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?

I am just really glad you started this thread again, bumper. It's a real lifeline for me.

Funny to think my first ever post on MN was on the original newborn sleep nightmares thread when DS was 3 weeks old. I never dreamed he'd still be sleeping so badly at five months!

I am definitely just surviving. My NCT mates go to all these groups and classes - buggy fit, playgroup, baby music, sensory, swimming. I make it to a weekly coffee with them but don't have the energy for anything else. I was thinking about doing a blog about DS - partly to reassure other parents of 'spirited' babies and partly because I write for a living and thought it would look good on my CV to have done som writing while on mat leave. But I can barely string a coherent sentence together most of the time, or have time to brush my hair, let alone boot up my laptop!

some writing. I can spell, honest!

Um, just wanted to add (because for me being tired and stressed brings out my excessive worrying) that I wasn't meaning to say that just surviving was enough and that you should just get on with it and shouldn't go to the doctor. Just saying for me accepting the situation a little made things feel better. Your DH knows you and your situation best so having a chat with a GP wouldn't hurt either. A blog sounds like a great idea too. It's defintely good to have an outlet for all this crap that's going on.

Oh judy that wasn't a dig at you or anything, more just a whinge at the whole situation we're in. It sucks!

What sort of writing do you do count? Just think, we all had a life once...

Last night dd woke up about half an hour after I went to bed. That's the worst time I think, up till about 2am

Thanks judy - agree it's important to lower one's expectations about what one can achieve with a young baby to look after - especially a baby like we all seem to have!

bumper I do copywriting - corporate/marketing stuff. Would be nice to be able to do something a bit more creative.

Well, DS just woke up, having slept for 4 hrs 15 mins - longest evening stretch this year I think. So either tonight will go well or it'll be a total disaster ... who knows?!

Arf at bumper 'we all had a life once'...:o

Was just thinking yesterday that it's bloody good that I decided to take a year off work as my brain has turned porridge. I feel like I've accidentally slipped into an alternate reality where everything is almost the same but also fundamentally different. I used to wash my hair every day. I used to wear makeup. I used to have a love life (ha!) I used to read books, watch TV in the evening, eat dinner at a normal time...the list is endless.

Now I sit in a dark room and try to get my baby to sleep. Or, you know, walk around outside like a zombie trying to get my baby to sleep.

Thank god for MN, eh. :o

unfortunately I'm back at work (from 4 months :(), in a research lab nonetheless. Needless to say reading (and other thinking heavy tasks) takes a back burner.

Sleep is gradually improving here. At night DH is now able to resettle her again and getting her to go 3/4 hours without feeding isn't too difficult. She's waking every 2 hours instead of 1.5. Hopefully in a few days this will lengthen a bit more.

Good stuff penguin!

Not sure what to think about our night, really. DS managed that 4hr 15 stint in the evening and was back in cot by 12.45 but woke an hour later so DH got up with him. I was so bleary I slept through it but DH told me this morning it took over an hour to settle him! So he put DS back to bed at 3 and he woke at 4 for a feed. Back in cot 4.45 and woke at 8.10. So not bad at all - just wish he could manage 4 hours in the night. I think I'd feel so much better if I had 4 hours' sleep once in a while!

DH is such a legend. It would have been a much worse night for me if he hadn't persevered. I would have just given up and fed after half an hour!

Well we've had a mixed few nights depending how you look at it - he's slept pretty well, as long as he's on me - it's been rubbish if we've tried to get him in his basket though.

I actually feel a bit better as have had about an extra hours sleep - funny how such a tiny amount makes a huge difference!

Sounds like your dh has been a trouper Count! Mine had ds all day yesterday as I was at a hen do - day went great, he walked him for naps so that was fine. The night not so good - he got him down to sleep ok, but woke after an hour and was hard to settle. I think he got him to sleep on the sofa for a bit, but he was crying again when I got in at 12 and poor dh was quite stressed.

Feel I should praise my DH as well. I feel like all I do is look after DS and he does pretty much everything else including nearly all of the cooking (I've was trying to persuade him to do this before we had DS as he's better than me so that's at least one positive out of all this - hopefully he'll just continue on when things get better ).
Our night was similiar to the last few - DS sleeping in 2.5 hour blocks which is good but awake randomly for an hour from midnight to 1pm.
I'm going out for lunch with friends today so have been pumping all morning. Bit nervous as we haven't tried for a while as it's not been worth the hassle and not sure how much DS takes at a feed anymore.
(Bumper - knew you weren't having a go and was being an irrational worrier- hope you had a good night).

Mini Blonde in sleep shocker!! DS slept from 6.30- 1.30 and 2.00 to 6.20 last night...

It is probably never to be repeated but wow, DH and I feel great this morning! The only thing we did differently was DH going up to his room every 40 mins - 1 hr until about 9 and rocking his crib, and putting on his white noise. Maybe this helped him transition between sleep cycles at the start of the night? I don't know, but my god I hope it happens again.

I am so sorry to hear some of you are so down at the moment. I haven't posted in a couple of days because I've been really ill with a fluey type thing and lovely DH has been looking after DS. Count I hope you're feeling a bit brighter after a half decent night.

oh well done mini blonde!!!

Well some progress for people then :)

Last night DD woke at 1.30, 3 and 7, which is bad for her. But DH was on duty so I had mostly a full nights sleep (I could hear her occasionally but it was so nice to stick my ear phones in and ignore it!). It makes such a difference for me that DH is doing this (approx once a week now). Of course he then has a sleep when DD2 goes down for her morning nap, which obviously I don't get to do when I do it every night but to be fair, even when he is on night duty he gets DD1 up too so I get a decent sleep, whereas normally I don't have to get up till he leaves for work or till the baby wakes up on days when he takes DD1 to nursery.

Well, we are making progress in that the last few nights I have actually been able to get DD down at the beginning of the evening. I've been feeding her lying down on the bed and leaving her there. Getting her to stay down for longer than half an hour is another matter.

Tell me, what do all of you do to settle your LOs? I always just go straight for the boob, mainly because I know on occasions she will go to sleep just to the mobile in her hammock, though never in the evenings. But I haven't worried about feeding to sleep, especially as she is quite small, so I don't like to deny her milk if I think she needs it. However waking up within an hour or so of going down means she probably isn't hungry, but I don't know how else to pacify her. Bouncing the hammock and white noise no longer work. I can't really have her crying too much at night because of DD1.

Hi all. Not been posting much as been having what can only be described as a total shocker. Ds last week started waking every 2-3 hours and was fed and resettled - then proceeded to wake about another 4 times after that. Only down for an hour or so before started again. No bloody idea why. Thank god at least he settles for dh so I didn't have to get up every time.

Slightly better last night - down at 9 fed at 1 and 5, woke once after each feed but settled in cot with shh/pat. Was going to suggest that to you bumper - he girns a bit but doesn't really seem to cry that much and settles after 5-10 mins. this is after initially being fed to sleep I may add.

Mini blonde that's amazing. Cos - know what you mean. Even an extra hour helps so much.

Am reading everyones posts just can't remember them all to reply to. Here's to a better night for all.

Bumper we moved the swinging crib that DS used to sleep in when he was in our room into the nursery because I found there was nothing I could do to comfort him other than feed him when he was in the big cot. Well, since he stopped taking his dummy suddenly anyway! He does seem to like the swinging action and we have a teddy that plays white noise, but only for 20 mins, so at the moment DH is periodically going upstairs to swing him for a bit and put on the noise. It's very hard when there's nothing else for it but to feed, and when you're dying to get back to sleep yourself it can seem the only sane thing to do. I have a friend who somehow contorts herself to put her cheek against her baby's... she reckons it works... I guess you could try it?!

I'm glad you had a slightly better night salander - i'm always very impressed when I hear of ssh pat working!

First time it worked at night actually! Had variable success with naps. Prob means will go tits up tonight. Hey ho.

Bumper - as DS was waking so frequently I don't feed on every waking. I try to limit it to a feed around 11.30pm (which I like to think of as the dream feed which will make him sleep through to morning - ha!), and then another 1 or 2 feeds before 7am. Feeding doesn't always send him to sleep either - I hate it if I've spent 30mins feeding him and he's still wide awake at the end. We normally manage to rock him to sleep, swaddled in our arms with a bit of shush pat. We can sometimes put him down sleepy and carry on the patting in the cot. Sometimes randomly when I'm really tired I can plonk him in the cot awake and he falls asleep - not sure how this happens and it's pretty rare but lovely when it works.

DS really didn't want to go to sleep tonight. I had to feed him again and he still complained a lot.

Bumper DS only really feeds to sleep in the middle of the night, which is a right PITA. We used to rock/cuddle to sleep at bedtime but since that one night of sleep training last week, he goes in the cot after his feed and goes to sleep in there. If he has dozed off on the boob (which is rare) I wake him gently before putting him down (woooooo! risky stuff, eh!). Then I turn out the light and settle him in the cot, usually by shhing with a hand on his head and the other on his tummy, or by flattening myself onto him in the cot and putting my cheek next to his (good job I'm quite bendy ).

It's worked for the last five nights, touch wood. Some nights he's gone off without a whimper; tonight he complained quite a bit and I thought he was going to go off on one, then he suddenly just went to sleep.

The room has to be v v dark, cos he's such a nosy bugger, it's impossible to get him to close his eyes otherwise.

His naps are a disaster at the moment. Taking aaaages to settle and only sleeping for half an hour/40 minutes, even in the buggy. If it's not one bloody thing it's another.

Thanks for the tips. DD went down earlier and woke after about half an hour (as usual), I sent DH up there to try and settle her. Instead of coming down after two minutes as usual having given up he actually managed to settle her just by putting his hand on her. That bought us another hour. She's awake now, but I've had a bit of a break. Think we are just going to have to be a bit more creative in settling her.

I hardly dare write this, but another miracle night has occurred in the Blonde household!

Glad you got a bit more time bumper and glad you had another good night beingblonde.
We had an awful night - back to waking every hour......but am not too down about it. I stopped taking dairy last Wednesday and that night noticed a difference in DS's sleep (waking every 2-3 hours instead of every hour - don't think I'll be leaving this thread anytime soon!).
I thought it must be a coincidence as it happened so quickly so I had lots of dairy yesterday (including lots of cake when out for lunch with friends ). DS did a big green poo (sorry if TMI) before bed so had a bit of an indication the night might be bad. It was exactly as it has been for the last few weeks with him waking every 45 mins until midnight.
I'm stopping dairy again now and am going to stick at it for at least 2 weeks and see if the GP can advise anything. DH is a bit sick of all my theories and I am wondering if I'm looking for something that isn't there but feel I have to at least try.

We had an ok night, he at least slept in his bed slightly more than the last week or so!

judy's no, I don't think you're clutching at straws at all. some babies are apparently v sensitive to dairy proteins in BM. Doctor will probably pooh-pooh it, but I know quite a few mums who have had to cut out dairy, often to great effect. I met a woman at the tongue tie clinic who had had a baby with cow's milk protein intolerance and with her second baby she had made the decision to stop eating dairy in her preganacy and throught lactation. She said when she cut out dairy it was like someone had flicked a switch in their baby. NOw, I know cutting out major food groups can be problematic so maybe your doc could refer you to a dietician who could help?