Sleep is for the weak - the reprise.

[BrokenliSpears]

There used to be a support thread for the sleep deprived among us. I thought I'd open it up again (hope that's okay with the original Sleep Is For The Weak-ers).

Grab some matchsticks to prop open your eyelids and share your tales of endless night feeds and unsleeping babies. It would feel good to know I'm not alone as I watch each hour in turn tick round on the alarm clock every night.

Last night my 6 month old ds fed at...
6.30 (when I put him to bed)
8.30
10.30
12.30
1.30
2.30
3.30 and stayed awake until 4.30
Then dd jumped on us and woke us up at 5.45 and the day began...

Going to go and Do Things now, but will check back later.

[moominsmummy]

me me me!!! I want to join - sounds very familiar routine. sometimes I have been up for so long I wonder if I would feel better if I didn't try to go back to bed but just did something useful - like empty the dishwasher?

how sad am I?

[dippedinchocolate]

Already joined in the rant on your other thread, but realised no-one had yet come to show solidarity on this one too. Yes, up/feeding last night with 7-nearly-8 month old DD at (if I remember straight, all gets a bit muddled) something like...

21.00
23.00
1.00 awake until 2.15
4.00
5.00
6.15 awake for day

[dippedinchocolate]

Ooo suddenly there are 3 of us!

[BrokenliSpears]

You do get in a muddle with what you've done, although the other night it got to about 3am and I realised that I had seen the clock say

6.xx
7.xx
8.xx
9.xx
10.xx
11.xx
12.xx
1.xx
2.xx
3.xx

I was actually hoping for a complete set . How disappointing would it have been to get that far and then miss out on 4.xx?

(I wasn't disappointed).

I do agree with the idea of just giving up on sleep moominsmummy - I find when I get to bed nice and early I just have longer to spend in bed wishing I were sleeping. If I don't go to bed until 10.00 there's less night to deal with.

[moominsmummy]

lol Brokenlispears - glad to know am not the only one who felt sick pride in getting a full set!

can't believe I am so keen to join this thread - obviously I'd much prefer 12 hours straight sleep though....

has anyone else had to restrain themselves from violence against people who moan they've not slept well? My brother's girlfriend will come down to breakfast at 11am and moan that she's SOOOO tired and just hasn't slept. (she has no kids) she quite naively moans to me about how tired she is little knowing how close to serious injury she is......

[BrokenliSpears]

Ahh yes, competitive sleep deprivation. I am the tiredest person in the world and anyone who dares suggest in my presence that they are not utterly refreshed and giddy with energy and joy may feel my wrath.

[sweetkitty]

Oh can I join?

I have a 4 mo DD3 who was up 5 times last night(OK she's only 4 months so I forgive her), DD2 who needs resettled once a night and DD1 who must have been up and down about 6 times last night messing about in the toilet, light on and off, slamming doors etc

[wonderstuff]

My one year old is getting a little better, but still awake 3 or 4 times a night. On Sat my mum who was babysitting my niece was sooo tired because dn woke up at 6.45, I wasn't too sympathetic

[BrokenliSpears]

You can certainly join Kitty. You sound overqualified .

[Piccalilli2]

Me too.

Dd2 is nearly 7 months, naps for a maximum of an hour a day and then only on the move, and is waking every 2 hours for a feed at night. I haven't had a stretch of more than 3 hours sleep in over 4 months. She's exclusively breastfed so dh can't take a turn, we are co-sleeping which helps but I am just so, so tired - I'm sure you can all relate.

[IHeartIona]

ooh can I join? dd (8 mo) had a good night last night though:
to sleep at 7.20
awake at 7.50
awake at 10 - awake till 10.45 (bf'ed)
awake at 4.30 (bf)
awake at 7.30 am to start the day

the other night I had to feed her 3 times, which I've only done about twice. I know that may not sound much but for her it's a lot! she's teething and she just couldn't switch off despite calpol, teething gel etc. lots more wakings that night.....

[Sariska]

And me! DS is almost 8 months old, never takes naps in his cot during the day and is up several times in the night. Last night was typical:

18.30 BF. Sleep (there then followed the good bit of the night)
22.00 Awake and fed
1.30 Awake - a bit earlier than usual but he'd peed through his clothes and sleeping bag. Fed and into bed with me (because I didn't have another dry 2.5 tog sleeping bag and was worried he'd be cold in just a 1 tog)
2 - 4.45 Intermittently slept and woke. The exact times escape my sleep-deprived brain
4.45 Properly awake. Fed. Refused to go back to sleep
5.45 Me fed up. Put DS back in cot (heating has just come on). Cue much crying
6.30 DS goes to sleep with DH. Everyone sleeps til 7.30

And the return to work is on the horizon for me. Aaaggghhh!!!! More sleep training beckons methinks.

Does anyone else think that their LO feeds more at night that during the day? Mine seems too interested in life to do more than snack during the day even when I try to BF him in a darkened room.

[BrokenliSpears]

Sariska, my ds definitely feeds more at night that in the daytime, no doubt about it.

Have just been taking stock of today and trying to guage what sort of a night I'm in for; he's eaten a bit of porridge and some croissant and a bit of apple, plus two big breastfeeds and 2 rubbish little breastfeeds; he slept for an hour at about 9.00 this morning and 20 minutes at about 1.00. He should be tired, but he'll be hungry - the perfect recipe for a loooong night of dozing on the boob.

[Piccalilli2]

Dd2 won't eat solids at all which isn't helping matters (anyone else with a 7 mth old who doesn't eat solid food at all? Or just me?) and I've given up guessing what kind of night we're going to have as there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. She's definitely feeding more at night than during the day, I have tried offering more during the day but she just gets too distracted.

[dippedinchocolate]

I know 7 month olds who can't be bothered with solids at all. My DD can vary wildly in how much she will scoff, and some days it is nowt. But I am sure much of her night feeding is comfort rather than hunger (not that I have a problem with comfort feeding per se - just not sure she needs comforting nine million times a night). Asleep now [miracle emoticon], I give it 20 minutes before the wailing begins...

[dippedinchocolate]

Oh got it wrong - just started help

[moominsmummy]

problem is there is so much interesting stuff going on during the day so they aren't interested in feeding

at night there is nothing to do but eat and nuzzle nice warm boobie

i have just settled DS2 to sleep - kept him going all afternoon so he was just dropping at bedtime, also fed him banana porridge every time he opened his mouth this afternoon. hoping this will all help in improved sleep....

but suspect I'll be up with overtired, constipated baby all night!

[Sariska]

dippedinchocolate - poor you. Early evening wailing utterly ruins dinner, doesn't it What do you do when she wakes so early (or fails to go to sleep in the first place)? I'm afraid I use controlled crying. We don't have much cause for it now but it was a miracle worker when our success with gradual withdrawal plateaued (I was too tired to carry on sitting with him for 2 hours plus). Still have to tackle all the night wakings though. Find just the idea of nighttime crying hard to deal with....

My DS is another whose solid food intake is very hit and miss. He almost always eats his breakfast porridge but may take nothing at all during the rest of the day. We're mostly BLW, with just porridge, yoghurt, rice pudding and the occasional Plum Baby pot coming from spoons. I'm pretty relaxed about his food intake because there is absolutely no correllation between how much eats during the day and how well he sleeps. If only....(then I would be doing what MIL keeps suggesting and forcing him to eat).

[ragd0ll]

Hi, Im joining too,
DD (almost 8 months) did almost as exactly the same as Brokenlispears' Ds last night,which is par for the course with her.

She barely feeds during the day, far to many things to explore so she does all her feeding at night, then is'nt hungry the next day, It's a vicious cycle

[BrokenliSpears]

I used to try and stuff ds full of milk during the day, but now when he doesn't particularly feel like feeding he bites me, and he has top and bottom teeth now - I have scabs and wounds to prove it .

Mind you, the stuffing him full of milk never actually had much effect on his sleeping anyway - like Sariska says; very little correlation between daytime eating habits and nightime sleeping habits.

Piccalili - my nearly 7-mth-old doesn't eat much real food really. He is enthusiastic and attacks it with great gusto, but not all that much goes in.

[Dietcokefiend]

Hello, can I join in? My DS is 18 months and has never slept through and 2 wakings a night would, for me at the moment, be my idea of bliss. At the moment I suspect he is teething with his eye teeth coming through. I think he spent the whole night from 9pm to 6am clamped on my boob.

I normally cope ok as we co-sleep, but feeling very very tired at the moment. Grumpy as well.

Oh, have name changed as well for the time being but normally preggersplayspop, which I will revert to at some point when my need for caffeine reduces to more manageable levels.

Yawn.

[RaspberryBlower]

Can I join you? I need to have a moan. DD is also doing the 'reverse cycling' bit - boob monster at night, but not interested during the day. She's also teething at the moment. So, having always woken frequently to feed, the saving grace was that I could get her to go back off quite quickly. But, not any more! I've just had an hour of screaming to get her off to sleep. The last few nights I've taken her into bed because at some point she'll decide she's not going back to sleep, and at least I'm lying down in bed. I'm finding it all rather distressing and feeling inadequate and guilty.

[ragd0ll]

Raspberry don't feel guilty, you have to do whatever you can to stay sane! DD frequently ends up in my bed, I go to sleep while she plays with my nipples

[iamaLeafontheWind]

Can I please join - 3 mth old DD, and although I "knew" all about sleep deprivation before she arrived it's very obvious now that I knew NOTHING and that anyone who moans near me about feeling tired after a night out is risking life and limb.

Isn't it strange how you get used to operating differently? If I'd had more than a couple of interupted nights in my old life I would have been on the floor, but I've not slept more than 3 hours at a time for 3 months and yet somehow still functioning (apart from the odd dizzy spell, aching bones, the usual).

[iamaLeafontheWind]

Can I please join - 3 mth old DD, and although I "knew" all about sleep deprivation before she arrived it's very obvious now that I knew NOTHING and that anyone who moans near me about feeling tired after a night out is risking life and limb.

Isn't it strange how you get used to operating differently? If I'd had more than a couple of interupted nights in my old life I would have been on the floor, but I've not slept more than 3 hours at a time for 3 months and yet somehow still functioning (apart from the odd dizzy spell, aching bones, the usual).