6 and a half months waking hourly for 6 weeks now

[Fevrier]

so it's the usual story of a good sleeper for the first five months and then she woke up to life, started sitting up and being very alert and her sleep went to pot.

I have always fed her to sleep and can rock her back to sleep in the night or feed.

She is breast fed and won't let me feed her so is doing blw.

I am cosleeping out of need not choice. I have a 3 year old so can't nap in the day and am now getting very tired and resentful.... I don't have any energy for my three year old and I don't think it has to be like this now.

I don't even want to night wean her (she eats very little solids so can't be confident about that) but I really need some longer stretches of sleep. The key is getting her to settle herself in her cot isn't it? I know this but I am so tired that I don't know how to go about doing it.......

I think I just need a bit of encouragement really. If I sit next to her while she yells do you think this is reassuring or tantalising? Should I pop in and out? I know I just need to bite the bullet and teach her that she falls asleep in her cot so that she doesn't call me at every single waking....

I did this with my son at 5.5 months and by this age he was waking 3 times a night for a feed but not every single hour....

Anyone tell me that it'll help???

Yes yes yes! Just sit next to her, no patting or stroking. We did it at 5.5 months when she was waking 5-8 times a night and no resettling for anything, and she went down to 2 feeds within a week or so. It actually didn't usually take that long for her to drop off either, but as I'm sure you know I think it was important to hold strong and be consistent, good tip was to take an iPod to drown out the tears. oh, and start leaving her 10mins before doing anything.

THANK YOU fififrog that's exactly what I needed to hear! I will keep referring to your post while I sit next to her.

Annoyingly I did start the whole thing last week with 35 mins of very loud screaming but the next day she got a terrible cold so I had to abandon it....

THANKYOU for your encouragement. I Hope you are right and i think you will be. I seem to rememeber my sons sleep improving when I did this (took dummy away and sat next to him) but it's all lost in the mists of time!

I will be trying this very soon.

Thank you again! Really need encouragement at the moment.

Fififrog, do you mean start leaving her ten minutes in the night?

And did you just focus on the bedtime or did you do something in the night? I am so weak, find it so easy to bring her into bed, latch her on and go back to sleep....... But things really need to change. My 3 year old son is growing up without me paying attention as I am so tired all I can think about is this sleep problem.

Both bedtime and at night - for bedtime we sat with her til asleep, then after 2 weeks she was used to this and we said night night and left her alone while saying some little phrase every few mins from out the door. After another week we rarely needed to say anything and she goes to sleep within 10mins 90% of the time. At night give her 10mins as a chance to settle herself (of course start that after a few days if you find it v hard to let her cry a bit and want her more comfortable with the new regime) then go in and sit there. It is uncanny how DD can often cry quite hard for a few mins then suddenly go back to sleep.

Good luck, I'm sure it'll work!

I'm trying the same thing with 6 month old DS - I want to cut out some of his night feeds as he eats well in the day and I'm sure it's habit. Last night lay in bed listening to him whinge on the monitor; he went to sleep after a bit of grumbling (no real crying!) without a feed which was great but then wriggled off his sensor mat and woke up crying when I went in to check! So I stayed next to the cot for ten minutes while he sobbed a little, just saying "time to go to sleep now" and shushing but no lifting up and NO feeding!

Anyway he fell asleep and then didn't wake for a feed until 5.45 Plus he has self-settled for three naps in his cot today

Oh, and I sat with my Kindle with a little reading light on it to distract me!

My lo is 5.5months and waking every hour - she used to be a great sleeper haha
Will this work if she still sleeps in the same room as us as. Eed to do work to the house before she can have her own room
Do you take the dummy away before starting (dummy not really helping anyway !)
Do you do it for all night wakings aswell and stop feeding ???
Sorry for all the questions and advice gratefully recieved !!!

In case you havent see the thread, what you're suggesting DOES work - our dd now sleeps 11 hr stretches from waking hourly
Details here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/1394888-What-worked-for-us-Hope-this-helps

Thank you all. Nectarina I should ask you on your own thread but do you think if I pat / rock the cot after putting her down v drowsy it will slow the process down a lot? Really can't bear the screaming as I tried it last week before she got unwell again....

fevinstinctively you know your child best and what she can cope with but if I were you don't be scared - I'd just do it - we had employed a sleep consultant and she warned us the first night be prepared for sitting there for an hour of crying, but it actually took 7mins at bedtime, and 20 mins when she woke in the night. So I guess we were lucky, but you already started so I reckon try not to go backwards now!

Brian that's fab! Well done both of you - can I borrow your daughter? Mine is waking 5.15...

bookworm don't see why it wouldn't work, can't help with the dummy question I'm afraid but you don't have to stop feedig altogether - we reduced the feeding very gradually, in fact only dropped the last 5 months later. Just pick an interval you think is reasonable for your child - I decided 4 hours after bed then 3 hours after first waking which was pretty gentle!

fevrier maybe thats something you'll have to do for a while. Its a step in the right directiOn.

Thank you both fifi and nectarina, its so helpful to have experience from those who have done it.

I should just bite the bullet... I am just going to spend a few tired days rocking her in the cot to familiarise her with it. And try stretching out her feeds. It worked last night a few times but I did make the mistake of feeding her lying down and falling asleep and then turning over and waking her. Bit half baked.

Must try harder!

Update on us: night 3. DS was a bit grumpy in the afternoon - teeth, I think - so I didn't have great hopes for the night. However he had still been going down awake for naps well. Put him down as normal then had a few wakings in the evening. Seemed like loo flushing etc were waking him, when they usually wouldn't. I went in to put a bit of gel on his gums at about 11 but apart from that let him self-settle within 10 minutes each time. I went to bed late and when I heard him cry, I looked at the clock, thought it said 2ish and waited for him to settle again. Then DH woke up and said "aren't you going to him? It's nearly 6" - I had read the clock wrong and it was 5.55 . I gave him a well-deserved good feed and then back to sleep until 7.30

All in a good mood this morning!

Wow well done Brianbutterfield, so that's amazing! Was that just from self settling and leaving be a bit in the night?? V encouraging.

My rocking in the cot is kind of working. Just for her to nap in it quite easily with no crying.

And she did sleep in her cot last night and wasn't lifted between 6pm and 11pm which is big progress at the moment as I have been picking her up every hour!

That sounds like progress!

Yep, I've just been leaving it longer before I go to him. He usually settles within ten minutes now (never would have left him that long before) quite happily and have only once had to sit with him for longer - twenty minutes but that was sort of my own fault as I accidentally woke him and set him screaming . So I soothed, shushed and lay on the spare bed while he calmed himself down. Just had to stay firm and not feed for comfort! So tempting in the moment but I'm looking at the big picture here.

Do you have to take the dummy away? My DD 7 months, a nightmare at night too. Wakes every 2 hours for a least an hour most times has one feed and the rest just wants us i think!

I don't know about the dummy I am afraid - I didn't give her one after it messed up my ds' sleep. Turns out I am her dummy.....

I'm in the same situation, DS is 5.5months, going to start this plan properly tonight. Got him to nap and put him down for his nightsleep without feeding so I know it can be done, I just need to be more consistent. I also have to deal with the hourly waking and 'comfort drinking'. Aghhh he was a great sleeper til the dreaded 4 month sleep regression and we haven't got back on track yet. Will report back tomorrow!

I started 2 threads and seem to be updating on both - such a shambles at the moment - but anyway, she went Down with only 2 mins of crying an d hasn't woken yet! That was nearly 2 hours ago. So I am quietly hopeful of making a change.

Good luck everyone else. It's so so so tiring.

An she did wake but I left for about 4 mins then went to her, hand on tummy, rocked cot once and she settled. That's good. But I don't want to do that every hour in the night, would rather latch her on next to me!

Fingers crossed.