Newborns are used to being in the womb 24/7 so they have trouble sleeping. Try swaddling and white noise. I still do this with ds and he loves it.

 

[AC1987]

really not liking time change (here in the US) its totally thrown my LO off her schedule. Shes just so upset crying all the time. I'm going nuts

 

[Shineystar]

Urgh, the 4 month sleep regression is killing me! He is sleeping worse than he ever has (even through other growth spurts/wonder weeks and bronchiolitis).

I've not had more than 90 mins at a time and am up most nights for 2+ hours somewhere in the middle.

I'm there!!!!!! Right there with you! We get 2 hour stretches when we used to get 4,3,2 which was totally manageable! I was actually HAPPY with my two wake ups.

Then 16 weeks hit and we went to 4+ wake ups once I was in bed, it's about 5/6 altogether from 7:30-7:30!

We are at 17.5 weeks now, I hope around 19-20 it starts correcting!?!?

Luckily he doesn't (knock on wood) stay awake longer than 20 min but I guess that could be the next thing to go!

I am there too. I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!

since 4 wks she slept wonderfully, never woke during the night at all. hit 3.5 months and bam its all over the place. we are awake most nights every 1 to 1.5hrs. Im sure it is related to the dummy and its time to train her to sleep without so she can settle herself. so we did CC (yes I was desperate) for 2 nights and by night 2 she had slept until 5am with no wake ups. I saw that as an improvement but OH said, he didnt see the problem in the first place!!

the last two night have been even worse. she is awake every hour from 9pm onwards. Maybe i should keep her up later tonight, but she is so knackered from the night before its difficult.

Sleep train or wait it out? I really am starting to resent her (what a horrible thing to say!) and can barely function throughout the day.

I feel like its never going to get better

 

[Noelle610]

Urgh, the 4 month sleep regression is killing me! He is sleeping worse than he ever has (even through other growth spurts/wonder weeks and bronchiolitis).

I've not had more than 90 mins at a time and am up most nights for 2+ hours somewhere in the middle.

I'm there!!!!!! Right there with you! We get 2 hour stretches when we used to get 4,3,2 which was totally manageable! I was actually HAPPY with my two wake ups.

Then 16 weeks hit and we went to 4+ wake ups once I was in bed, it's about 5/6 altogether from 7:30-7:30!

We are at 17.5 weeks now, I hope around 19-20 it starts correcting!?!?

Luckily he doesn't (knock on wood) stay awake longer than 20 min but I guess that could be the next thing to go!

I am there too. I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!

since 4 wks she slept wonderfully, never woke during the night at all. hit 3.5 months and bam its all over the place. we are awake most nights every 1 to 1.5hrs. Im sure it is related to the dummy and its time to train her to sleep without so she can settle herself. so we did CC (yes I was desperate) for 2 nights and by night 2 she had slept until 5am with no wake ups. I saw that as an improvement but OH said, he didnt see the problem in the first place!!

the last two night have been even worse. she is awake every hour from 9pm onwards. Maybe i should keep her up later tonight, but she is so knackered from the night before its difficult.

Sleep train or wait it out? I really am starting to resent her (what a horrible thing to say!) and can barely function throughout the day.

I feel like its never going to get better

She's going through the 4 month sleep regression. At this time, babies begin to cycle through deep and light sleep, just like adults. The vast majority have trouble returning to sleep when they enter light sleep and need a parent's help. Sleep training won't fix this - baby is no longer "sleeping like a baby". This is a phase and it does pass. Take my word for it!

Here's a good article that explains it all:

https://www.babysleepsite.com/how-we-sleep/4-month-old-sleep-regression/

Right now, you just want to make sure she doesn't get overtired, which will cause her to fight sleep and make night wakings worse. I wouldn't keep her up for more than a maximum of 2 hours during the day, which often means starting the soothing process at 90 minutes or so after she last woke. An earlier bedtime rather than a later bedtime will likely help. Beyond that, there's not much you can do but ride it out. We saw improvement around 6 months.

 

[Shineystar]

Thanks Noelle, I really thought it was getting better for a few days but its just gotten worse!! Doing my best to get her to sleep just now but she is fighting it!

 

[Noelle610]

Thanks Noelle, I really thought it was getting better for a few days but its just gotten worse!! Doing my best to get her to sleep just now but she is fighting it!

It's the worst, I know! I promise it won't last.