Just looking for some seasoned tips please!
I know others hve it worse, but I really want to try and tackle this if I can as I’m running on nearly 5 years poor sleep and I just really want recommendations of something to try to make it feel like I’ve got a chance of improvement.
DS3 (6 mo) was a brilliant sleeper when born- he easily and quickly settled into one wake up a night and was breastfed last feed of the day, during night and first feed of the day. The rest were formula.
Unfortunately we live in very close quarters and DS2 (3 1/2)has had delays with understanding and struggles with sleep. He kept waking DS3 unintentionally and DS3 lost his momentum and we did what we needed to to get sleep (boob).
DS2 came on and finally grasped the gro clock and (darling that he is) obeys it quite rigidly and is no longer a disruption to DS3.
In the meantime, DS3 has taken to wakening 2-3 times a night for sometimes up to 2 1/2 hours. He’s not upset but he gets upset if you leave him. Sometimes I can get him back to sleep myself, sometimes he’s hungry. There is no rhyme or reason to it. He’s in a crib beside me with white noise. The irregularity of his wake ups and distracted daytime feeding/his increasing wakefulness made him less likely to settle on the boob and in the end my supply dried up.
Currently he does a long stretch 7- ? Then is up 1-3 times at night for however long each time and may or may not want milk.
How do I improve this??
Dreamfeed?
Solids?
Offer water at night?
Move into a cot?
Move into baby’s own room?
Slept about 12 last night to be woken at 1:30-3:30, then again at 5:15 and he’s just resettled but the older ones are up for Christmas!!
I miss sleep and the lack of irritability, the energy and motivation to look after myself and time with my husband, who currently sleeps in the bottom bunk of DD5 as he’s a really light sleeper and she behaves awfully when sleep deprived. I haven’t detailed how he helps me but he is brilliant and I’m not at all needing more from him, I ask him to take over anytime I need him and he always does, but I just need someone to tell me ‘I tried this, it worked, here’s jow’ ☹️