I hurt my baby co sleeping

[Bumpyroads]

Baby is a terrible sleeper, we co sleep and I feel very sleep deprived.
I have always talked in my sleep however last night I had a nightmare and got very angry in my sleep.
We were co sleeping and baby was sleeping in the crook of my arm.
I bit him in my sleep hard on his eyebrow, I woke up immediately to him crying I thought I had bitten his eye and immediately started shouting at my husband to turn on the light. Im so upset about it he has red teeth marks which will probably leave a bruise.
Not sure I can tell anyone in real life so posting here

Hi op
give baby a dummy

Good grief. You must stop cosleepimg immediately. It isn’t recommended anyway by NHS because it is dangerous.

Also if you broke the skin ensure you disinfect adequately (and appropriately for a baby) - human bites are notorious for getting infected. Consult the GP anyway given it’s near his eye.

You have got to sleep train. We did it at about 18 months as he became a bad sleeper after previously being fine, but in your case I’d do it now. It is going to be hard for a good few days, so you need to work together and start it when you aren’t working the next day. Night one - 40 lots of going in and out of his room. Night two - down to about 20. Night three - five or six. By about night five/six he slept through.

6.30pm is such an early bedtime, can you keep him up later and see if the sleep pressure helps him to stay asleep for longer?

Mine goes to sleep at 6:30, it's fine if there's a big enough gap from the last nap, for mine it's roughly 5.5 hours. She sleeps until 7am with one wake up now.

I had one of those with DC1. He would only co-sleep - I tried everything - and never took a bottle of expressed milk. Can you pay for a night nanny for a couple of days? They'll bring baby to you when he wakes to feed then take him downstairs / into spare room and look after and comfort him so you can properly rest.

That's really terrible advice. Feed standing up? Have you never been so tired where stuff can slip off your hand without realising? The same with sitting on a chair. What if you accidentally dropped the baby? And who goes out of their way to buy an uncomfortable seat- that's just silly.

Wow, 12.5 hours is amazing. Mine would sadly never, ever sleep that much, so it depends what OPs baby is like, the frequent wakes indicate something may need a change up, a later bedtime is something I'd personally try.

Why on earth would you switch to formula at this stage? There's no evidence he will sleep better on a bottle and in fact it's likely to upset his stomach. Ridiculous advice.

@ImImmortalNowBabyDoll I don't think it's worth it at this stage either. In another month, the OP can start introducing whole milk if she wishes anyway.

@Bumpyroads You could try expressed milk if he'll take a bottle, I was lucky that my two did so I could express and let DH give them an evening feed while I took a nap or went to bed at 6 p.m.!

Why did you feel so scared you bit in your sleep? You have a sleep disorder? Or major trauma? How about a next to me cot? You can get them cheap on ebay? I am more worried about your trauma / sleep disorder here and how lack of sleep may be impacting you? Get your partner to do more! Get yourself to counselling! This is not normal. I have co-slept with both my kids, and had a few situs that looking back now were not good - I have massive boobs and my kids would sleep under them which was not good - but biting is a whole different ball game. Don't waste energy worrying - get some help. Be honest with doctors and get some support. Good luck! This will pass xx

Not being thick but does that stand for Health visitor? I had one tell me years ago, oh SS always support the mother, unless there are like things like depression etc 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ and I thought well now how many has that now condemned! And why people won’t speak out 🤷🏻‍♀️

Don’t sit on the edge of the bed!
If you doze and release him it will be a dropped baby.

I would try sleep training using downstairs if you can’t use the other bedroom.

A crying/ overtired and annoyed baby is at least alive. You could kill your baby if you Cosleep again and you’d never forgive yourself.

Hi OP,

I was in a very similar situation with my first son regarding him needing to be fed to sleep for both naps and overnight. It was utter hell and I was exhausted. I co-slept with him as it was the only thing that enabled me to get any sleep but when he was 10 months old i just couldn’t take it anymore. I was just so, so tired. I can’t bear to even think about it.

I used a sleep consultant and she said the most essential thing to do first is to get baby into to his own room.

I know you said he will have to share with his sibling, (I’m not sure if you’ve said how old the sibling is) but whilst addressing your baby’s sleep could your other child sleep somewhere else? A make-shift bed in your room maybe so that there’s less chance he’s disturbed at night whilst doing some sleep training?

When I used the Sleep Consultant she spoke to me about all the different types of sleep training she did and the main focus was, “How quickly do you want this fixed?”

I opted for controlled crying and she completely changed my son’s daytime routine (his naps and meal times) as well as his bedtime routines and within a week I had a completely different baby.

I won’t lie, the first few nights were really tough but I had reached breaking point. I was in such a dark place and my marriage was on the rocks because we were fighting all the time because we were just exhausted. I spent most of my time crying and I was hating being a parent. It was just awful.

She was really, really fantastic and she saved me in lots of ways…. She certainly saved my sanity and my marriage.

I went from a baby who was up at least 4 times a night (for up to an hour at a time) who needed to be breastfed back to sleep every time, and never napped in the day, to a baby who then slept from 7pm to 6am (self settling) and had two naps a day in his cot (each nap being 1hr 20 minutes) without needing to be breastfed to sleep for those either. My baby was getting almost 7 more hours sleep per 24 hours after the training compared to how much sleep he was getting before and so you can imagine how much better that was for him too, as well as for me.

If you would like more information please private message me.

Please see a cranial oesto trained in babies. They can help improve baby’s sleep.

If you were a single mum I’d ask if you have a mum / sister / best friend who could come a support you for a few days where the complete and total focus is you catching up on sleep.

Do you have anyone you can ask?

I know I’ll probably get flamed for this but have you tried giving him a dummy? He obviously needs the comfort.

Morning - how did your night go with the adjusted routine? You're a good mumma, and like most parents, you're flexing and adjusting the routines to ensure baby is as safe, comfortable and happy as possible.

He's not going to suddenly take a dummy at 11 months old!

She had a nightmare and bit down - what’s abnormal about it ? You abused her of ‘assault’ FFS !! People grind their teeth in their sleep too - do you characterise them as ‘not normal’ ? OP is clearly exhausted and worried about the consequences. She posted here for advice and support, not for posters like you to put the boot in and make her feel worse.

I’ve had plenty of nightmares in my time, including some incredibly vivid ones while on strong painkillers. I have never, not once, bit down on something while having one.

Okay? Good for you.

People doing things in their sleep is hardly uncommon though. Sleepwalking is a thing.

Last night was ok I tried to go to bed at 8 but then he woke from 8-10 he then slept until 1 then was awake from 1-3.30. Up for the day at 5.30.

Lots of crying, rocking, shushing.

But I think I might have been disturbing him before when the cot was attached to the bed, or being to quick to try and settle him.

Just done the school run and he was so tired so decided to put him for a nap when we got home.
Put him down in his cot screaming planning to do the ferber method. Set my timer for 3 mins and he didn't even make it that long and he's asleep. Obviously absolutely exhausted.

Timings are all a bit out and feels way too early for a nap but im going with it!

clenching/grinding is keeping your mouth closed too much! not opening and
biting a third party! never come across that in my career!