Sleep deprived... a message that might give hope!

[suzi2]

Only posted here a couple of times in the past. DS pants sleeper, got better at 15 months without much bother. DD horrendous sleeper. She had me up every 90 mins at least for about 11 months there. I tried everything from cosleeping to controlled crying. I had NO success with CC, just 4 or 5 hours of us both crying and still 90 min wakenings. She wouldn't settle to sleep without feeding or rocking and even some of those failed on me. She wouldn't sleep in her cot nearly at all. We tried cranial osteopathy too.

I had the sleep clinic HV out at the beginning of Jan to help as I was at my wits end. She said to stop breastfeeding overnight, get tough, let her cry it out if necessary. I couldn't do that. Much as I hated the way things were, that seemed too harsh. I was told, as I have been by many people, that "things won't jsut fix themselves". But decided to wait until she was a bit older before doing that.

Made a breakthrough and managed to get her to settle in her cot with me lying next to her, rubbing her back for an hour etc. She then got a wee bit better and down to wakening every few hours. I chose to take her into bed if necessary (more often than not!). Basically we just decided that we'd do whatever it took to get her to sleep, but we'd subtly plug away at things like her being in her cot, less back stroking from us, slightly less feeding etc etc.

Then the week before last, i bit the bullet and left the room for her settling. Previously she would scream blue murder for hours at this (we tried every few weeks) and I'd go back in to have to do a lot MORE settling than usual. But that day it worked. A bit of whimpering, a dummy in now and then and she went down with little fuss. She's now going down without any fuss. She also started waking once a night, bar a few bad nights. Sometimes that once was at 5am which is getting up time for her, and then she'd go back down until 6am . All I can say is it's a huge change in her, she's calm and happy.

So if you're at your wits end, it will get better at some point. Keep working at it, just a little, and don't get too wound up and expecting miracles. It's been baby steps with us for months, but it's obviously an age thing for it to all fall into place for her. I do now truly believe that there are gentle ways to persuade them without 5 hours of crying.

Sorry, huge ramble, but I hope it gives some people hope. Oddly, my body is not coping well with 6-7 hours sleep! It's used to 4 lol.

[suzi2]

Oh, and I know I've probably jinxed it now! But even if she does revert back, I now know she's capable and if she's upset, it's genuine and not just 'playing' me!

[Bodkin]

Just wanted to say thanks for posting your story of hope! It can get quite depressing reading the sleep threads and seeing all these other poor souls whose babies are still waking through the night and are older than mine... and thinking, my god I have MONTHS more of this to come. And of course, no one ever comes back at the end of the thread and says - thanks for your advice guys - it worked a treat and X is now sleeping 12 hours straight... not because they're rude, but because, well, it just ain't happening!

Well done for getting through it - I'm sure you haven't jinxed things by posting on here

Bodkin (mum to an 8 month old Isla )

[catchingzeds]

Another one here who thought DS would NEVER sleep most of the night. Had 12 months of Hell then he turned a year and started sleeping through

Seemed so awful at the time, we now look back at those times quite fondly and are talking about number 2