The 'newborn - sleep nightmare' continuation thread, Cosmosis, count, emo etc. Still a sleep nightmare?

[Bumperlicious]

Just thought I'd catch up with all of you from the last thread to see if now we've moved on from the newborn stage things are any better?

Dd2 is nearly 5 months and sleep is still hit and miss. She is not good at sleeping when out and about so mornings are either spent at home or I choose to socialise and spend the rest of the day fighting to get her to sleep.

She still rarely goes down in the evening despite me trying for 1.5 hours. Eventually goes down 11.30ish and still often wakes twice a night

Am knackered, no end in sight. How's everyone else doing?

bumper, right there with you.

DS is 17 weeks so only 4 months but what you describe is him to a tee, especially the 11.30 bedtime. If I catch him right, I can sometimes get him to sleep at 7 pm but then have to pace around with him until 11pm as he squirms every time he comes into a light sleep cycle. ALL day sleeps are on me. Hopeless if out and about, there was a shouty screamy overtired scene in Starbucks today - my heavily preggers- for-the-first-time friend looked a bit horrified.

Driving. Me. Nuts. And doing my already knackered pelvis in.

I did get talking to a lovely woman at nursery today whose baby had been the same up until 5 months and a bit. She says she almost magically changed overnight at around 22 weeks - now goes down at 7 and sleeps till 6. Gave me hope....

Hi, wasn't on the old thread but thought you might be interested to know my lo didn't start to go down without a bf marathon until last month. She is nearly 9 months!

Still wakes at least twice.

Naps are still hit and miss, and always in the buggy. Never anywhere else. Still we have at last moved on from the sling thank goodness!

Wondered if I might join although not on previous thread either........My ds is nearly 16 weeks and ebf and sleep is an utter shambles. He goes down from around 9.30 til midnight then is up approx every 1-2 hours thereafter. I am a zombie. Nice to know I am not alone!

Thanks for joining me. I appreciate our routine isn't as bad as some but I just thought things would be better by now. It's relentless. Especially the lack of evenings, so depressing, no space.

It is relentless which makes it so hard. I get to about 6pm and think bloody hell, I have to do it all again tonight! How was last night, bumper? We were up at 1,3,4 and now. Knackered.

Relentless is exactly it! Even worse last night. She went down for perhaps an hour in the evening. Awake by 9.30. Down again at 11.30 then awake 1, 2.30 & 6.30. Dh taking over with ebm tonight and I will sleep on the sofa.

He did it on Saturday and for the first time in weeks she only woke up once! The difference being that night she went down in the evening & didn't wake so I dream fed her and she didn't wake up till 5.30. Haven't been able to get her to go down in the evening since though.

Oh relentless is the word. I keep saying exactly that to DH and he is getting really cheesed off with me. I HATE not having any form of evening. It's not like I want to go and paint the town red, I just want to be able to put some washing away and shave my legs!

Hi ladies! Great idea to resurrect the thread, Bumper. Just a shame that we're all still dealing with sleep 'challenges' by the sounds of it.

We sort of had an OK bit in the second half of December. The daytime naps were hard-going but we started a bedtime routine and DS would settle really easily and sleep 3-4 hours every evening. He peaked on Boxing Day when I put him down in his new cot for the first time, his eyes were open but he was clearly sleepy, and I sang him to sleep. It was ace, like a movie or something.

A week and a half later, he woke every hour and a quarter on the dot, and his sleep's been a disaster ever since. Must be the four month sleep regression. He screams for an hour at bedtime and wakes at least once during the evening, then after that the most he will manage is 3 hours at a time but usually less. We've taken to co-sleeping for survival. I am beyond knackered.

We're trying pick up/put down the week after next when DH has some time off. I am dreading it - he can easily scream for over an hour even when we're cuddling him, so goodness only knows how he's going to react to this.

Sorry you're all still struggling but it is nice to have you all to talk to - my mum friends have much easier babies and I often feel a bit 'meh' that they're all wafting round baby sensory class and yoga, and I can barely get dressed before midday most days!

Count - wanted to say what a great name. I have the same with my mum friends, some of whom even wear makeup! Makes me feel desperately inadequate as I shuffle in looking half dead. Gubbed today. Currently trying to stock ds up with milk in vain hope will slepp past one am. Again nice to know I am not alone. Thanks for letting me gatecrash.

Not gatecrashing, all welcome here (except those whose babies sleep through)!

Good to see you again count, but sorry you are still up so much.

Currently sitting listening to dd moan upstairs. I fed her for 1.5 hours as I do most evenings. I hold her for ages before transferring her but as usual she wakes as soon as she hits the mattress. Funnily enough she rarely does last thing or at night though, usually goes down well. It's not like she isn't tired. We've started to leave her to cry for a bit as I think sometimes us being up there bouncing her or even being in the room makes her worse.

Ok, the moaning has turned to screaming so will have to go and spend the rest of my fecking evening stuck up in the bedroom.

Thanks salander. It's the nickname I gave DS when he was a couple of weeks old, due to the vampiric way he used to launch himself at my boob, like Dracula chomping down on someone's throat. Only much cuter He still does it sometimes when he's really hungry - it makes me laugh.

Sorry to hear you have a crap sleeper too!

DS is 18 weeks and has been as sleep nightmare from about 4 weeks. He was doing 5 hour stretches around Christmas but was a nightmare to settle. The he started settling better but was awake every 2 hours. The he stopped settling and started waking every 1.5 hours :(
We're on our third night of shush pat and it's a bit of a nightmare with lots of screaming but can't go on.
Out of interest does anyone else have a reflux baby? I think DS has silent reflux and is on gaviscon which has helped with the screaming. I'm also taking him to an osteo for the 2nd time tomorrow. It was something one of the midwifes suggested after he was born as he was a breech ELCS. Not sure it helped the 1st time and I've resisted for ages but have reached the point where I will try anything.
I make it out of the house as it's better than staying home trying to make him nap but have cried at baby massage before now. I also seem to be the only one in my antenatal group of 8 who's baby hasn't slept through....

judysdreamhorse yes to the reflux.DS 17 weeks has it and I blame it for his sleep issues. He's on lansoprazole as nothing else has worked for him.

Hi all, can i join too? Ds is 15 weeks and a shocking sleeper. All daytime sleeps on me or in the sling. Co-sleeping to preserve sanity but not my back! I lay awake for a fecking hour last night because of the pain why ds slept happily tucked into my armpit. Ds has a radar that tells him if i get too comfy!

I have temporarily given up on taking him up in the evening as i was feeling seriously low spending so many hours in the same room. I know it'll come back and bite me.

Do you all have action plans? I am trying to formulate one at the mo based on ncss but am struggling to decide what to tackle first!

Judy my cranial osteopath has been working on ds for silent reflux. Gp disagrees but has referred us to paed for a check over. I think something is going on!

Welcome all. Is this going to be like the old thread where we post updates every few days to have a good moan share our experiences? Hope so!

'I have temporarily given up on taking him up in the evening as i was feeling seriously low spending so many hours in the same room. I know it'll come back and bite me.'

I know this feeling. The other night dd2 actually went down for the whole evening. I had a bath, read a book, felt like a new woman! But it was short lived.

Dare i ask how everyone is feeding their little sleep fighters?...

Breast feeding, but at least one of the women on the newborn thread was ff. It's good to know that ff isn't the panacea my hv and mum think it is. No offence meant to people ffing, it's just easy to feel that the sleep crap is our fault for the choices we make rather than getting what we are given.

Hear hear. I am struggling with this perception too. Of course what is indisputable is that only mum will do for ds at the moment so there is no rest!

Right, am off to try and get ds into bed without waking him. Wishing everyone sleep!

BF here too. Most of my NCT group have changed to formula now.

I don't think it'd help DS. He wakes me up because he can't settle himself, not because he's hungry.

Bf here too. I also have a Greek chorus of mum, mil and hv either saying 'formula, formula' or 'wean him! Wean him!'. Having to bite tongue. I genuinely think ds is hungry when we wakes but don't think either of these things would help.

And I have totally given up on evenings. He goes down after a mammoth feed at 9.30 and if I try to push this forward even slightly it just ends in screaming. Hey ho. Off to try and resettle.

Hmm, should have wished myself sleep too! Ds had his jabs yesterday and woke up about 1.5 hours ago boiling hot. He's just had 3 massive poos too. Now wide awake! Ah, joy. I can't even change one nappy without him being woken and wanting to be up for several hours, let alone three!

EBF with DS as well. Not sure if this makes things better or worse (but at least may be an anecdote for MIL etc.) but there are still 5 others in my group still BF and I think DS is the worst sleeper - I think all but one other have slept through at least once which seems like an impossible dream. There are 2 who sleep through consistently - one routine fed (with dream feed) and one fed on demand (who feeds all evening till her DD goes to sleep). The on demand friend was telling me recently how uncomfortable it is to sleep after not feeding for 10+ hours . She was a bit sheepish and I tend to talk about DS's lack of sleep a bit to much to anyone who will listen!

oops - as I tend to and a bit too much. Bit sleepy here.