Non sleeping baby up for sale.

[codswallop]

why will my 5 mth old not sleep through?
e=ven only one eed a night would be nice.

oh Cods! i hope he'll get better soon

he will, the old fox...

And did he?

Night not brilliant but dd2 had jabs yesterday, which made everyone upset...

layzyeye are you stil there?

Yeah, sorry, trying to limit time spent on MN at work!! Thanks for asking.

Erm, hard as not my baby, but I know she is quite, quite desperate. Baby will go down well at about 7ish, but from 9 or 10 pm can be up most of the night. Goes to sleep with dummy (though she was like this before being given the dummy to see if that would settle her). Once awake will not settle - they have tried feeding, bringing in to bed, and have been quite strict with controlled crying but child gets quite hysterical and stots her head off the cot, so can't be left too long. All in all, they are lucky if they get a 2 or 3 hour stretch during the night. She may go back for 10 or 20 mins, but will then start again.

During the day, this child is quite placid and happy & for a premature baby quite advanced - been crawling ages, and starting to pull up.

Anyway, any help greatly appreciated & will pass on. If there is anything else which might give you experts out there a clue, let me know.

can't help myself, my only baby is 7mo so i don't know about 10mos. does she sleep much during the day? did your friend check her with gp?

can't help myself, my only baby is 7mo so i don't know about 10mos. does she sleep much during the day? did your friend check her with gp?

Doesn't sleep over much during day - typical amnt - say 2 hours max. Has been to GP several times I think, but is asking for more help now. Has even had GF on the phone doing sleep consultation..........!!!

Thanks for trying any old how.

anybody any advice? i just have impression hysterical child might easier get what it wants but you said your friend is quite strict

Lazyeye - not really, must admit makes my 4 month old seem incredibly easy.

Oh, she could try a cranial oestopath - I used one with both my boys, with DS1 it definitely helped his colic - not so sure if it helped DS2 but certainly would not do any harm. With both my boys I had quite long and traumatic births ( for both me and the boys ) - was this the same case ??

Or, carrying the baby in a sling might help - put baby in a sling and go for a walk. Ok not much fun in the middle of the night but better than pulling your hair out with a screaming baby.

Lazyeye, My DS is only 3mo so not sure if my comments will help... just thought I'd brainstorm as your friends sound so tired..

Is she crying the whole time she's awake in the early hours or playing? If crying, could it be a new tummy problem (introduced a new food or something?). If she wants to play, we bought this cute FisherPrice aquarium which plays music and bubbles, attaches to the side of the cot. Gives dh and me an extra 20mins in bed in the morning (I know your friend needs longer!). Maybe she needs more toys in the cot (some people like to keep playing outside of the cot, but it may help?)

Our DS always settles to a particular Coldplay (Clocks) and Stereophonics song! Do they have a similar calming song they can put on repeat in the night?

I'm not very experienced yet, but hope these ideas help.

WEll, I think we're getting closer to a six/seven hour stretch after the late night feed. I only know this from logging on here - I'm supposed to be keeping a diary for a potential article but this is it, really.

If the article sells, will let you know...

I had from 6 35 pm till 5 15 pm!!!! hoorah then asleep till 7 15. have detected the suspect a sharp little tooth!

I mean am

Lazyeye, I feel for your friend. My son took a very long time to sleep through too and I felt terrible. I think a daytime routine would really help. Put the baby down two hours after his last wakeup time - eg around 9am and leave the baby to settle. My ds was always tired then. Then try another sleep after lunch. Go out during the day for fresh air and allow lots of crawling etc if she does that. Have a really good and absolutely unvaried wind down routine at the same time every night of bath book, milk and bed using the same words as sleep cues - eg draw the curtains, now it's dark. Sleep tight... or whatever.
When the baby wakes give it a chance to settle itself before rushing in. Does the dummy help in the night? Can the baby be taught to put it back in herself if it does? Then I think it just has to be the cc, I'm afraid. How does she do it? Does she really do it properly, timing herself between going back etc? Or just leave the baby until she can't stand it then rushing in? if the latter then the baby will just learn to cry more. I recommend Richard Ferber's Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems which does give a scientific insight into children's sleeping patterns as well as ideas for controlled crying. Some people think it is brutal, but so is night after night with no sleep IMO.

7.00pm to 5.00am and then asleep again until 8.00am - bliss and going to sleep on her own.

If this carries on I might be tempted to have another (ha ha).

No teeth yet though, but biting on anything that comes within range!

arent we clever!!

Aloha, just picking up on your point about daytime routines, put down for a nap at 9am and left to settle. I'm trying to start a routine myself - should you put them down at 9amish even if they're still in play mood? Do they gradually understand it's now 'nap time' and to drop off themselves? At the moment feeds are pretty consistent but nap times are completely different every day as I just wait until DS is tired.. Not sure if this is what I'm getting wrong?

Codswallop - I wish I felt clever, I just keep waiting for the bubble to pop!! I don't even know what I did to achieve the end result, maybe it's my decorating skills

Karen99, it's a Gina Ford thing. I was sceptical but it really worked like a dream for me. The idea is that they go down two hours after waking and in the end (until he went down to one sleep) he went down like clockwork.

Lubu - Id grab it while you can mate!

246 messages!

Thanks Aloha. DS is 3mo, maybe I should go back to the 8-12wk routine to see if he can cope with that first. They didn't look that different to me so I went straight in at the 3mo routine. Maybe if I stick with it for a week he might start to get used to it... wishful thinking

Personally I don't think food has much to do with it. Studies show that when they have food has very little to do with when they sleep. At 3 mths, their brains are maturing and they begin to enter much more defined sleep cycles, with a particularly active period around 5 in the morning! If you have a horror baby like mine was, this translates into lots more waking at night plus early waking, which I dealt with by feeding. Ergo, vicious cycle where they didn't feed during the day and NEEDED to feed lots at night. Didn't sort this out until 6.5 mths, when I used CC to sleep train DS.

However, some people use the "core night" principle, which means basically, if they sleep through once, you stick to it, and don't feed them again at that time. They will make up for it later! I suspect you would end up with a sleeping baby more quickly this way.

On naps, the two hour rule is good, but you do need to follow your baby's lead - if he didn't drop off within say 20min of being put down (usually howling away while Mummy stroked him) then I just used to get him up again and take him for a walk.

Mine was 6 30 till 3 am then through till 6 45