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?

glad there are bits of progress :)

sorry for judy and bikgkids crap nights :(

my dd is another one that uses a dummy, none of my others did but she REALLY needs it to settle, only ever has it for sleep and tbh if it helps her sleep i am going with it, but looking forward to when she is old enough to put it back in herself at night!

i went out last night, got her down by 7:30 with a bit of rocking but she woke whilst i was out! she NEVER does that, the evening from 7:30-11 is always her best bit of sleep, but my friend just put the dummy in and rocked the pram and she went back off :) and the night wasnt too bad.

todays naps have been much better! got her down both times with just swaddling and putting dummy in, no rocking, so much better than the past few days. i think i caught her before she was overtired and i spent extra time cuddling her and makign sure she was properly relaxed and calm before putting her in the pram. also i can def see her bottom two front teeth under the gum and have been giving her teething powder, so maybe that is helping?

she slept for 2hrs 40mins for her first nap of the day!!! she is asleep now and has been for half an hour ish, hoping she sleeps till 6ish andthen she can feed at 6:30 and go down by 7:30ish, fingers crossed that as she has settled better for naps that she will settle ok at bedtime!

sorry for judy and bigkids too but good job count! i keep trying to force encourage DS to have longer naps but he seems resistant to longer than 30mins at a time. last night was awful, awake 4 times :( i think his tummy is sore and think maybe the baby porridge is making him a bit constipated, he never sleeps well if his tummy is troubling him. have to keep reminding myself that at 3am. were seeing the paediatrician on monday so hopefully she'll have some ideas cos his reflux has been worse the past couple of days too. that and the teething i guess its not surprising hes not sleeping!

Threads just shut at 1000 messages they don't delete.

We are still getting on ok, he's self settling soemtimes and not others, is waking for food somewhere between 1 and 4, and sometimes at other times, when DH settles him. I'm quite happy with things at the moment really, he's started to self settle for naps as well. I'm just hoping that eventually he'll drop the feed on his own, I'm not going to night wean for a while yet (I'm thinking at 1 I'll try if he's not dropped it already) - he's 8.5m at the mo.

count that sounds like a much better night!

4madboys glad your friend was able to get her back off ok - it's our wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks and we are planning on going out together for the first time, I know we'll spend a lot of it hoping he's not causing too much trouble!

Hi all. We've been at my mum's this weekend for her 60th birthday. First time we've stayed overnight away from home since DS was 9 weeks old - that was such an effing nightmare we hadn't attempted it since.

He slept in the car all the way here on Friday night (4 hours) but was up as usual every two hours after that. Saturday night was hideous - he was up hourly, screaming, would only settle with the boob. He has an awful cough, which isn't helping.

Last night was good though. He went down at 8 and woke at 11. Gave him a gulp of water from his beaker which stopped him crying, then gave Calpol and boob. Then he slept for three and a half hours - more water, Calpol and boob. Then he let out a little cry at 5:30 but stayed asleep - I could see him thrashing around in his travel cot but his eyes were shut - strange because he is a very still sleeper, always has been. He eventually woke up fully around 5:50. I wonder whether he was trying to settle himself? DH and I use motion to get him to sleep (either rocking in our arms or jiggling in the cot) so maybe he was trying to recreate that.

Anyway, it's my birthday today and it's quite nice not to have been woken every hour for a change, though typically I've not been able to sleep since his 3:15am waking, but at least I went to bed at 8pm so have had some sleep.

I am still holding out hope that things will just gradually get better on their own. All the books tell you that doesn't happen, but if it did, they wouldn't sell many books, would they? I'm hoping we'll start to see more 3, 4, 5 hour stretches in amongst the horrendous nights, and that the balance will slowly swing towards good nights. But I could be being impossibly naive there.

A bottle of to the first poster whose baby sleeps through before we reach 1,000 posts

We should definitely have a new thread. "Sleep Nightmares Part III: On Mumsnet No-One Can Hear You Scream"

Hi everyone,

Just had a skim read of the posts I have missed...sounds like ups and downs as usual. Bumper 11-6 was great - it's good at least that you know she can do it!

Just been away for 5 days which was great, nice not to have to think about DS and his sleep for a bit!! DP and I just did whatever worked to get DS to sleep and din't worry about night feeds etc. I am trying to carry on cultivating a zen attitude, like Count's. DP and I have both said that, at the moment, we don't have the stomach for any more sleep training / night weaning (having said that I am planning on diluting DS's 10/11pm bottle to get rid of it, but am going to do it v slowly and hope he does not notice!!).

DS is currently waking 3 times a night. This is better than it has been for ages, so I hope things continue along the same lines. Its so hard not to get demoralised when you have a bad night though. I'm just trying to keep in mind all the progress DS has made, even though he sleeps badly for an almost 10 month old!!

Happy birthday count!! Are we allowed to ask how old count I think it does sound like he is trying to self settle, DS was obviously trying for a while before he could do it, so fingers crossed for you!

For the third night in a row, DS only woke once. Well he winged at 5 as well , but I ignored it and next thing I knew it was 6.

Ooh, brilliant Cosmosis! v pleased for you.

I'm vey vey old. I feel about 112, anyway I'm 33

I do hope DS is trying to settle himself. It was so odd what he was doing. Sort of rearing up on his feet and jerking around - he looked like he was breakdancing, or doing some sort of esoteric yoga! He almost looked like he might flip onto his front at one point. I hope he'll do that soon, as I'm sure he'll be more comfy, but whenever I've tried to put him down on his tummy he's just lifted his head like a little cobra and grinned at me

Happy birthday Count - not old at all!

This is interesting

Hi everyone and happy birthday Count!

Some good and bad news as usual then! We're making steady progress! After six nights of The Plan, DS can now self settle within about 20 minutes reliably at the start of the night, with me out of the room and popping in every five minutes to show him my face (he doesn't cry). For the first time in six weeks last night he didn't wake 45 minutes into the night but instead slept 4 hours . we're still doing one feed only, and he now sleeps to 7.

We do have a lot of problems still - wakes hourly from 2-7, sleeps only on us after 5. But going well!

Oh FGS my SIL has just put on facebook that her three week old DS slept eight hours straight last night. Grrrrr!

Happy birthday count. Not old at all . I think you're right that they'll get there in the end - it just can't keep on going on like this? I'm hoping when DS starts nursery better nights might be a side effect of him getting more stimulation during the day....
We're still having a hard time though and I've decided to give partial night weaning a go. I haven't tried a sleep consultant before but have come very close before. I decided that I'd give it one more go as to be honest I think I know what needs to be done but we're maybe not ready yet for anything too full on. Last night I fed DS at 11.45pm and decided I wouldn't feed him unti 5am (with 4am as a possibility). At 1.30am I was able to settle him by holding him in the BF position and letting him suck my finger. He then woke again at 2.30am and didn't sleep for 2 hours.....Eurgh - it was hard work! He wasn't crying the whole time but he was for most of the 2nd hour and I very nearly fed him but he fell asleep just as I was going to. Going to try again tonight and tomorrow and see.
Glad The Plan is going well for you bigkids. What have you been doing differently for the self settling? Hope you all have good nights (sounds like your a sure bet for the wine cosmosis - sounds very promising!).

Judy, if you want to look at my plan, pm me your email address and I'll send it on!

Hmmm, well DS just really tested my "focus on the positives" post of earlier...lots of crying at bedtime and seemed to have difficulty settling himself.

Judys that sounds like a tough night. Good luck for tonight.

we had a horrendous time settling him tonight, 45 mins of screaming! not had that for a long time :( It's heartbreaking isnt' it.

count you are positively young compared to me :)

judy I hope you have a better night tonight.

We've all had rough nights then; serve me right for being smug, DS woke every hour right from bedtime and had an hour's screaming at 3. Gah. Still, we coped with it ok and my sister's having him for the afternoon so I can sleep :)

ooh enjoy your sleep bigkids. DS woke every 2 hours after 11 :(

Thanks for the good wishes. Must have helped as last night wasn't so much of a battle at all. I think it helped that I had some water ready this time (took me an hour the first night to think of giving him some).
Last night I took him to bed with me at 11pm, fed him at 1.30am, settled at 3.30am quickly and then took about 30 mins to settle him at 4.30am. He woke at 5.30am so I fed him again then.
I'm think I'm going to do no feeds before 11.30pm and then before 5am for now and see how it goes. One feed between 7pm and 5am, two nights running is good for us though.
Sorry for the crap night cosmosis hope he is better tonight.

Well, we had a pretty good night. DS went to bed at 8 and woke at 10, but DH settled him twice before eventually bringing him in for a feed at 11. The next thing I knew it was 3:45am and got really excited, but DH told me he'd settled him around 1:30. Still, he hadn't had to get DS out of the cot. Then I put DS back down at 4 after a feed, and next thing I knew DH was bringing him in at 7! DH said he'd heard DS cry out twice in the early morning but when he went to check on him he was asleep. So he must be starting to learn to settle himself. We've had three or four nights like this in the last couple of weeks, so let's hope it's the beginning of better sleep for all of us.

Oh count that sounds really improved!!! Fingers crossed it carries on like that.

We had a better night last night too, went to sleep fine at 7, then woke at 12 and DH settled him. He shouted out once at 3, but that was it and then woke at 5. DH settled him again, but he woke after 10 mins, so we figured he was hungry seeing as he?d had nothing since 6.45pm so I fed him. Got him back to sleep but he lasted another half hour before waking again so he came in to bed with us to play.

Wow, amazing night Cosmosis! I think you get the unless anyone else trumps you in the next three posts ...

I think it almost meets the technical ?sleeping through? definitition doesn?t it?

I think so! I do love a thread with a happy ending.

New thread here. See you over there everyone (hope you don't need to, Cosmosis but you should stick around to give us all moral support and inspiration ... )