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?

Judy as you might know I've also cut out dairy but definitely didn't see an immediate improvement like you. I think you have to take your experiences with this seriously - it certainly seems as though it's affecting your baby. However, I ended up at the doc today with DS who has been copiously vomiting (he's ok), and mentioned that I had cut out dairy and that he has slept well the last couple of nights. She basically laughed in my face and said that nothing you eat affects your milk. I think Narmada's suggestion of a dietician might be the way forward if your doc is anything like mine!

Oh, Narmada meant a dietician for you... well anyway my point stands!!

Sounds like your experiment is conclusive judy!

Good that things are better Cosmosis and beingblonde.

Last night wouldn't have been too bad for us, down at 11, up at 3.50 and then 8. But dd1 had a screaming tantrum at 1.30 last night. Her behaviour has been hideous since she had chicken pox. Talking of which, dd2 now definitely has it, gonna be a fun week for me...

Oh no bumper! poor DD!

We had an awful night last night. Won't bore you with the details but it involved DS screaming on and off for an hour and me and poor DH being awake for 2.5 hours between 2 and 5. :(

Have been wondering whether DS's naps are what's making him randomly wake between 1am and 2am every night. Had a bit of a read of that nap thread that's running parallel to this one and thought I'd focus on his naps today and try to get him down after an hour and a half's awake time. So he's had 4 naps and a total of 3 hours' sleep today. But he's been bonkers at bedtime! First screamy, then grinning up at me, then trying to climb up me - all while bobbing on and off the boob and generally thrashing about. He's not been like this for ages - I thought sleep was supposed to beget sleep?! He's calmed down a bit now and is feeding properly - wondering if he'll settle in the cot or not ...

What happened last night then count?

Mine was mixed. I actually managed to get dd down for the evening - yay! She wasn't feeding to sleep so I just lay on the bed with her and stuck some white noise on and she eventually went off. Woke her at 10.30 and fed her. I wouldn't normally wake her to dream feed but I wanted to change her nappy as they've been leaking a lot recently. Then I was punished for my evening off. She woke just as I was going to sleep, which I ignored, 12.30, 2.30, 3.30, 5.30 then at 9. She didn't seem particularly upset some of the time. She was quite chatty! But I wonder if she is feeding to alleviate her discomfort. It's actually easier to deal with knowing she is unwell. There isn't that sense of desperation that this is the way it will be forever!

Ooh, good news about the evening bumper!

Well, DS settled quickly in the end and was asleep by about 7.30. DH and I sloped off to bed at about 9 and thank goodness we did. DS woke at 11 - fine. Fed and back in cot 11.45. Then he woke at 1.45 as is now usual for him .

I went in and tried to settle him. He fell asleep in my arms quite quickly but then kept screaming and arching his back. After 15 mins or so I flounced back to our bedroom and told DH I was sick of this and I was just going to bloody feed him to sleep. Fed DS, picked him up and tried to put him down. Settled in cot from awake, but within 5 minutes he was wide awake and screaming again. DH took over and couldn't settle him. More screaming. Another feed - fell asleep but screamed again when DH put him down. Eventually heard a v large fart and all went quiet. A poo and several farts followed. Unusual for DS who never, ever poos at night. Changed, fed (again) and eventually back down at 5am.

So we were all up from 1.45 to 5 this morning, and DS only slept until 7. I give up

oh count that sounds grim :( bumper sorry about the cp, hope she doesn't get it too badly.

We had another ok night, hopefully we're over whatever was causing the traumas of the last 2 weekss

count yuck. That sounds grim. I am so sorry you're going through the sleep deprivation torture.

I am coming around to the conclusion that so much of babies' sleep patterns are inborn. My DS is a much better natural sleeper than DD ever was - this despite him having really atrocious reflux. I still cannot get him down in his cot before 11 pm (just too squirmy in his sleep) but just recently he has managed to sleep for the odd 7 hour stretch. With tonsillitis. It's nothing I've done - we are doing everything 'wrong' -e.g., he will only actually go to sleep with dummy, being paced around, and woe betide you if you put him down before REM sleep is done with!

This morning I nearly ate my own hat when he stirred at 530 and by the time I'd been to the kitchen to get a bottle and come back, he had sent himself back to sleep. This hasn't happened since he was 2 weeks old and he's now 20 weeks. I couldn't believe it.

Narmada 7 hours sounds like bliss! Well done.
Count that is a hideous night, poor you
Bumper hope the cp not too awful

We continue to have a shambles. Shh pat hasn't worked since night one. Continues to wake immediately we put him down after a feed and needs multiple resettles. And now has a cold and coughs as soon as even remotely horizontal. It's gonna be a long night. Anyone with top resettling tips please share!

Thanks for the posts about the dairy stuff yesterday. I stopped it again yesterday and again we had a good stretch before midnight last night and not so many wakings after that. I thought DS was going to stay asleep again tonight but he's just woken up screaming and DH has gone to the rescue. I spoke to the HV today at the clinic about it all again and she just seemed so dismissive it made me cry - could see her tuning out as I talked . Felt really conspicuous getting DS undressed in tears. She's going to arrange for one of the nursery nurses to come and see us next week to talk to us about sleep but have a feeling they'll just say put him in the cot and don't pick him up.
Hope DS goes back to sleep as we're up early fo catch a flight to Scotland for the week. Only half packed but looking forward to going up.
Hope you have a better night count, bumper and salander and everyone else.

DS is still awake - he's been screaming all evening and we've been trying to get him down for two hours now. Sleep training was only a week ago and it's shot to shit already - each night he's been harder to settle and has woken more and more.

I am at an utter loss as to what to do. He is 6 months old in a couple of weeks and I am contemplating CC. That shows how miserable and desperate I am because it is really not something I agree with. But what else can we do? Is anyone else contemplating this or is it just me? :(

sorry it's so crappy count. I think we may have to do something drastic if things continue. Maybe the way my HV suggested in the end (even though I hate the idea) of putting him in the cot and watching him scream himself silly without doing anything. Not sure if this is helpful but I think we maybe have to get to a point where you can put DS in his cot wide awake and close the door and walk away. At the moment I'm putting DS down half awake but I don't think it's enough.
On the other hand it could just be we've hit another developmental bump without getting a break from the last one. People in my nct group who had babies sleeping for 12 hours (bah) are saying their babies are waking up frequently in the night and being harder to get to sleep. hope you're ds goes down soon - I'm about to go and swap with DH to try and get mine to sleep....

Sorry to hear things are tough Count. It's really hard on you. You're not alone in contemplating CC. DH and I both hate the idea but have agreed we'll consider it at six months if things are no better. There comes a point at which you simply become desperate enough... Also I don't think things like PUPD will work for DS, that kind of thing just agitates him. I hope things are going better tonight.

Will be interested to hear how dairy-free goes, Judys. Really sorry to hear about your rubbish hv. My gp told me to just put DS on Gina Ford when he was 8 weeks, the implication being he would have to be left to cry at some stage... Hope you enjoy your weekend away.

Narmada DS has a cold too but no resettling tips here - think I am high on Karvol...

Sorry that last comment was for Salander not Narmada - but Hooray for seven-hour stretches!

I also think you basically get the baby you're given with this sleep business - unfortunately some just seem to sleep easily and others don't, no matter what we do...

Had the night from hell. thread here. Have had about 2 hours sleep.

Oh bumper you poor thing :( :( :(

Is DD any better this morning? Must be so awful.

Feel a bit bad moaning about my night - not nearly as bad as yours but let's just say it sucked. DS howled all evening. I had toast for dinner. DH and I had a row about giving him formula (I said no, because DS is clearly having tummy trouble at the moment so maybe not the best day to give him formula for the first time; DH accused me of being a bf martyr and being too stubborn to help myself even though I am clearly making myself ill etc etc).

Finally fed DS to sleep just before 10 and he was up every two hours. Would only settle with a bf so been feeding practically all night.

Clinging to the fact that there's a big fussy phase at around 26 weeks due to developmental leaps/growth spurt and maybe that's why it's all gone tits up again (DS is 24 weeks tomorrow, 26 weeks corrected).

judy and pidgin glad it's not just me! There just never seems to be a good time to do sleep training with all these bloody growth spurts, and he'll be having food soon which will be another thing to worry about/sort out. Gah!

judy I had thought about doing what you describe. That's kind of what I ended up doing that night I tried pupd, except I couldn't just sit there and tried everything to comfort him etc. It worked in the sense that since then I've been able to settle him in the cot (except last night) but he still needs so much encouragement - shushing, hand on head/tummy/over eyes, cuddling in the cot) that I feel like he still hasn't really learned to fall asleep by himself. Like you, I think we need to just put him down and leave the room. I guess CC is the way to achieve that but DS can scream for Britain so can't even imagine that working!

Hi count, my dd also went haywire around 26 weeks, we had 4 weeks of hell following previous success with ncss which was when we called the sleep consultant. Last 2 weeks have been much better and I haven't started the sleep training as have been moving house - so it could well be a developmental bump you guys are hitting. Bad sleeping babies like ours seem to be affected much more by developmental stages and they seem to last much longer.

Am planning to start shush pat/gradual retreat in earnest next week once dd's new room is set up and she is settled in. Will let you know how it goes. I think there will be lots of tears, but at least I will be there....

Thanks Enoon, that's reassuring. Hope the move has gone OK. Will be v interested to hear how gradual retreat goes - good luck!

I think there is something going on atm, ALL the rl babies (ie NCT, babygroup etc) I know are going through a really funny period, a lot of crying (more than usual) and disrupted sleep. Don't know if it's developmental or bugs or what.

Anyway, we had another ok night, he sleeps well in the first part - 7.30 - 11.30, then till 2.30, but then wakes a lot more often after that. Not really sure what we can do about that tbh.

Still it's soo much better than it was last week or the week before so we are grateful!

Can I just share my unbelievably exciting news? DP and I are going away for two whole nights next week, to a posh hotel. Two. Whole. Nights. of. sleep. DP seems to think action is on the cards, but I will mainly be sparko, thank you very much. I can barely believe it. My parents are coming to look after the kids - they really want to do it, but I am worried that we will come back to two ghosts and a house turned upside down.

DD1 has a horrible cough and temp and I am praying it's just a cold. Her bro has had bacterial tonsillitis and I couldn't in all conscious leave her with the GPs if she was properly ill.

Wooooooooo! That's fab! Very exciting and sounds like it's well deserved.

DS has just shouted at me for 45 mins but is asleep now, and he settled in the cot (albeit noisily). I remembered today that my friend who did pupd said it suddenly got harder after about a week and you have to just push on through it. I hate hearing DS cry but I never left his side and I know it was just angry crying. He cried for longer last night when DH was rocking him. We'll see how long he stays down ...

Oh I really hope he stays out for the count, count.

Sounds about right re PUPD. We did it kind of half-heartedly for sabout 2 days with DS. It was starting to show some results when back to square one and I just gave up. Maybe I need to be more diligent. Maybe more would help.

Morning all. I am pissed off sorry to report that our two nights of good sleeping were just that, and DS's sleep is back to its old rubbishness. In desperation I have emailed a sleep clinic and have been told the 'package' for a 5 month old takes 4 weeks and is £99. I don't know, part of me keeps thinking it might get better...

Narmada how exciting re:hotel! Blackout blinds and silence...

A whole nights sleep would be amazing - enjoy Narmada. We've arrived at my brother's and DS's sleep has been just the same.
Obviously set alarm bells of for my HV as she phoned yesterday to say she wants to come and visit me at home and is sending a nursery nurse round. I know I was crying because I was tired but if she wants to come round and listen to me go on about DS's sleep I'm happy to have a new ear to bend.
Was talking to my SIL and her DD was pretty much the same. She said things changed when she starting eating more protein so there is some hope. Hope you all had good nights.