Why Wont He Sleep?! and other questions.

[PavlovtheWitchesCat]

I have several issues right this second:

1. he won't nap in the day.
2. he wakes every 2-3 hourly at night time
3. he wakes at around 5am and cries until he can suckle til 6:00-6:30am
4. he won't leave me alone. not for one second.
5. he appears to have a bit of a temper (while strangely being a very calm and chilled out baby when we let him wield the knife or fork - his obsession atm).

I am exhausted and suffocated. This evening, i have had him pawing at me quite aggressively with his little razor claws thinking it is a game a being too cute for words with it. I felt like crying and laughing all at the same time.

Can anyone help me to gain a little serenity, courage and wisdom please?

Crikey Thighs. Well done!!!

thighs wow that's fantastic! I hope it continues for a long time.

good luck everyone with their non-sleeping babies, I shall check in again tomorrow and see how everyone is doing.

Courage - not yet
Serenity - not even a bit
Wisdom - nope

big glass of wine - oooooh yes!

Ha me too Pavlov cheers!

I said to dh the other day I felt like I had jet lag and promptly had a gin and tonic to go with it. Worked a treat the pain of tiredness became a dim dull haze

Red wine and classical music, bliss!

Hello all,

thighs, that is great progress!

Last night ds fed to sleep at 7.20ish and then slept until 11.30 when he woke and wanted to be fed. I bf him to sleep again (about 20 min of feed) then he woke up again, all lively and awake, after about 10 min! I actually felt really cross so I decided that I wasn't going to give in and feed him. Now it took a good 50 min to settle him but he wasn't distressed, he was cuddled in to my arms annd every few minutes would look around and give a cry and rear his head but cuddling and patting settled him and finally he went back to sleep until 5.35am. When he woke then I could believe that he was hungry so fed him and then co-slept until he woke for the day at 7.20.
If it hadn't been for dd waking up at about 3 then I would have had a pretty good night's sleep.

Will see what tonight brings! I don't think that I can make myself do true cc but I felt happy with what I did last night. The difficulty for me will be if he does what he usually does, eg wakes at 1am when I am asleep and then fusses on and off bf all night because then I feel like there is no oppportunity to know that he can't be hungry and for me to feel able to comfort without feeding.

ladidi almost! I dislike it when another child wakes and ruins it! I had that last night. Well it was not fab anyway.

DS woke at 10pm. 10pm ! DH said he could not possibly be hungry so tried to settle him. Went from a sleepy cry to a screaming the place down cry. I went in to comfort him and he was so upset that as he fed, his little body shook occasionally as he calmed down. Faxce streaming with tears. He would not settle though, so I thought, for the first time since he was teething just after going in to his room (9-10 months, so not long!) that I would just go to bed with him.

Fell straight to sleep. DH got the hump as I told him to stop fidgeting as he was waking the baby so he stomped off to sleep on the sofa. DS slept pretty well through the night! He tossed and turned and slept diagonally and dislikes the duvet over his legs, but did not wake to be fed til 4am. I woke a lot though, making sure he was ok as had no side support to stop him falling out.

At which point, DD woke up, she heard thunder (not sure how, maybe dreamt it, the night before she dreamed the cats were putting cream over her bears and gobbling them up, was furious with them the next morning!), and had spilled her water over her bed. She was in with both of us talking away. Probably by 5am I had to take her back to bed as she would not sleep, change her bed. DS went back into his own room, asleep after a feed.

He slept til 6am, came back in to feed/doze til 6:30am.

oh and he did not want to go to sleep til 8pm, so only 2 hours before he woke.

A break through!

For the first time, I think ever, I have settled DS down for his morning nap, in his cot, without boob. I had a disagreement with DH as he said I should try I said no point, should take him for a drive as he was trying to get my milk but he does not have it in the morning during the week, don't want to mess it all up. In the end I gave it a try:

I went in, put on his music, and held him against me in upright position, ie not associated with feeding. I rocked with him and he sung to the music, not at all sleepy, I did not try to get him to sleep, just calmed him down. He put his head on my shoulders, up again, on my shoulders, up again. I put him in his cot, he bounced like an angry imp so i immediately picked him up and we sang to his music again. He then pushed into feeding position, I sort of let him but not near boob, curled his knees in (he likes this, having his legs squished up) and rocked him, he flailed a bit, i moved him back to upright, he pushed down and accepted no boob, sang to his music, and went to sleep!!! In to his cot, he stirred, I put my head next to him and he put his hand on my head and went back to sleep!

For 50 mins which could have been longer, but its a start! I feel very pleased with myself.

I might have gained a tinsy winsy bit of courage

Pavlov wooh wooh wooh

does dance.

Well done!!

marsha oh no don't get excited just yet, got the night to sort out yet!!! a 50 min nap is not 12 hour stints by a long shot . Methinks I shall be on this thread for a little while yet!

Pavlov just found this thread and your ds sounds a lot like mine. He is almost ten months. Slept for four months. I could not believe how easy he was.
Whe he got to about 5 months it all went pear shaped. He wakes an hour or two after I put him down EVERY night and I feed him back to sleep. Then about an hour or two after that he wakws again and comes in to our bed then pretty much feeds all night. I cannot face cc at all even though we did it with dd who is now 4 and a great sleeper although not sure that was anything to do with cc.. I guess I am hoping he will grow out of it.he is not as good as dd on solids but then again he does attach himself to my boobs all night so that could explain it. Anyway just to say hi and am another one who not only feels responsible for all this but is hoping a gentle solution that works is out there:) am just trying to gather the energy to try pick up put down at bed time and am also reading NCSS but yet to make any sense of it.

countryhousehotel welcome got to dash as DH is hollaring for the laptop! But will post again later.

Good luck with sleeping babies (hopefully)

oh well that's my night screwed.

DD went to a haloween party with her godparents, ate too much crap, topped off with some prawn spring rolls as we let her stay up too late (in aid of the clocks going forward.marvelous.

So, 1 hour ago, a little voice from the top of her stairs says desperately 'mama! mama! i have a sore throat, i need a drink' and while i was getting said drink 'mama! mama! my tummy hurts' cue DH running to get her, running to bathroom, where she hurls, across the floor, across the toilet, and as I go in, across my feet. Nice. Poor thing, she just did not know what to do with herself. She is rarely poorly. Rarely vomits, has a very good strong immune system. But alas, she is not immune to too many scary eyeballs. After snuggling in my bed, she says she needs to be sick again, and proceeds to throw up all over me, and herself.

DH announced that she can sleep in our bed and he will sleep on the sofa. A nice bit of delegating I felt. Good to see the whole equality thing stops at certain points. He then offered me to sleep on the sofa, but after making it up for himself, and after making it clear whose role the nurse is in this equal family . Anyway, I digress.

DD is now asleep next to me, lightly so, insisting on having the light on, has a sore throat, sounds a bit swollen, and won't let me stroke her hair as her skin hurts. I shall not be going to sleep for a while i suspect, and when I do, how long before the bear cub awakes wanting his honey? any time from now on...

Sorry for the rant. No-one up in rl to listen. Not that anyone is up here!

oh and DS went to sleep at 9pm, on the insistence of DH keeping both children up late and then him not wanting to settle as his routine was out. Woke at 11:30pm. 2.5 hours. which is Shit.

well here we are. 3am/4am who the hell knows am.

Disaster? I should say so. The vomitting at midnight, then DS woke at 2:30am (1:30am) and fed, went to sleep, woke as soon as put him in the cot, so i cuddled him/sang to him and settled him, til i put him in the cot, then he got up onto hands and knees is his normal zombie type way (very topical eh?) and the stood in his cot la'ing. Then, while bursting for the loo, I heard crying from our bedroom.

15 mins later, and I have both the children wide awake. A few minutes ago, while I went to the loo, they were bouncing on the bed, laughing and giggling and then DS got off the bed and was crawling down the hallway towards me.

Its 3am in the morning wtf is happening I have classical music on for them in a desperate bid to get them to sleep. DH is asleep on the sofa after grumpily asking me what was happening and vaguely offering to get up. And do what exactly? hmm. didn't take very much to persuade him.

To say I have Had Enough. Is an understatement.

Please can I join you? DS is 1 and had a spell of sleeping well for about a month but then he got poorly and has gone back to waking 5+ times a night for the last 2 months. It is particularly hard tonight as we have a guest on the sofabed so I can't even say "oh well" and go down for a cuppa and ten minutes with a book for moral support.

I have a big age gap between my two and had completely forgotten the feeling of sleep deprivation. I often think sleep deprived parents should wear a special armband or something so that everyone is a bit kinder to them.

Oh dear Pavlov .

Hope that your dd is feeling better this morning.

I have been back to the same old after feeling pleased with myself on Thurs night. Fri ds fed until 1am then woke at 3. I tried to settle him without feeding but he just got angrier and angrier so I gave in and co-slept. Last night he woke pretty early on, ?10ish and I went up to feed him on our bed but we both fell asleep. He co-slept all night BUT on neither night has he been doing the ultra annoying crawling around the bed and then having a random latch for a few min thing so I slept ok, in fact I felt quite refreshed this morning until I came downstairs and realised that it was an hour earlier than I had though due to the clocks.

oh pavlov how shit for you - i hope you are all a bit better this morning. My dh is a bit the same in the bleak small hours - feigns deep sleep so I do all the 'work' and then I get the blame for 'rushing' to dd whenever she wakes, thereby creating the sleep problem blah blah blah.

If it's any consolation our cc is not working yet, and it was (counts on fingers) night 5 last night. Partly her cold and teething but I counted 6 wake ups that i 'attended to' and 2 that I didnt. The only good thing is that her last chunk of sleep saw her wake for the day at 720 (so 620, which is moreorless her normal time) so I hope this is us over the clocks switch hump. Hollow laugh. Yeah right.

Welcome fanjo, hello everyone else.

I might start a 'weirdest thing i have hallucinated whilst sleep deprived' thread...

omg my children are wild. DS went to sleep at 5:30am (4:30am?), same for DD took her to her bedroom where I told her that if she did not stay in bed i will be angry . (Since there is no more puke or illness, the sickness must be too much e numbers at the party)

At about 6:30am (5:30am?), DH wakes me up 'would you like me to try to settle him first or shall i bring him straight into you?' 'No Way, I don't want him in here, i am going back to sleep!' DS went to sleep on his chest in the front room and DD got up at 7:30am, not sure what one though.

I vaguely drifted in and out of unconsciousness til 8:30am with DD running wild all morning.

And now, both kids are nuts. Absolutely nuts. Happy nuts, excited, over the top. And I just want to SCREAM! In fact I did. DH is getting them dressed, just said to DD 'if you did not notice that you headbutted the radiator you are TOO excited. Calm Down' nope. Not a chance.

I am taking them out for a long drive where hopefully they might sleep, then a run somewhere.

I really wish we had some family here. I really wish we had some-one to take them both for a couple of hours. But America and Durham is a bit far away from Devon.

ufgyhjfffgurtgttrtthfgt bbbbbgbbbggbhhuggrfrurfrrtgg

dvhvhvfvfv vvfvfvfv vvgvgbbggbgfdfgw434tr44frgedserggbbbb vff

lol dd wrote something sorry bout that!

went for a long drive. 3 hours. ds slept most of it, apart from a quick pit stop where he ate some tuna sarnie then straight back to sleep, while dd sung to some kids music, chattered at me the whole journey.

No peace as i had hoped, but at least not hectic hectiness of this morning.

Hi Pavlov we were away overnight just skimmed the latest. Sounds like you had an interesting 24hours. To make you feel better....ds up at 4am on new time oh joy then woke dd who had napped yesterday for 90 mins so went to bed at 9pm last night. So she was up at 4.50 am new time. Dont normally encourage day time naps for her these days but we were travelling. Ds up every 2hours last night. Feel totally shattered and FAT. For some reason I am comfort eating for England these days. Still in maternity jeans and they are getting tighter. Anyway off to bed now. God life is truly dull! Hope your night is better.

worked it out, that in the last 40 hours (since 4am or so yesterday which is pretty much when my morning started) I have had 5 hours max of broken sleep, probably even less than that, 1 hour between 5-6am yesterday, or however long that was after DD woke due to whatever reason it was again she woke (cant even remember) and this morning between 5-8:30am, with dh waking to see if i wanted the baby at 6am and dd playing 'drums' for a while. Not even going into the whole time changing malarky.

No wonder that today i feel lower than i have felt so far. Tearful, fed up, and like this is never going to end. DS and DD have been an absolute nightmare all day, dd in particular has been over-excited, not listening, not doing what she is told, generally hard work, and ds has been ultra clingy as normal but, well more so. They had some lovely moments today and DH said 'we need to cherish this time as they won't be like this forever' and he is right, in so many ways this is a wonderful time for them as siblings, so innocent and fun and happy and they love each other so much, but today, i could not see passed the noise and hecticness, and felt sad that i am wishing a time when ds sleeps, as it also means a time when he is older. I am wishing his life away already .

countryhousehotel i comfort eat too, but luckily i have a high metabolism and burn it off faster than i eat. However, what the eating and lack of sleep has done is cause my skin to go to shit. I am wrinkly, my skin is dry, crepe like, i have spots come up, skin is blotchy, bags like i have been punched in the face under my eyes, hair a mess, no time or energy to get roots done, or hair cut, or eyebrows plucked, or nails trimmed into a nice shape/bit of laquer on. I am frump and hate the fact i am so exhausted i don't even bother with make-up any more or generally how i look. I went out today in dirty jeans as i was so desperate to get the kids in the car and asleep i did not bother to locate clean ones from the huge pile of clean clothes not put away. My hair is a fright, and I wore DHs t-shirt which i grabbed at silly o'clock as it was cold and I was up. I was going to take dd for a run around and maybe grab a coffee but i felt so minging i did not want anyone to see me.

Oh Pav, poor you.
You cannot go on like this my dear.

Will he take a bottle of EBM so you can get away for a day or two?

thighs i would be quite happy to give him formula if he took it. He had been taking bottles up to recently, and now he refuses for his night feeds, any of them. He will drink from a bottle if it is not associated with sleep where before he would drink, be sleepy/sleep.