Stuck in a never ending sleep regression

[PDog]

I am beyond exhausted. DD is coming up to 8.5mo and this has been going on for 2 months.

It seems to alternate between horrendous nights or horrendous days with horrendous bedtimes. She just can't switch off - I can't take my eyes off her for a second because she is not happy unless she rolling/grabbing something/putting something in her mouth.

When she does sleep, I have to feed her to sleep but as soon as I try to get her in her cot she wakes up and starts rolling.

She has only had 30 mins sleep all day today and gets more and more hyper. It then takes between 1-3 hours to get her to bed and she will be up to 2-3 times and ready to go by 6am (despite still been shattered).

Anyone offer any advice?

Or anyone in the same boat who wants to moan share experiences.

Hi all

Haven't posted for a few days as haven't been well - typical as DD had 2 days in nursery this week and I had some baby-free time.

IC no advice with regards to naps as I am still feeding DD to sleep. I have started doing the Pantley Pull Off but she says it takes awhile to work and you need consistency.

I also find that DD is more resistant to unlatching when she is over tired.

We use disposables - the new Pampers Active Fit - and have had no problem with wee leakage. She goes into total meltdown now with overnight changes so if she is just wet I don't bother and they are good for at least 12 hours. She also rolls around a lot and sleeps on her side or front.

AngelDog hope things are improving for you. It is very challenging when they become more wilful isn't it? DD will now grab my hand quite forcefully and push it away if she doesn't want me to stroke her hair etc and also goes rigid/kicks her legs if she doesn't want to sit down or go in her activity station.

Curly it will pass, honest. I think it was a combination of development, teeth and over tiredness with my DD. She just couldn't seem to switch off and would go from being fast asleep to wide awake and rolling around in a second.

Not much improvement here. DD is still only napping for 20 mins max in the morning but we are having more success with her afternoon nap. She has been sleeping for over an hour, sometimes longer, without a resettle. I've had to push naptime and bedtime earlier though to stop her getting overtired. Makes it more challenging to fit lunch and dinner in though.

She had 2 days at nursery last week but is having 30 naps when she is there. This just takes the edge off without giving her any real benefits of sleep so when I picked up she was overtired and took ages to go to sleep for the night.

Not looking forward to next week as she is there 3 days and I am back at work so could really do with easy bedtimes and good chunks of sleep .

The good thing about being ill is that DH has had to settle her a few times after I've fed her.

Meeting up with my antenatal group later so am sure I will be hearing tales of long naps and 12-hour a night sleeps .

Can I join? ds has just turned one, and is still a rubbish, and utterly unpredictable sleeper. Feeling v fed up at the moment because during the last two nights he has refused to be put down in bed - if I climb into the cot and lie with him for a minute, he's ok, which is ok I guess, but it just feels like we're going backwards, not forwards, and just made me feel a wee bit sad about it all.

I'm hoping, however, that getting in with him will make him remember that bed is a nice place to be, and I'll be able to wean him off it...

hi lenin.

Argh. Wish I hadn't googled that. Ds is a v escalating crier, as was dd, so even if I wanted to do cc, it isn't an option. He doesn't stay awake for long if cuddled, but getting him back into bed is a nightmare. Maybe I should just be thankful that me climbing in does work atm, and just do it. It's just so hard not to think "I'll be doing this when he's 32" when you're so tired.

But now I've found this blog and it has cheered me, at least. I have a frequently-expounded theory that much of the stuff we do to help/teach babies is stuff we do to fill the time while they work it out for themselves. I think I may be right again with ds. Oh bugger.

Probably wise, Len. I should be sleeping.

Welcome to the club Habbibu and Lenin.

Am now going to bed feeling rather deflated. You've just cured my stupid delusion wonderful daydream that DD would hit 10 months and actually start sleeping.

Hiya Habbibu and Lenin....you've made me feel better on the one hand because my complaints about my DD's sleep pale into insignificance by comparison...but worse when I face the possible reality that DD will still be waking up at all hours at 1yo and beyond...

On which negative note, DD's overnight sleep is getting worse again, post tummy bug. Four awakenings last night, the first only three hours after she went to bed (and she's been managing 5 hours plus lately). I tried to put her back down with only cuddles, but she wasn't having it so in the end I gave in and fed her. I'm hoping we won't have to do Tough Mummy all over again to get the sleep patterns improved, but I fear we may.

Oh well, not quite back to Square One - at least she still lets me unlatch her and put her down

Thanks for the nappy advice, PDog. I don't change her if she pees, only if it leaks onto her vest and sleeping bag. Last night I reinforced the sides of her Popin with two extra soakers and that seemed to do the trick as there were no leaks. So we just had the "Why won't you put me to the breast, Mummy?"meltdown instead of the midnight nappy change meltdown.

Overtiredness is such a sod, isn't it? Yesterday's first pram nap with DH only resulted in 15mins sleep - too windy, it kept waking her up, apparently. In the end I took her out with the raincover on and she managed 2 hours, so that was something.
This morning we've had 25 mins in the static pram at home so far (can't be bothered to try the cot again - it's been increasingly disastrous. That first time must have been a fluke).

Oh, God - sorry! Look, just because ds is a bugger, doesn't mean that your children won't see sense! I did co-sleep, in a sidecar arrangement, but realised lately that I wasn't sleeping when ds was, and was getting tense if I coughed, or got up to go to the toilet, etc. So we've decamped to the spare room for now, and I get up to deal with ds in the night, and then he and I get in to bed together about 4am. it means also that dh gets sleep so that I can go back to sleep for breakfast time!

night weaning was easier than expected, though - kind of did the Jay Gordon thing of feeding if he wants it up to 11-12ish, and then not again until 6. Held him in my arms quietly while he yelled for a couple of nights - felt bad, but he wasn't abandoned, and he did calm down reasonably soon, and he seems to be just contented with cuddles now. Last night I did manage to get him back down without climbing in with him. Phew.

Oh, yy to laziness, lenin! I was quite happy with the lying next to him, and do miss it a bit - but it wasn't him keeping me awake, iyswim - I just couldn't relax and get to sleep, as I's just have spent aaagges patting him, etc to get him to drop off, and then I'd be terrified to move/cough/sneeze, etc. Now when I go back to bed I just conk out, and do feel more rested despite getting up and down - but I am a poor sleeper too, and I think that's a big part of it.

I do kind of wish it hadn't happened this way - I liked the idea of co-sleeping, and enjoyed it while it lasted, but I'm just too easily woken and find it hard to sleep anyway, so a year was pretty good going in the end. I still love the early mornings, where he drapes himself on top of me and snores.

You're like DH. Should have worked out how to get him to bf.

Yay for DS1 - and good for you for getting so far and for a lovely self-weaning.

Ah, Hab, I'm just like you in that regard, so moving DD into her own room (I only lasted 8 months with the co-sleeping) means I am now sleeping a bit better between awakenings than before and love the luxury of being able to read a few pages of my book before lights out and not get paranoid about the bed creaking when we turn over etc.

Also, DD isn't much better at co-sleeping than I am. She'll generally only do it peacefully if permanently attached to my nipple (and then I can't sleep), otherwise she's not content to just snooze beside me - my proximity isn't enough for her, it seems.

I envy your sleeping ability (when allowed to exercise it!), Lenin....

Welcome, Lenin & Habbibu. Hello, everyone else.

PDog, glad you've had a bit more success with the afternoon nap. I know what you mean about struggling to fit in dinner etc. DS now wants to go to sleep at 5pm which is a right pain as bedtime is 6.30pm.

IC, we use washable nappies so rarely have leaks (they're generally better at containment than disposables) but you can get fleece soakers (pants) to go over the top which repel the liquid. They're supposed to be pretty good - we got some when we had a few leaks when DS was little, and never had any with the fleece soakers on.

I've given up keeping track of the nights, although they've not really been too bad. Naps have gone to pot though - now averaging 30 mins in the morning and 35 mins at lunchtime (that one's normally 2 hours). I'm blaming the regression and desperately hoping DS isn't wanting to drop a nap yet. It means he's pretty hyper in the afternoons, but has been less screamy than last week.

I'm putting him to bed an hour early, but really he wants a third nap. For some reason he's now refusing his bedtime feed because he's too tired. I can rock him to sleep really quickly - but of course it means he wakes an extra time earlier in the night to eat, usually within an hour of me going to bed.

I need to seriously work on getting to bed a bit earlier myself. I'm not as poor a sleeper as IC and now find it a lot easier to go to sleep than I ever did, but I'd love to be able to drop off as easily as Lenin!

Thanks, angeldog, and I hope my posts haven't been too hijacky/dispiriting! Well, ds let me put him down, when I waved a book at him as I was cuddling him, and said we'd look at it in bed - forgot that my mum's top trick is teh incessant chatter thing that you do which stops the little gap where they think - and then scream - did that tonight in between things like putting him down, getting the music on, etc and it worked. Long may it last.

Is given him a third nap again not an option, angel?

Yes, Habbibu, I'd thought of trying for a third nap, but when I had similar problems before, it meant bedtime got really late and so he ended up with less total sleep. But I might give it a go.

Well done to your DS!

Here I am again, MNing when I should be sorting the laundry prior to getting to bed...