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?

plasticspoon, I'd want DS to just lie down and drift off peacefully to sleep without me having to do anything more than a kiss on the forehead and a 'night night' rather than hours of pacing, rocking, jiggling, shushing, patting, screaming (him not me)

What count said

What count said too...

Really interested in your PUPD results count. Please keep updating. We're going away next week for a week but when we get back I might give it a try. The shsh pat has got us to a stage where DS is calm at bedtime but still wakes up all night - it's been weeks since he slept more than 1.5 hours and think it is making me ill. Have rotten cold today and had to ask DH to take a day off work as can't cope.

Actually if I could change one thing it would be to have one stretch of at least 4 hours. Either in evening so could relax or at night for more sleep.
Ideal would be that ds would go to sleep for anyone with just kiss and lullaby while dh and I went for dinner. Have friend whose ds has been like this since about 6 months. He was awful sleeper and she sh patted him without picking him up very consistently. Lots of crying but sounds like dream baby now.
Interesting stuff from the sleep consultant. What time is bedtime for everyone else? Ds is 5 months and we try and have him down by 7. Can't last much longer but doesn't sleep well in day either.

Thanks for the messages and for not suggesting I report myself to ss!

I have a plan: I'm breaking out the brandy porridge! Going to try giving dd some at tea time. She is 24 weeks. This is a sign of my desperation as I am in fact a die- hard BLWer!

judy I think I've started inadvertently started stalking you! Just seen your thread on going dairy free over in feeding. I've tried to give dairy up twice without much success - the second time for 3 whole weeks! - but am on the verge of trying again as we're still getting a lot of wind and green poos.

Bumper I have already started googling baby rice and DS is only 15 weeks. Too young for it yet but I do fantasise that I could miraculously make him sleep with food - probably because everyone keeps telling me he's a big hungry boy. My mum told me today that someone she knows puts horlicks in her DGD's bottle, so maybe brandy wouldn't be so bad after all!

Enoon thanks so much for posting all that info. V interesting. After last night I think DS is too little for anything that involves protracted crying, but at the same time I worry I'm getting him into bad habits with feeding to sleep etc which will be even harder to break in a few weeks' time. It's hard to know what to do for the best but I would definitely consider hiring someone to help - although ideally I'd like them to come and do a few nights of PUPD to save me the pain!

Sorry to hear your nights have been bad plasticspoon. If I could change one thing I would like DS to be able to self-settle, to sleep 4 or 5 hours at a stretch and to stay in his cot all night instead of needing to sleep on me. Hmm, that's three things - I'd settle for any one of them!

I don't really understand how you shh pat in the cot, but perhaps I am just thick, or too sleep deprived to get the concept!

Hi cosmosis, you can put their chest, or turn onto their side and pat their back. I did it along with using keywords to get dd to settle in her cot (combined with pantley pull off) now she settles in cot but still wakes and needs to feed at night to get back to sleep (sometimes 6 times).

plasticspoon - going to give the dairy free thing a try even though I'm pretty sure the problem is DS doesn't self settle. SO many people have said it to me though feel I should give it a whirl...
cos - we shush pat in the cot - I pat his shoulder rather than his back though (well - that's until he gets upset or I get bored and then I pick him up and rock him which is probably why he's not self settling.....).

If it is any consolation I don't remember having to do anything to stop dd1 feeding to sleep. Can't remember how old she was but she just stopped needing it to sleep. Dd2 feeds to sleep most of the time but I'm not worrying about it as there are times when she will go off to sleep with just a mobile on and a little moan.

Going to try the porridge in a bit. I've never made porridge before

plasticspoon and Judy - I started a similar thread about giving up dairy a week or so ago, and have been dairy-free for 8 days so far! We don't have green poo but DS is just full of wind, and I am sure that's part of his sleeping problem. As I've already posted, we've had two better nights the last two nights but I don't know if that's related to the non-dairy, or moving the swinging crib into the nursery, or (please god) slowly coming out of the 4 month sleep regression? Who knows! I'm going to do it for 2 weeks and then perhaps reintroduce milk in tea and see what happens. It's not been easy I have to say, and I do worry about getting enough calcium.

I've just had the most terrible evening. DS hasn't had anywhere near enough sleep today, and it's been an active day with swimming etc. I put him down for a nap at 4 and he woke up crying at 4.20... and didn't stop. Not just his normal evening grizzling, but full-on screaming. In desperation I bathed him at 5, which did calm him down momentarily, but then the crying started again so there was nothing for it but to feed him and put him to bed - at 5.40! I think I might have a long night ahead...

The really tricky thing about dairy is that unless you can cut it out completely you don't know if the experiment's failed, iyswim - I did 3 weeks but accidentally had it at least twice. Gave up because I didn't really see any improvement, but what if ds is just really really sensitive? Plus I carried on eating beef...most of my diet is cow-based!

On the plus side I lost a hell of a lot of weight (no choc!). Put it all back on since of course

Oh dear beingblonde, hope it doesn't turn out too bad.

So my excellent plan has been scuppered. Dd didn't actually eat any of the porridge. I didn't see that coming. Back to the drawing board. Should I keep trying with the porridge?

Oh dear - what happened to it? Did she not like it, or did she flick it all over the place like cosmosis' DS?

Sat feeding DS now - second evening of PUPD/shush pat/whatever it is. Gah!

Hello all - I've been lurking on this thread for a while but thought I might as well make my presence known! Have a familiar story to you all (feeding to sleep, lots of night wake ups, difficulty with naps) but my DS is a bit older than yours - 7 months.

Anyway, I have been really going with the flow, and co-sleeping which has helped me not to feel too sleep deprived - but DS has bad sleeping habits as a result! For the last week or so I have been able to get him to sleep in his cot (with shush pat) and so the plan is to try to do that really consistently! (Though I am a bit rubbish and always head for the easy option).

I was on the no cry thread but then didn't really follow through with my plan! No cry sounds great in theory but I think you need to be superhuman to manage to carry it through, as the lack of sleep lasts a lot longer.

Am not really into sleep training though - but it seems more and more likely that we may have to head down that route.

Anyway - am rambling a bit - just wanted to say hi! Will also post some questions for enoon at some point - v interested to hear how it goes! I know a lot of people who have used sleep consultants.

When I say "sleep in his cot" I meant for one hour of the night! My post makes things sound pretty good - most of the time we are co-sleeping and I am the human dummy!

Sorry to hear that Bumper! I reckon keep trying, some of it's got to go in eventually.

Good luck Count! Feel the force of the sleepless mums with you!

I hear you Raising, I am a human dummy too. I also find it hard to get DS to stay in his cot, as he prefers sleeping on me and we both get more sleep that way. Cosleeping is knackering my back though. Has yours always had bad sleep or is it a more recent thing?

He's always been a bad sleeper! He shares with your DCs that he is always very alert and "wired". Has always needed a lot of help and lulling to sleep, even as a newborn.

Part of me likes the co-sleeping though; I like the closeness, but my back is also suffering.

Off to feed him know and start the shush patting!

Night 2 of PUPD/shush pat/whatever went like this:

1. Feed
2. Walk round with DS gently patting and singing Twinkle Twinkle
3. Put in cot and swaddle
4. Turn out lights
5. Put one hand on tummy and one hand over DS eyes (gently of course)
6. Shhhhh shhhhh
7. Remove hand cautiously after three minutes and behold peacefully snoozing baby
8. Retrieve jaw from floor
9. Sit there for 20 mins to make sure

10. Leave room.

I think I need a lie down ... how can this have happened?!

Let's see how long he sleeps for.

woo hoo! Am very happy for you count. Can you come round and sleep train my DS next please . Hope the rest of the night goes well.

Wow count that is great! What a breakthrough! I get stupidly excited when things go well because even if they only stay asleep for a little while you know they can do it.

Must be something in the air as I have left dd asleep on the bed upstairs! Daren't move her and she is on her side so paranoid she is going to roll over and smother herself but she is asleep!

Oh well, that was a nice 45 mins while it lasted! She is awake! Still, it's progress.

Just spent 30 mins trying to rock/soothe DS back to sleep from hysterical bouts of crying (interspersed with massive yawns - just give in, dammit!) Ended up feeding back to sleep. Ho hum.

Well done Count - long may your success continue!