Sleepless Nights Support Thread

[kezz_howland]

Wow - you sound a lot like me! How old is lily? George is 10 days old and does the exact same thing... Half the time he finishes a feed and falls asleep and stays down when I put him down (usually in the day) and half the time he will fall asleep then when I put him down wakes straight back up and cries until his next feed. He has done that twice with his last two feeds as I'm sitting here. OH is gibving him third feed and hoping he sleeps after this one so i can catch a couple of hours before the night shift starts! My OH is doing half the night feeds at minute, but he goes back to work in a few days and I'm dreading trying to do them myself if he is still like this!

 

[05mummy07]

Anyone else want to smack the living daylights out of the next person to say 'Oh is your baby still not sleeping properly, so and so has their last feed at 9.30am and is asleep until 5am' Seriously! You're telling a sleep deprived mum THAT!

 

[needshelp]

hoping I can join you ladies! I'm a first time mama to a gorgeous 15 week old boy! however, these past few weeks have been ROUGH! he's decided to get up every hour on the hour and I'm back to work! its sooo hard getting through my days! I can't attribute his lack of slepe lately to one thing or the other! he chews on his hands a lot and drools, but no teeth?!?! any help or support would be greatly appreciated! People keep telling me "it gets better," and ALL my friends constantly rub it in that their babies (same age as mine) sleep from 8 p.m. until 8:30 a.m. without waking up! AHHHHH! what am I doing wrong?

 

[caiis101]

Hello Ladies .. I'm joining in as well. My daughter Amayah was born in December. The last couple of weeks have def been rough. Esp. since OH went back to work last week. At first baby would go down right after feedings. Then when she hit a month she decided that she no longer liked her crib. So we began to swaddle her and it seems to have worked. She now goes down in her crib. However we have some nights where she wakes up for a bottle and will not go back down ( like last night ) she will also have some nights where she wakes up every hour.

We seem to have a good night time routine. We do bath, bottle, swaddle and bed. If we have a good night, she will only wake up twice during the night. However she can take so long to get through a bottle.

This is my first so I am new to it all.

Good to meet you all

 

[kezz_howland]

Hello Ladies .. I'm joining in as well. My daughter Amayah was born in December. The last couple of weeks have def been rough. Esp. since OH went back to work last week. At first baby would go down right after feedings. Then when she hit a month she decided that she no longer liked her crib. So we began to swaddle her and it seems to have worked. She now goes down in her crib. However we have some nights where she wakes up for a bottle and will not go back down ( like last night ) she will also have some nights where she wakes up every hour.

We seem to have a good night time routine. We do bath, bottle, swaddle and bed. If we have a good night, she will only wake up twice during the night. However she can take so long to get through a bottle.

This is my first so I am new to it all.

Good to meet you all

Your situation sounds similar to ours as well so I feel for you. Our little man is only 12 days and last night he took two bottles with no sleep in between before midnight, then after midnight only woke up twice before 9am! It was bliss! But the night before he fed almost every hour until 3am and then was difficult to settle all night. Every night (and day) is different - I wish he was more like last night every night!!

 

[DebzD]

Just wanted to say I am knackered. DD2 is now nearly 5 weeks old and she only let me get 1 hour sleep last night and I can't catch up during the day today because I also have an 18 month old. I haven't been to bed since she was born, I've been staying downstairs with her to try to stop her from disturbing DD1 too much. I miss my bed - even if it was for 3hrs twice a night or something - that'd be bliss!
Just wanted to get that off my chest coz I am feeling like crap

 

[Seity]

Almost 2 years old and he's finally down to waking only once a night most of the time. We still have nights where he wakes twice (like last night), but I'm finally get two 3-3.5 hour blocks of sleep most nights and feel almost human again.
Hang in there and your LO's sleep will improve.

 

[Rodnabell]

Has anyone tried teething powder?!?!? Between 7pm and 8am, LO woke 11 times last night... yawn!! My cousin has brought me teething powder round as this is supposed to be like 'dope for babies...' I hope hope hope it works. I NEED SLEEP!!!

 

[darkangel1981]

I need to join here.... he goes down great, like he always has but keeping him asleep is a whole other game.

sleep regression doesn't look like its ever going.

Even the naps have gone to pot.

yawns, i need caffiene

 

[Squirmsmum]

I need to join here.... he goes down great, like he always has but keeping him asleep is a whole other game.

sleep regression doesn't look like its ever going.

Even the naps have gone to pot.

yawns, i need caffiene

We went backwards again too! Had 2 good nights followed by 5 bad then last night was quite good!

 

[kezz_howland]

I need some advice! My little darling (now 16 days old) will NOT go to sleep in his cot. I have read so much stuff that all says you must let them settle themselves in their cot, but now matter what we try, if we put him down when he's not completely asleep... he stirrs, then starts whinging, then begins to cry. I've also read that if they're over tired they won't sleep... so if I leave him to cry, will he not then be overtired and not sleep anyway? Also I can't bear to leave him to cry! So we feed him, play with him (talk to him) if he has stayed awake long enough, then wait for him to fall asleep in our arms and then put him down. Sometimes he even wakes up then... and we have to re-settle him. Please help... i'm worried I'm going to have a child who needs settling to sleep when he's 2 years old!!

 

[Kasia]

I was on this thread weeks ago. Now I check in just to see what's new. Your lo is sti so young, no "sleep training" is going to be effective for a few weeks. For now you just have to go with your baby's schedule. I know it seems crazy, believe me, I & most ladies here will agree it WILL get better. My lo partied like a rockstar until about 8 weeks old. She slept in a bassinet next to our bed & finally started sleeping more @ night only waking a couple of times & going back to sleep & not staying up for hours. @8 weeks is when I
started having her sleep in her crib. I was so nervous but she did great & now only wakes once (sometimes twice). Last night she was super tired so I put her down @ 7pm & she slept till 6am WITHOUT WAKING!! Mind you, I was up from 3am on waiting for her to wake & then wondering what was wrong LOL!!! Trust me, it may not seem like it now-I thought I would never sleep again- but it DOES get better. Just be patient & a few weeks from now you will look back @ this time & say WHEW

 

[Kasia]

Gosh I sure hope we don't hit a brick wall with the 4mo sleep regression

 

[emyandpotato]

I have been up all night with a hyperactive baby. OH went to sleep at 7 and LO woke at 8. It's 4am and I finally gave up ten minutes ago and asked OH for help. LO is straight asleep. I feel like screaming

 

[darkangel1981]

I hate this frigging sleep regression

is it ever going to end?? Baby is crabby, i am crabby..... zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[kezz_howland]

I caved last night and co-slept with George most the night. He had gone down in his moses basket but he was grunting, squeeling, sucking, pushing and all sorts in his sleep, not to mention moving around like a nutter. I couldn't sleep cause I had to keep checking on him with every noise and I was starting to go insane! In my bed he slept calmly and with hardly any noise! WTH??

Then this morning we got up and came down... and suddenly he would just not fall asleep. He had 30 mins sleep between 9am and 1.30pm! OH eventually had to put him in car seat and in the car and drive around the get him to fall asleep!! Tomorrow he is back at work full time and I don't know what i'm going to do if I get a repeat performance! He has just been so cranky all day... wouldn't stop moving, wining, crying now and again, pushing. I feel like an absolutely crap mum who has no idea what to do, and wound up crying by midday with utter despair at not knowing how to get him to fall asleep... or even to be content!

 

[Green Lady]

I caved last night and co-slept with George most the night. He had gone down in his moses basket but he was grunting, squeeling, sucking, pushing and all sorts in his sleep, not to mention moving around like a nutter. I couldn't sleep cause I had to keep checking on him with every noise and I was starting to go insane! In my bed he slept calmly and with hardly any noise! WTH??

Then this morning we got up and came down... and suddenly he would just not fall asleep. He had 30 mins sleep between 9am and 1.30pm! OH eventually had to put him in car seat and in the car and drive around the get him to fall asleep!! Tomorrow he is back at work full time and I don't know what i'm going to do if I get a repeat performance! He has just been so cranky all day... wouldn't stop moving, wining, crying now and again, pushing. I feel like an absolutely crap mum who has no idea what to do, and wound up crying by midday with utter despair at not knowing how to get him to fall asleep... or even to be content!

It can be so frustrating, can't it? These little people who can't tell you what they want. Is your baby windy, perhaps? Have you tried Infacol? My baby is 6 months and I struggled for nearly an hour tonight to get her to sleep, she just kept moaning and whinging. I don't know if she was overtired, bad tummy, other? Sometimes you just have to guess.

My baby grunted like a zoo when she was a newborn. I think it's pretty common for them to make weird noises in their sleep. She used to thrash around so much in her basket it would scare me to death! Have you maybe tried swaddling? We had some luck with that, although LO always managed to break free. Good luck!


I haven't checked in to the "club" in awhile, it's all been pretty much the same around here. I managed to move LO's bedtime back from 4pm to 5:30 but she's still waking about 5am every morning. My husband watches her for a while then she comes back to sleep with me. Night wakings continue and some nights are better than others. But she still never goes more than 2 hours. Argh! I'd really been hoping weaning might make some change, but so far nothing.

The only thing of note was I managed to scare the poor thing to tears last night when I had to let out a big sneeze when I was nursing her down. She jumped, then went WAAAAHHH!!! I had to take her out into the living room to settle her. Poor baby!

 

[kezz_howland]

Thanks Green Lady. Yeh we use infacol already. It seems to have helped him sleep better at night and he brings wind up quicker these days, but apart from that no change. He's been a grump again all morning... we got up at 8am, and he has since then had 3 bottles and only 30 mins sleep around 10am I think. He's been wingy and grumpy all morning... he keeps rubbing his fists on his cheeks and shoving them in his mouth?! After his third bottle I finally put him in the pram and shoved a coat on and took him for a walk down the road. 10 mins later he was fast asleep! Brought him home and he is still asleep (been about 20 mins now) but i've left my coat and boots by the front door... just in case!!

 

[elvira]

What's almost worse than a baby who won't sleep at night? When your baby is fast asleep but you're laying there wide awake unable to nod off no matter what the feck you try. My body has decided it doesn't need sleep despite me being absolutely bloomin knackered. Arghhhhhhhh!

 

[kezz_howland]

elvira - I know that feeling. Took me an hour and a half to get to sleep last night even though I was exhausted! When you try too hard, your body won't let you switch off! My head hurt and my eyes were whizzing about all over the place behind my closed lids. Was a nightmare! Try not to think about sleeping - easier said than done!!