December 2013 - sleepless nights & lots of cooing

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Our very first Thread :)

Frouby I know what you mean with the day sleeping. I downloaded a baby activity log app which keeps track of feedings, nap pies, sleep etc. It would seem my DS sleeps an average of 13 hours in 24, that means he's awake 11 hours!! I thought babies were supposed to be sleeping 16-18 hours roughly. He will self settle now though for his morning nap in his swing seat. Will not self settle for the rest of the day though so it's sleeps in the car or on me. I've been trying to get him into a routine of a feed (bf) around 8pmish then into bed upstairs in his crib. I lie on the bed next to him in his co-sleeper crib and it's been taking around an hourish to settle but does go off eventually. We have a video monitor and it means I'm getting about an hour of me time before bed which is amazing!
We have mastered night self settling too which is so much easier! I think the fact DS always fills his nappy when he feeds, day or night means he's got used to being put back down after a nappy change, wide awake. It's starting to feel like we are getting somewhere at ten weeks old tomoro

Wow Dasie that sounds like great work. We've now had a few naps in the crib when put down awake and rocked and I can def see light in the tunnel that soon he won't need the rocking. Right now I have to stay close and rock him through the sleep transitions but hoping that will fade soon, once it does I'll have soooo much time to myself (delusional, clearly everything will change soon and I'll have to start again). Nights are v different though, when I tried it in evening he wailed and made himself sick. I think it's because with naps I can watch cues and get timing just right. With evening you have bath and bottle and it's hard to get him sleepy but not overtired! Tbh if he just woke less in the night I'd be ok with settling him for a whole longer.

I have the opposite problem. she goes to bed fine with bedtime bath stuff in the water and a bottle and story. she just won't nap in the day. are people putting them in their bed for the naps? I've been keeping her in her chair or on the sofa so she knows basket is bedtime.

Hi tucking - we're the same! Seem to have a good routine at night (touch wood) but daytime has gone a bit useless in a matter of days! The last 2-3 days she will only sleep in mr, or face down on the sofa!! Not exactly conducive to a good routine...

Oh.my.god. If my mum says one more time that I should give him a bottle or top up(as I'm obviously starving him by bf) I'll go mad!! She thinks that because he's unsettled he must be hungry and need more. I've nothing against formula (obviously since I ff both other DC's) but trying to give this bf a go and she's making me feel like I'm starving him and being a bad mum! She's mentioned it a few times today and yesterday...

I have similar problem to whoever said theirs nap well in the morning then the rest of the day it's in the sling or buggy. Also he doesn't seem to settle in the eves- still can't get him down at 7. Last night he was wide awake till 9.30pm and wasn't even that upset for most of it. Just wide awake!

mum that sounds awful

mum my dp and his family always went on like that and it made me feel like crap to the point I was crying at being a horrible mother starving her baby and they won in the end and I stopped bf. don't listen to her, you're doing brilliant and if you were starving him he wouldn't put any weight on at all and I wish id never listened to my lot.
Xx

I agree with everyone else mumof - you're doing brilliantly! I do think the older generation have trouble getting their heads round some of the challenges of newborns, partly because they've forgotten and partly because attitudes were so different when we were babies - formula was the new answer to everything!

I have discovered that Hannah will only sleep in the day on her front!! How bad is that do you think? She's always on her back at night.

Hello everyone

Mum just stare them down and tell them j is not hungry and how happy you are to have got this far considering the problems you have had and how you couldn't have done it without their support. Tossers lol.

My non sleeping ds has now extended his non sleeping to night time as well. He goes down at about 7pm and goes a few hours. Then up every hour. Am knackered. Think he's a bit poorly though. Been off it since his jabs. Snotty nose and a bit ruttly on his chest. And a bit sicky too. But nothing that warrants doctors though. Did give him a bit of calpol this morning just to help him feel a bit better.

Had a read through the gina ford book. Love her routine but not sure of her methods especially with a bf baby. Going to wait until he feels better, get half term out of the way next week and then try to get that routine going. If I have to use the sling for the long sleep at least he will be getting what he needs.

How are things at home alyssa? My dp off work for a few days and I already want to kill him lol.

When is my baby going to sleep??? Naps are ok but I have to really work for them, that's normal I guess. Nighttime just doesn't get better and I'm so tired. He settles well at 7pm but wakes at 11, 2 and 5 then doesn't really settle after that. Tried dream feed at 10 but then he feeds at 1 and 4. Every feed and settle takes at least an hour.

Am I expecting too much? I just think a ff baby should be able to go longer. Last night he had 300ml at 7pm but was still hungry at 11. I've tried hungry baby milk but it gives him tummy ache.

Hi hot, how old is lo?
How many oz is 300ml? If he's draining those bottles, maybe up his intake of each bottle.
Lleyton is 11 weeks and gets 5oz each bottle and goes every 4 hours during the day and sometimes longer at night but he's very twisty lately and I have to rock him to sleep and even then sometimes he wakes as soon as I put him down.

frouby not too bad, thank you for asking.
When he's on night shift its definately me to seems to be depressed but I just think he needs to pull his weight a bit more, he never makes bottles or does washing and he hasn't paid half the food money for a month now but to be fair, it's me whos an idiot for putting up with it.
He's been told it stops now and just paying half the household bills does not cut it, there's nappies, foid, baby milk etc and if he's not gonna chip in then he can fuck right off xx

Don't blame you alyssa. My dp can be a dick but with regards to money he leaves it all to me. He has been known to overspend on shite so I have the bank card and he does ask before he spends anything major.

To be fair to him he is really trying hard at the moment. Lol I can see him sometimes wanting to bite or have a strop but biting his tongue. So I am trying too and we both tiptoe around each other. It would help massively if we could dump the kids and go on a massive bender, have rude, drunken sex and wake up with a hangover. Sigh. Pure bliss.

Hot I'm bfing so can't help with what the baby should be getting but the wake ups sound about the same as us at night. No significant sleep in the day. Am trying a dummy again. Not impressed so far with it so far though. Think he would rather chew his hands.

Alyssa - T is same age but taking 7oz every 4 hours in day, about every 3 at night. And 300 ml is about 10oz I think but that was a one off. He really does eat and eat, I have considered trying to feed him more in the day so he hopefully has less at night but suspect he'll just drink it all up and continue with the nights. He's just hungry!

Hope the dp's are behaving themselves tonight. Dh and I are also super polite at the mo and just tiptoeing around each other, so easy to fight when you're exhausted

hotcross I'm afraid I am no use with recommending amounts as I feel totally confused myself!

We've been feeding every 3hrs in the day which for a ff baby seemed too frequent, especially as we've been offering 6oz at each feed, although she doesn't always take it.

I managed to engineer today so she fed every 4hrs and she she did have two feeds of almost 7oz. But having done some mumsnet searches it looked like 4-5oz per feed seemed more common at 10wks. So am I offering too much?!

She does only feed once at night (touch wood), and that is usually a small feed of 3oz or so, which I hope justifies having larger feeds in the day.

To be honest I just feel like I an making it all up as I go along - anyone else feel like that?! With dd1 I read loads of books etc and my head was filled with ideas on what she 'should' be doing, but this time I an totally busking it!

Also trying to make daytime sleep work with not much luck. She got really distressed after being put in the pram carrycot for just 5mins at lunch, despite having been napping in it perfectly well just a few days ago. Guess I need to go for trial and error on that score too....

lisb mine is struggling with daytime naps too. Lunchtime I went to supermarket thinking the car ride would knock him out but he was awake for most of it, then screamed at 4.30 for 15 mins as he was so tired before I managed to jiggle him to sleep in the sling and this evening has screamed on and off from 7pm to 9.30! Eventually I put him back on the boob and within seconds he'd gone to sleep! And during this screaming had an arguement with DH. He's basically saying I'm not trying hard enough with the routine and that's why he's unsettled in the evenings! But I think it's a lot harder to do a strict routine when bf. I don't know how much milk he's getting and I think DH struggles with the fact that it can't be measured. He's putting so much pressure on me to do the routine when I've got 2 other kids to consider too. I really wish he was more laid back sometimes.

Anyone else have some really unsettled evenings?? The majority of evenings are ok but some nights he cries so much.

And 8 week jabs tomorrow- did they upset your LO's a lot? In terms of sleeping etc?

lisab Amelia has 5-6oz every 3-4 hrs ages ff HV & dr are completely fine with it & says it's good & normal so I wouldn't worry. And Amelia will only feed once or twice at night. Though this weekend she slept 11pm-6am Friday night & 12am-8am Saturday!
Seems like our babies are similar in feeding so I wouldn't worry and Amelia is 7weeks
Oh and Amelia has started to not sleep much in the day 10-20 mins here & there but then slept the 7 hrs ect.
So try not to worry x

Ages = and she's

mum L didn't seem bothered after his injections and generally slept about the same as always not at all lol.

He slept great last night, he had his bottle at 8.30pm and didn't wake for another until 3.30am so he went 7 hours and even then only drank 2oz and slept for another 3 hours, then drank another 2.
We will see how he gets in tonight but it looks like he's starting to go off his night bottles. My other 2 started by drinking less on a night and then just slept through.

frouby I know what you mean, me and dp could do witha huge bender too and then bring on the rude drunker sex ah! Maybe soon lol

Another canny night like, he went from 8pm to 2am, 6 hours straight and again only drank 3oz and had another 3 about 3 hours later. Hopefully we are making some progress, let's just hope he keeps it up now that dp has his 4 days off.

How's everyone else's Los sleeping? Xx

Talking about drinking- it's my birthday on Friday and I'd love to have more than one glass of wine but don't know if it's worth it- i'd have to express and dump at 10.30pm and if I only have say 3 glasses would I be able to feed him at 3/4am or would I still have alcohol in my blood?!

And dtd- I haven't gone there yet! They say bf lowers your libido and that coupled with sore nips and sleep being precious I just can't be arsed!! (Poor DH!)

alyssa jealous- I'm sure it's the fouls that helps them sleep better. J was awake from 8-12pm screaming on and off but then only woke at 4.30 for a short feed then woke just after 7. My other two we're sleeping through between 8 and 10 weeks but were both ff.

Fouls?? Meant formula

Seriously, when am I going to get some sleep??? It's beyond a joke now, it gets worse and worse and all I read about is how all the other babies are starting to sleep through - you all deserve some sleep and I'm pleased for you but it's getting me down. Same at nct, the bf babies that are younger than T are now sleeping most if the night and we are going the wrong direction.

A couple of weeks ago T would only wake at 11 and 3. I can't believe I didn't appreciate it more. Last night he woke at 9.30, 1, 4 and 5.45. He naps the recommended amount but maybe it's too much - he gets v moody if he doesn't get the naps though. I don't know what to do!!

hot if it makes you feel any better seb is exactly the same. Was lovely at night a couple of weeks ago. Same sort of wake ups as you. Now we go a few hours early on. Then from about 1am its every hour or hour and a half. But he doesn't sleep much in the day either.

Took him out in the pram yesterday for an hour. Thought he would sleep then. Had about half an hour tops.

If he was waking up hungry I would give him a ff just to get a bit more sleep. But he isn't always hungry. Sometimes a cuddle is enough. He won't take a bottle anyway. Or a dummy.

Don't know what else to try?

Mum I dtd the other week. Quietly and quickly lol. Was nice but I think I need more sleep to fully appreciate it.