Sleepless Nights Support Thread

[Sarah10]

I'm going mad here!!
Someone save me..

 

[snowy-willow]

Not ventured into here yet but thought i would tonight.

I am so exhausted. Ella just wont settle in her crib. She sleeps fine in her moses basket in the day but wont sleep in her crib. We have tried using her moses basket at night but again she wouldnt settle. She will only settle on my chest or in our bed. I really dont feel comfortable with her in our bed, we only have a double and are both on the larger side so no a huge amount of space. I am scared the duvet will cover her face so we have to have it really low down making both oh and i cold (ella has a sleep bag). Also oh goes to work at 2:30am so am scared of having her in bed on my own when he is gone as there is nobody the other side of her protecting her.

 

[stevie123]

we are having such random nights here! every night is different. charlie is 7 months old now and really hoped he would be sleeping better by now.
thu night -slept 8.30pm till 7am with just one wakeup at 4am for feed!
fri night - slept 8pm till 6.30am with numerous wakeups and an hour of screaming at 1am (came into our bed in the end as was waking so much)
sat night -slept through 8pm till 6am!
lastnight - slept 7.45pm untill 6.30am with wakeups at 8.30pm and 2am for a feed.
he keeps us on our toes, you never know what to expect! at least things are slightly improving, as a month or so ago every night was bad with several wakeups.

sarah10 - really hope jayden starts sleeping better for you soon, i feel for you i really do x

 

[Babydayz]

ruby wakes up to 6 times a night sometimes every hour. im v ill atm and just want to sleep

Ugh...I'm feeling like crap too...and have a little one who is up every 1-2 hrs also! Now, her naps are getting worse too. Im literally typin this on my phone with one eye open. The other is burning so bad from tiredness. Get better!

Do you breast or bottle feed hun? When your LO wakes how do you get her back to sleep? I am currently trying to move away from using the boob as a pacifier and means to send him back to sleep but it's not easy watching him cry in my arms as he wants boob. I am not sure what else to do, nothing comforts him.

Wondering if you've found a way to settle without nursing that doesn't involve screaming on LOs behalf?! I'm so at a loss of what to do. I can't listen to DD cry it breaks my heart.. So that literally leaves no options. I have tried the past few days to put her in her crib to sleep awake. YAH RIGHT! She just paces back and forth screaming for me. I know this is all my fault, nursing her to sleep for this long. But it just seems so natural to me. I swear everyday it's getting worse too. She goes maybe 2-2 1/2 hrs the 1st streach of the night, then every hr..maybe 2 after that. This all started not long before the 4 month mark, just things never got better.

 

[Lillylemon]

Ah hun, we are the same, it's so frustrating isn't it. On the odd occasion I watch him and he goes back to sleep on his own but never for long. Mine is teething so think it's making things worse but he's never slept longer than 4 hours and this was only once, one evening about a month ago. We co-sleep as I couldn't cope otherwise. For the past 3 nights he has woken every hour, or more, during the evening. His teeth are just coming through so perhaps this is why. He went down better tonight.

I nurse to sleep too - and for naps. I don't mind doing it but I feel like a complete failure at the moment. Everyone at my breastfeeding group, even the ones with newborns, are getting huge stretches of sleep and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong??! Hubby says I need more confidence in myself so it's nice he's supportive.

 

[sjminimac]

hey ladies. Haven't posted in here for a while but that doesn't mean i haven't needed to, have just been too tired to! We put charlie in his own room 3 nights ago. First night was terrible and my day started at 3.20am the next day! The next night was better, bed at 9pm and up at 7 with 3 wake ups for feeds, but 2 of them it took an hour to put him back down. Tonight has been bed at 9.30, wake 12.30 till 1am, slept till 3, woke for feed 3am till 3.30 then awake at 5am currently feeding. So still not great but better x

 

[Babydayz]

Ah hun, we are the same, it's so frustrating isn't it. On the odd occasion I watch him and he goes back to sleep on his own but never for long. Mine is teething so think it's making things worse but he's never slept longer than 4 hours and this was only once, one evening about a month ago. We co-sleep as I couldn't cope otherwise. For the past 3 nights he has woken every hour, or more, during the evening. His teeth are just coming through so perhaps this is why. He went down better tonight.

I nurse to sleep too - and for naps. I don't mind doing it but I feel like a complete failure at the moment. Everyone at my breastfeeding group, even the ones with newborns, are getting huge stretches of sleep and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong??! Hubby says I need more confidence in myself so it's nice he's supportive.

I think getting into the cosleeping/nursing pattern is a hard one to break. Since my last post, I got DD down for both naps yesterday without nursing( this is a major breakthrough). I wrapped her in a blanket like a burrito lol held her tight and walked around the room shhhhhing her. It was actually fairly easy. The she woke up 1 hr after being put in her crib to sleep last night and when I went to her she was of course standing up. So, I wrapped her up and walked the house..and lone behold she nodded off quickly. She then woke up 2 1/2 hrs later and this time I just wrapped her up and layed her in her crib patting her bum and kinda shaking the mattress. Well, she moaned and whimpered but off to sleep she went!! Now, the next time she woke I brought her to bed with us and downhill things went but baby steps!! If there is hope for my situation, there is definitely hope for others. The only thing that's changed in the past while is her 2 front teeth cut through completely and I think this has given her some relied as she's less irritable in general!

 

[cabaretmum2b]

Think it's time for me to venture into here!
Scarlett seemed to go into the 4 month sleep regression around Christmas and stsayed there. We are now lucky if she goes to sleep at about 2am - usually it's 4am, and today it's coming up for quarter to 5 and she's still wide awake! It's horrible, because then she sleeps until the afternoon and so do we because she hasn't woken us and then the whole day's gone! We've tried getting up early to get her to go to sleep earlier but it doesn't work! Help!

 

[maryiv]

My kid sleeps... but the problem is I live in an Islamist country where they have these prayer calls.... I completely understand that its their right to pray and have these prayer calls. But prayer calls in the middle of the night waking up the baby is quite annoying. My baby wakes up crying listening to those calls and keeps awake post that. Finally after hours of trying to put my kid to sleep, its time for their next prayer call....

I hardly get any sleep post 3am! And I am SO DAMN ANNOYED with their prayer calls! The issue is being an islamic country their are mosques every nook and corner.... so one can just imagine when all of them start yelling out in the middle of the night!

 

[Kinda]

Hi
I would really really appreciate some advice. I am having some serious sleep issues with my second son. He has always been a bad sleeper from birth and we worked out it was severe gastric reflux which meant that he was prescribed omeprazole. Unfortunately I left my husband after my second child was 6 weeks old and was under a serious amount of stress. My baby would have to be fed to sleep every night. He is now 9 months old and wakes up several times a night, sometimes not going back to sleep for 3 hours even though I've fed him, rocked him, given him calpol - nothing works! He never naps for longer than half an hour in the day (3 times a day) unless I nap with him or he's in his pram and I can pat him and hold his hands when he wakes up after half hour and get him back to sleep. A week ago I tried controlled crying but is not working - he just cries and cries and cries. I have tried other techniques, but he seems to get used to these (for example when I did shush -pat I had to do that every night to get him to sleep). I am trying to get him down for a nap now and am letting him cry it out - I can see him on the monitor and he crys for 10 mins and then lies down for 2 and then gets up crying again! This happens all night long and at every nap time. I am worried as he is just not getting enough sleep! My sister says just take him into bed with me (where I know he will sleep and nap much better) but that is not convenient as I have a 2 year old who also needs my attention. I am a single mum of two and I am just not coping anymore - I feel like I am really failing as my oldest son was a good sleeper but I spent time with him when he was really little teaching him how to sleep (using baby whisperer techniques) and I used to be able to put him in his cot awake and leave. I haven't been able to do that with my youngest as I was vey stressed when he was little and he has never really learnt to settle himself as I haven't taught him. The situation is now too extreme and I don't know what to do anymore. To top it all we live with my mum dad and sister and they are sick of hearing the baby cry all the time and keeping everyone awake all night - they are going to lose patience soon. Any advice would be much appreciated

xxx

 

[Seity]

We're back to every 1.5 -2.5 hour wakings all this week. I can only hope it means that he's getting ready to walk.

 

[aliss]

Hi
I would really really appreciate some advice. I am having some serious sleep issues with my second son. He has always been a bad sleeper from birth and we worked out it was severe gastric reflux which meant that he was prescribed omeprazole. Unfortunately I left my husband after my second child was 6 weeks old and was under a serious amount of stress. My baby would have to be fed to sleep every night. He is now 9 months old and wakes up several times a night, sometimes not going back to sleep for 3 hours even though I've fed him, rocked him, given him calpol - nothing works! He never naps for longer than half an hour in the day (3 times a day) unless I nap with him or he's in his pram and I can pat him and hold his hands when he wakes up after half hour and get him back to sleep. A week ago I tried controlled crying but is not working - he just cries and cries and cries. I have tried other techniques, but he seems to get used to these (for example when I did shush -pat I had to do that every night to get him to sleep). I am trying to get him down for a nap now and am letting him cry it out - I can see him on the monitor and he crys for 10 mins and then lies down for 2 and then gets up crying again! This happens all night long and at every nap time. I am worried as he is just not getting enough sleep! My sister says just take him into bed with me (where I know he will sleep and nap much better) but that is not convenient as I have a 2 year old who also needs my attention. I am a single mum of two and I am just not coping anymore - I feel like I am really failing as my oldest son was a good sleeper but I spent time with him when he was really little teaching him how to sleep (using baby whisperer techniques) and I used to be able to put him in his cot awake and leave. I haven't been able to do that with my youngest as I was vey stressed when he was little and he has never really learnt to settle himself as I haven't taught him. The situation is now too extreme and I don't know what to do anymore. To top it all we live with my mum dad and sister and they are sick of hearing the baby cry all the time and keeping everyone awake all night - they are going to lose patience soon. Any advice would be much appreciated

xxx

Wow Kinda, you are really thru the ringer I admit in your situation (being a single parent, other young child to care for, burning out), I'd probably resort to CIO with a 9 month old. Have you seen the sleep sense support group in the parenting section? That's one option to try before resorting to CIO.

Gabriel - hope you walk soon and get some sleep! Gabriel is a gummy bear isn't he? Perhaps some good teeth coming in soon. Hope he goes back shortly.

 

[Babydayz]

I hate the world today!! DD slept 3 hrs the 1st stretch of the night. After that, up every 30-mins to 1hr. I was so tired this am when she awoke, I didn't, and she tumbled out of the bed. I feel terrible and so guilty!! Our bed isn't exactly low to the ground, and thankfully her head missed the nightstand. My eyes are burning..and I think I losing my mind. It took 1 1/2 hrs to get her to sleep last night. The no nursing to sleep is going well, but now im trying to mix it up with walking her to sleep and patting/shhhing her in her crib. Im exhausted. When she woke last night I just had to bring her to bed with us and nurse her as I didnt have the energy to pace the house for an hour.
On a positive note, OH said hes gonna get up with DD Sat am so I can sleep in!! We will see how that goes. DD doesn't care to be with anybody but me.

 

[Ms MoneyPenny]

Hi All,
I'm new, so I'll introduce myself first:
I am mum to an 8 month old boy and a 2 1/2 year old girl.
Loving it, but it is hard work!
I just wondered if any of you are using, or have used, any soothing techniques (that don't involve leaving your baby to cry on his own)
for trying to get your baby to go / go back to sleep?
I would love to find out what works and for what age baby.
Thanks and Good Night
MMP x

 

[anna_t]

I think my lo is out of the sleep regression since last week woohooo finally. We had two nights that was really good with 3 wakes up even though the first one was when we went to bed AND he slept in his cot one of the nights which he has refused to do since the 4 month sleep regression. After the 2 good nights we have had on and off as he keeps waking up rolling on to his stomach, sometimes he keeps sleeping and sometimes he wakes up starting to cry.
Some nights he is fine in his cot and some nights he doesn't and I'm not trying to get him in his cot if he wakes up after 2 or 3 attempts.
He is still fed to sleep but sometimes he settles back to sleep by himself if he wakes up.
So this is a big big big improvement and I hope it will last for a little while.
I'm thinking of trying him in his own room as soon as we get a heater for it to see if he sleeps better in there if not I will keep him in our room.
Since just after Christmas he naps on our bed , he used to nap on me + we leave him in our room now when he has fallen asleep for the night, he used to sleep on me every evening until we went to bed. It's so nice having my evening back. A bit of ME time, yay!

 

[aliss]

Congrats anna_t! I don't want to scare you, but once we got through the 6 month regression including the overnight roll-overs, Alex has actually slept thru the night a few times! I hope things look up for you (until we all go through the 9 month regression LOL)

 

[anna_t]

Thanks aliss. The amount of times he has rolled over In his sleep lately is unbelievable. Sometimes he does it 4 or 5 times in a 5 min period. Hope that won't last too long.
Oh god don't talk about the 9 month slee regression! How bad is that one in general?

Ohh, well done Alex, I bet you are really happy about that?

 

[aliss]

I`m proud of him but it`s been a few one-off`s, still up 5x a night last night with bad gas.

9 month is a bad one, it`s the pull-to-stand or walking. It`s as bad as rolling I hear. But its the last major one.

 

[sjminimac]

charlie is fast asleep in his cot in his nursery at 8 o'clock...this in itself is a minor miracle. Only problem is now i am almost literally holding my breath waiting for him to wake. Xx

 

[anna_t]

I`m proud of him but it`s been a few one-off`s, still up 5x a night last night with bad gas.

9 month is a bad one, it`s the pull-to-stand or walking. It`s as bad as rolling I hear. But its the last major one.

Oh god. That will be something to look forward to then.

Well at least he is sleeping better in general and you can't really help if they have a night here and there were they wake up quite a few times. The best thing you probably can do on them nights is to look back to what he used to be like.