Come sail with me with you're in the same boat...

[IMissSleep]

SLEEP! Not getting enough at night or naps during the day. Doesn't matter what age your DC are.

Share your stories here, solutions or just have a vent!

I'll start...

My DS is 8.5 months. Went through a good stage with night time routine, still has really - self settles to sleep no problem. Feeds at 11pm. But will wake between 2am - 5am maybe 3 times. So I'm up and down a lot during the night! He has slept through maybe a handful of times. Still good with naps, 2x 2hr.

Still would love a full night though!

Poor you nov75, I had a mixed night, but the other way round to you. DS2 woke at about 12.30 (bf), then 4. Fine, but then also at 5 and then 6, argh! But that's 3 or 4 nights now where I haven't had to see to him until after midnight, so a good trend. But I haven't stopped the feeding at night, he makes it very clear what he wants!! I think some people think I am nuts, but I think he needs feeding and I'm prepared to wait it out a bit longer. As long as it's just two feeds and he goes back to sleep then I can get enough sleep, but when it's more frequent I suffer.

Flowery, that sounds great, would love a night like that. Do you think it is just happening naturally or due to you trying to feed him less?

On a more positive note, for the last 5 nights or so, DS1 (4), who has been having nightmares late,y, has slept much better.

Hope everyone has a good, or OK night.

I have cried and begged DS2 to go to sleep in the last few months. And When DS1 was 2 we had an awful sleep time, which unfortunately lasted for at least 12 months. There were a LOT of tears then and I even resorted to CAlpol night, with a few spoonfuls for me too!!

Thanks for making me smile. I have hit the chocolate and enjoying a cup before the onslaught! Got everything crossed that I can get a couple of hours sleep before the games begin. At least I am not truly alone and I just have to find new coping strategies. Sweet dreams.

Camperfan, no idea if it was because of trying to reduce feeds. Given last night's escapades I think the night before was a fluke, or due to being supper sleepy with a cold and no afternoon nap. It was not repeated last night!

Suppose last night wasn't really that bad, and better then the hourly wakings we were getting at the weekend with the worst of the teething, but a dissapointment after the night before.

7.00 cot, asleep 7.10
9.30 woke finally back to sleep 10.25 (I was out until 10pm, but DS apparently settled down reasonably quickly and was lying quietly in his pram when I got back)
woke 1.00 - cuddle then pat to sleep
woke 3.00 - SCREEMED. gave in at 4.00 BF, finally asleep in our bed 4.40
woke 6.00 bf and went back to sleep
up for the day at 7am

Morning all. A great night here, down at six forty five. Feed at two and quick pat at three and up at six thirty. I Think getting her to sleep before seven is key.

Rubbish again! Hey ho, bring on tonight. Zimm you must feel great. What do you think has changed to achieve this?

Well, DS2 did not wake til 00.50 again, bf and back to sleep. Awake again at 4am and bf. Would have been fine, but then he didn't go back to sleep for about an hour, yawn! And he squeaked again about 6am I think, and I just patted him a bit (he was in bed with me) and he went back to sleep. I didn't put him back in his cot once, just so lazy, but I really think I should! Am thinking he should go into his own room when we are down to one feed/waking per night, but logistically it works so much better if he's up with me as we're in the loft and don't disturb/get disturbed by anyone else.

Hurrah for you zimm, boo to flowery and nov75

I have a very rare evening out tonight, so will be interesting to see what happens if he wakes before I get back. As I'll be back about 10.30 this now seems unlikely, I kind of hope he does though so that there's no chance of a bf and I won't be here to hear the cries!

Nov75- unsure, could be a one-ff, sometimes we get a run of a few good nights like this. Or it could be that I stuffed her full of lentils at teatime so she was very full?

Enjoy your night out camperfan!

Thanks! Hopefully I won't fall asleep at the table! Also, I am used to eating with the DS's at the moment so I can't see how I can possibly wait until 8pm to have my dinner?

Have a good time CamperFan. This a first night out?

On Sunday I am going to Paris for one night for a firends hen party (booked yonks back when I thought DS was bound to be sleeping through by now!). Very excited about a proper night out but a bit worried/guilty about leaving DS when he wakes so much, still has at least 1 feed a night and refuses to settle to sleep for DH. Oh well, DH keeps telling me not to worry, it is after all only one night.

Morning,

A good night here with only 1 waking - I think DD was exhausted as she only had a couple of short naps as we have friends round al day so she got loads of attention and fuss. I think I might have one of their babies who sleeps better with less nap time??

camperfan I am jealous! Will you leave EBM for your DS or could this be the start of night weaning? In soem ways I am tempted to go away for the night and force OH to start the night weaning!

Hi all, can I join late? I remember some of you from the My Baby Won't Nap thread. My DD (7 months) has never slept through and always been a crap napper. Too hyper and wanting to play! We have mixed nights - 6 month growth spurt was terrible mixed with teething and cold and accumulated overtiredness. We're getting to some better nights, ranging from 1 - 3 wakeups so lucky compared to some, I know. DD started crawling just over a week ago and the night after she first crawled was our best ever - went down self settled at 6.30 ish and went through till 3-ish when we cuddled her and she went
down without feeding and slept till 6! Not had another one that good since though.... But knackering her out through crawling is a good
start! Just thought I'd add what has helped for us:

Getting a video monitor so we can watch DD getting herself to sleep
and not worry - it's really helped as we've discovered she just needs to
have a crawl and a roll before settling on her tummy to sleep.

Anbesol for teething. This stuff is amazing! Really helps when nothing else will.
We did get her an Amber necklace as well. Both very sceptical but
last night we took it off for her bath and forgot to replace it and she
was much worse through the night. Could be a coincidence but....

Being really strict with naps and not letting her get overtired. Took a
week 'off' last week - no going out, no baby groups etc just to work
on naps. Since Saturday my 30 minute power napper has suddenly
started doing 1 - 1.5 hour naps! Think the nights are improving as a
consequence. Putting her down earlier than I used to seems to be the
key. She can only do a max of 1.5 hour awake in the morning after
getting up - if I get her back into her cot within this time frame she
settles within 10 - 15 mins and sleeps for an hour. (Apart from this
morning but second tooth is on the way... Grrr...) After that she can
do 2 hours awake max. I need to start nap routine (bf in dark
nursery, bedtime book and cuddle) about 1.5 hours after she wakes to
ensure she's in bed asleep by 2 hours. I know it sounds awfully
regimented and (dare I say it) GF but it seems to be working for us.
It's very restrictive and means I'm constantly feeding or putting her
down but it feels like at the moment we've broken the overtired pattern
and she's now catching up on sleep!

Early bedtime. Last night she was in bed asleep by 6.05 as she'd
been awake since 3, and I thought we'd have an early start today.
She woke at 11, 2.30, 5.30 and I fed each time (after unsuccessfully
cuddling, patting etc) and then slept till 8.15!

White noise. Been a lifesaver. She's the only baby I know with her
own iPhone... But it works a treat. We get some funny looks walking
round town with the Snoozeshade over the buggy and the White noise
blaring out but it gets her to sleep. It plays all night in her nursery
and I'm sure it's why she self settles well (most of the time)

Have probably created some bad associations by bfing before every
nap but hoping to break this once she's consistently napping well (ha
ha) and eating more solids.

Anyway that's my long rambling story. Hope some of it helps. We're
by no means there at the Holy Grail of sleeping through the night but
we're a lot more relaxed and much better than a few weeks ago when
she was waking every hour and I was on my knees with sleep
deprivation. DH was convinced I had PND but once I started actually
getting blocks of sleep longer than 2 hours I was a different person.

Good luck everyone and for you all (tis a bank holiday after
all...)

hello everyone! Interesting to see some goods and some bads, and makes me feel better to see that others have begged, sworn etc as I did last night . Yesterday was an all time nightmare, up 4 timnes between 11.30 and 2, then at 2.20 DD2 woke ( unusual) but the paiur of them kept niggling unitl 5.20. I couldnt believe that I was crawling into bed when it was light.

have been back to the pharmacy today, now trying bach sleep remedy. after 3 sessions of cranio at £54 a go, no improvmement, tried phenergan at the start of the weekend but to no avail, so it is this, then back to GP. NO idea what they can do about it though - one mum i know said she had similar, they 'tested' her DS for ADHD and when not positive, left her to get on with it!

I keep reminding myself it's just a phase, but nearly 4 months is a loooooooonnnnng time!

sorry for my rant

Hi, I'm new to this discussion, hope you don't mind me joining. I am experiencing a mixture of your experiences with my DD (6 and a half months). Mostly just up every half hour to an hour through the night, unless she comes to bed with me, in which case she usually wakes up every 3-4 hours - we resort to this most nights as a way of getting sleep because my DH works away all week.

I had just decided to take a week off from activities and focus on improving napping time (currently 30 minutes) and I wondered dreemagurl if you had any strategy when you did this? Would love to see similar success.

Hi Kitty - basically I didn't have a strategy as such, but getting myself into the mindset of completely focusing on nothing but her all week was the key. Keep a close eye on your DD and watch for tired signs. If she's anything like mine there's a very tiny window of opportunity to get her to sleep before she's over stimulated and overtired. Get a good nap routine - different to your night time routine - and stick to it. For us (against all advice from baby books) incorporating a bf into the routine really helped as I knew she had a full tummy and it wasn't hunger waking her up. The white noise really helps as it's a sleep cue for her and if she does wake up it helps her get back to sleep. As mentioned before, allowing no more than 2 hours awake, and usually less first thing. This morning she was tired after being awake for an hour!

But that's just what worked (sort of) for my baby. They're all different!! (Little monkeys...!)

Kitty is your DD in her own room? How is she at self settling when you first put her down?

Hi dreemagurl. Thanks for this. DD is in her own room but generally hates the cot. She used to be able to self settle when in a crib by our bed but randomly she just stopped. We never got her back into that crib and so went for her big cot in her own room (tried her big cot in our room first but she wasn't having any of that) - she's been in there since late march but only ever spends the evening in there before coming to bed with me. She can self-settle when I put her down but its a timing thing - if I get the timing wrong, seemingly even by a few minutes, I've no chance. I can sometimes get her to go to sleep on her own if I sit by the cot but it can take anything up to an hour. Either way though - self-settling or feeding to sleep, she always wakes after 30 minutes and cannot get herself back to sleep. She also prefers to sleep on her side but when she wakes up, she rolls onto her back and even though she is capable of rolling back over, she doesn't and instead lies there crying. There was one night that she put her thumb in her mouth when she woke up and got herself back to sleep which was fabulous but it literally only happened once.

I try very much to respond to her tired signs but I have a couple of problems doing this effectively. Firstly she is not regular at all. Today she was tired after an hour, yesterday I didn't see an eye rub until 3 hours after waking. The second problem is that she only naps whilst on the move - sling or pram. But I live on the third floor (no lift) so even if I'm dressed and ready to go out, it can take 10-15 mins for me to get her coat, get her downstairs into the pram and out. Regardless of the place she naps, she only ever naps for 30 mins and then she may go another two hours or she may only be awake for 30 mins before rubbing her eyes again. I really need to be able to extend her naps but I have no idea how. I've tried napping with her and then feeding her the minute she wakes up - this has only worked once (oh so many things have only worked once).

Putting her in the cot awake but drowsy during the day usually only serves to wake her up.

Well, on my evening out, DS2 woke at 9.30 and was up for an hour. DH settled him eventually. No, I didn't leave any ebm as I knew I'd be back about 11 and I decided he could def wait til then, being 7 months old!! He then woke at 12 and 3, same, up at 6.30 but I had lovely lie in til 9am!!!

But the next night, for the first time since he was about 12 weeks old, he only woke once for a feed!! He woke up one other time, but self settled after about 10 mins, and I fed him about 2.30am and that was it til 6.30am ish. I was v pleased, but that was Sat night and we've been back to 2 feeds since then. But the fact that it even happened gave me some hope and tonight I may try not to feed at the first waking. I also need to start being a bit stricter with putting him back in cot afterwards, as I've been v slack and kept him in with me a lot, which isn't going to help getting him into his own room! Who else is mainly co sleeping??

Welcome new people! Olivo, you must be v tired!

Hello, DS can't self settle and last night was so tired we had to bath him at 5:45! He then woke couple times before 10 then woke several times in the night and had to be picked up, would not be patted off.
Woke at 4:51 went back to sleep on me after a bottle at 7:30. Would not be put down and now won't blooming nap!
Argh!

Ahoy there - welcome to the boat kitty and dreemagurl.

I am proud and excited to announce that DD slept through last night! 6.30pm - 5.15am, quick Bf and back down til 6.30am! Now I sure she will regress very soon (probably tonight) but for us working on the self-settling, breaking feed to sleep and a good nap routine really seem to have helped. Plus she is currently not teething as far as i can tell. This is only her second sleep through since xmas and she's nearly 10 months....

olvio - good luck with Bach - I found it helped a lot during the 4 month sleep regression.

Great stuff Zimm and CamperFan. Sounds like some of us are starting to see at least a little progress. It is all a bit hit and miss for us too but we are now starting to get the odd better night so let's all hope they start getting more frequent for us all.

Welcome to the newbies! Coffeess all round - we generally need them!

We had a not too bad night on Sat night - one waking, which is good, but took over an hour to go back to sleep, less good!
Sun night I was in Paris (v. nice!) and although there were vatious wakings, DS did settle for DH in his cot for some of them so didn't spend all night in his pram as I was expecting. This is a MAJOR break through for us. He also went all night with no milk as DH was about to get a bottle of EBM at 4.30 when DS went back to sleep.

Last night we had a lot of wakings and one feed but for two of the wakings DH settled him back off. At least we might now be able to share some of the getting up in the night.

wow, well done babyzimm and babyFB and welcome to those who have joined us - hope you dont have to stay around too long (in the nicest way possible!!)
another crap night for us,with DD1 waking me 5 times before 2 - gave her the bach and she settled - maybe coincidnce but will def try again. unfortunately, DD2 woke at 2.20 and was awake for 2hrs so i am whacked!

Ollvo- when you say bach, do you mean one of their flower remedy things? If so could you tell me more about it, which one etc. Pm me if need be :)
Lol it could well be you mean the classical music legend Bach!

Ollvo- ignore my post my phone let me change the page, it's the sleep remedy you are using not a classical music composer!
I'm off to see where I can my hands on some. We also tried c.o for teething and post birth trauma. It worked quite well, less for teething I think. I can't quite stretch this month for any sessions.

What is this bach stuff then?

I'm thinking about trying to just get rid of our last night feed now - we've been down to one for a while now, and only one side for that feed for at least a week, and twice he's gone all night without, so I think he can do it. The problem is he gets VERY difficult to settle once he wakes past 3am if not fed. I will try tonight, wish me luck!

I'm still waiting for him to start forgetting/not bothering to wake earlier in the night given he doesn't get fed then any more. Perhaps I should read parenting books to him at bed time so he realises that's what's supposed to happen, instead of 'Bouncy Little Rabit Went Exploring'!

Oh good luck flowery! I am not expecting a good night as Ds2 has just had some (very belated) jabs . I am also dealing with another issue - he seems to be biting me (doesn't actually have any teeth yet), which is really upsetting and frustrating (and bloody painful). He seems to be ahrdly feeding in the day - if it wasn't for the night feeds I am sure he would not be gettng enough milk and maybe this is part of the problem!