Right DD is 6months in a week. She has always been a difficult sleeper but with occasional 7-9hour nightly stretches just to freak you out (including a whole blissful week of 8 hours a night a month or two ago, week after she woke every 40mins)!
Her sleep pattern seems to be changing all the time too but usually has at least two nightly wakings for which I just plonk her on the boob as it is the fastest way for all concerned to get back to sleep!
She never used to sleep at all in the day or night without the boob/car/pram/baby hammock/baby swing and at least 20-40mins of each so very labour intensive. However in the last few days she has started self settling for naps and at bedtime in her baby hammock with a hairdryer noise playing on ipod (she chunters a bit- not proper crying just whinging so I leave her- if she gets hysterical we try summat else- have found key is she needs to sleep every 2 hours and within an hour of first waking as this stops the hysteria and makes her much easier to self settle).
As she is now self settling I figure I want to try and start getting her to sleep through the night as she has proved she can do it, and since when she wakes in the night she is often asleep again within about 3 slurps of the boob!
So my plan is this:
A) Continue with the self settling in the hammock. Aim for virtually all sleeps to be self settled in hammock (obv unless we are going out and about and she sleeps in pram).
For the past few nights she has been starting the night in the hammock (because she falls asleep by herself there- record is 12 mins!) and then on first night waking she comes into bed with me for a feed and then goes into her bedside cot right next to the bed if she is fast asleep, if she is still awake then I put her back in her hammock to self settle. So can't decide whether to always put her back in her hammock anyway (much trickier with an asleep baby) so she has continuity or aim for her bedtime sleep to be in cot but at the minute she can't self settle in cot at the minute (see C for reason).
B) We are moving house at end of August so perfect time to have her in her own room. Will have a spare bed in there too though as I will probably sleep in with her once she wakes first in the night while we work on getting her to sleep through. I do actually love co-sleeping with her but I don't get as much sleep as I could as she wriggles and rustles the waterproof matress and I wake up at the slightest noise plus DH sleeps in spare room because he copes less than I do on no sleep, and would quite like to get him back. So figure she probably does need to go into her own room but with a bed in there so if she is really bad can still co-sleep.
C) in the daytime lots of rolling practice- - too tire her out and to get her to be able to rescue herself from her tummy (one night problem is if she is put awake into her cot she rolls over gets stuck and then will never self settle!).
D) Once we have moved (its a detached house so if she chunters she won't be keeping house and neighbours awake!) when she wakes at night- ignore her for at least 10-15mins to see what she does (if I am in a diff room I may not even hear her unless she cries out for me- would have doors open and baby monitor on obv.). Normally I just plonk her straight on the boob but when I have left her sometimes she does fall back asleep. Obviously if she does get very distressed I would rescue her but have learned from her self settling she is a baby that needs a bit of a chunter before she sleeps (ie. a bit of a wail with a big pause- ie. "Oi where is my attention" but not a full blown cry-i used to rush in an rescue her at the slightest wail but it actually made her so much harder to get to sleep.)
I plan on starting the night in my room with her in hers so that I won't get as disturbed by her rustles as before now I have even plonked her on the boob when she was still asleep but wriggling- oops! If she wakes before Midnight or after 5am she can have a breastfeed if its 12-5 then I am going to attempt anything in my power to get her back to sleep without the boob- in the hope that she will learn that 12-5 is non milk time so she might as well stay asleep then! (Her bedtime is 7pm and I may introduce a dream feed at 11 to see if that helps).
I HAVE to get my boobs to adjust to a set pattern as at the minute it is really annoying- I can go 5-6 hours between feeds now without feeling too uncomfortable but she pulls her random 7-9 hour stretch you can bet my boobs will wake me up before she does so even though she is sleeping more I am not coz of the boobs- I have been known to either put her on the boob asleep or get up and pump but neither of them will help my boobs adjust to a set pattern so we can all get more sleep!
If I am successful with all that then the plan will be to get self settling happening in the cot (especially as only have 6months left before she is out of the hammock!) and maybe lengthen the non milk time to 11-6 then 10-7 and then with any luck 7-7 [wistful thinking emoticon]
What do you think?
Any suggestions?