Misery loves company: anyone want to join me on a support thread for those desperate and demoralised by their 8/9/10 mo sleep?

[Suchanamateur]

Bloody sleep regression. It's like 4 months all over again but worse because it felt (briefly) like we were getting somewhere. Feck. Anyone else want to share tales of woe or is it (a) just me or (b) way too depressing to post about..?

Fret not, I was an eco-destroyer with DS. I tried biodegradable paper nappies but they leaked every-sodding-where. Luckily neither of my spawn mind sitting in wet nappies, but I still prefer disposables at night. (As well as relatively inferior leak protection vs disposables, those Little Lamb jobs take aeons to dry.)

Another bone night with DD. Only shut up after I caved and fed her, after 2 hours of stop-start bawling. No idea why she's gone backwards again, but I'm feeling reet sorry for myself this morning.

I wanted to use reusable nappies, but we couldn't afford the initial outlay when I had Stitch or dd1, plus with two kids I have my hands full and just cannot see myself adding the chore of cleaning them my daily list now. We solely use disposables.

We used disposables at first but dd is such a fusspot sensitive soul that even a little wee in a disposable resulted in grizzling and crying until it was changed. We decided to invest in reusables as she was starting to bankrupt us with her excessive nappy changing habit. We just use them when at home as I can't be doing with carrying them about but even so has been worth it financially. Was helped with the initial spend by having a really super local shop that sells totsbots at cost price so loads cheaper then usual.

You just got me looking wistfully at the Totsbots website, wondering if revisiting them was an option... I can tell you now, DH would assign all nappy changes to me, he hates them that much you'd think he was the one responsible for washing them, bloody stick-in-the-mud

Monsieur Baby is running another temp, so Calpol has been administered with great difficulty. Bah. But maybe he'll sleep through until 6am now?

So much for that pipe-dream...

I'm with you on the night shift. Just managed to get Stitch to sleep in her bed. She had wind and of course our bed was the only place she could fart in comfort, so I have been sitting perched on the edge getting cold for half an hour while she writhed about. Now I am bloody awake.

Oh Stitch I know that feeling! Bloody wind is the bane of my (and dd's) life.

Now, I don't want to get excited here but last night dd slept from 6:30 to 10:00 and then from 11:30 to 5:00, then back to sleep till 7am! That's a 5.5 hour stretch! 5 and a half motherflipping hours mo fo! I actually cried a little bit when I realised :o

Of course I'm not yet sure if it's the gluten free diet that's doing it (and so possibly might happen again..I dare to dream) or just a bit of post viral fatigue after her horrid cold. All the same, I felt strangely alive today...it was sort of magical :o

Not expecting amazingness tonight though as dm had her today and let her nap for hours, so I won't be at all surprised if someone wakes up at about 2am wanting to play animal noises....and that someone won't be me in case you were wondering.

Shit, shit, shit night followed by miserable day followed by what's shaping up to be another shit night.

DS had a raised temp last night (as previously stated) which dropped with Calpol but fecked his sleep for the rest of the night. He refused to sleep anywhere but on me from 4:30am so screamed when I had to get up at six. I skipped breakfast but not coffee so I could keep holding him until I absolutely had to shower and leave, at which point he was whimpering . He then slept a further 2.5 hours on DH and woke with another temp. Calpol sorted this again but he wouldn't eat anything for DH so we decided to try nursery since he eats like a horse there and if that still didn't work then we'd go to worst case scenario and have me and boobs come home (I'm in a new job if you recall so really don't want to be having days off just yet). Upshot was he ate at nursery but was down in the dumps all day and wouldn't stop clutching the bag we send with him to nursery with a spare change of clothes. He was beside himself when I picked him up after work so I put him straight to bed when we got home at 5:30. Three wake-ups so far and we're co-sleeping before 9pm.

Fuck, I wish I didn't have to work

Have a hug and a large gin from me, elph. (Ha, Android autocorrect wanted to change that to "slog" - bet you'd agree with that.) Fingers crossed that the night isn't too bad.

Hear, any further positive news from your end?

Poor elph and baby elph. Sounds rather like what dd had for a few days.. She also went off her food, raised temp and was soooo clingy it was ridiculous. She's still a bit off (mainly eating only fruit and bread at the moment but she is generally such a good eater I just let her get on with it when she has funny phases) but she's getting better. She even went off boob for a couple of nights

She slept till 10 again then a good feed and settled again nicely. I half expect her to wake up any minute and scream the place down for a few hours just to keep me guessing. But we shall see.

Christ, sometimes i just hate being right all the time

dd did n fact wake up 15 mins after i wrote that post and screamed her little heart out for 2 hours! Slept ok after that but has been stroppy as hell this morning.

Hope everyone else survived the night :)

Oh dear, Hear. I think we've all learned, though, that one good night doth not a sleeping baby make.

DS was on the boob pretty much every two hours last night and he was doing that fantastic trick where you go, 'Phew! Asleep finally!' then 10 minutes later you're getting your hair pulled

He was clingy and miserable again this morning and DH could see I was trying not to cry while I was getting dressed for work, so we both decided work would just have to cope without me today. Hopefully a full day of boob and cuddles will sort him out.

Aw Elphaba it is so awful having to leave them when they are ill, glad you made the decision to stay with him. I am sure you will both feel much better for it.

We had a rough night here too Hear. How is it that they know just when you are dropping off to sleep? Stitch woke at midnight just as I was falling asleep, then again at 1 and 2am, each time just as I managed to fall asleep. She then fed at 6am and then both cherubs decided they were up for the day at 7am.

Still have been to a playgroup this morning which has helped me stay awake.

And in the next gripping episode...DS has a ruptured eardrum.

The reason he's been so fretful is because the pressure's been building up inside his poor little noggin. DH noticed his left ear smelled yesterday and we later noticed wax and mucous pouring out of it. DH got him to the GP this afternoon who said it was probably quite a relief for him when it happened. So now we have to give him antibiotics three times a day. Which is great, because as I've mentioned before, it's so easy to get medication into him

Maybe with the pressure relieved in his head and the associated silence from the temporary hearing loss he won't wake up every two hours tonight...? She said...? Hopefully...?

Oh, poor little pickle! Still, on the bright side at least you know there was a reason and hopefully the antibiotics will sort it out quickly. He will be happier and sleepier in no time at all! :o

Yep - through the night tonight, just you wait and see!

(That's me roffling heartily)

Hear's to your ds sleeping all night elph that's awful. I'm another one glad you stayed at home with him. What happens with his ear now? Will it just heal by itself?

hear, we had one half decent night- DT1 slept with one early evening wake up til 1am , then got him back in his cot after only two failed attempts, then another 2 or 3 hour sleep, then he dozed with me from 5-6:45. Amazing. DT2 was up at midnight though, and DD sometime after that, but i still felt great. However i think I feel more depressed that we are back to horrendous normal now.

He's on antibiotics since it's infected cack that's coming out his ear. The perforation will heal by itself but I've realised that probably means we can't take him swimming on Saturday which we've done pretty much every week since he was eight weeks old. He loves, loves, LOVES swimming - goofy baby grin on his face the WHOLE time - so I'm going to be gutted if we have to keep him out of the pool for several weeks. Currently web searching frantically for a baby swimming cap to keep the water out of his ears and because he'd be bloody cute wearing one

Hello we're back, not posted for a few days. Would like to say it's because dc2 was sleeping better but tis most definitely not the case, it's been just as bad, culminating in the lowest point last night with her being repeatedly sick all over the bed. Pillows, duvet, mattress all copped it. Lucky for me I have lots of Febreze and live close to a launderette! Not sure what's caused the sickness but touch wood whatever it is has got out of her system now (lives in hope)
Elph so sorry to hear you're having such a tough time. I only went back to work myself about a month ago and I'm finding it hard so I do sympathize. I also have a side sleeping child and found that the active fit were rubbish at night but the baby dry work ok, and boots superdry seem to be ok as well.

Meant to say as well , elph , sorry to hear about ds having a bad ear and hope he's on the mend x
Roar and dreaming, sounds like things are on the up , fingers crossed for you both

no, no things are not on the up here, Night of Hell last night. All three up, dt1 as bad as ever. Twas false optimism :)

Still, I survived 7:30am to 6:30pm with my three by myself and bar nearly throwing dt1 at dh as he walked through the door at 6:30 we are all fine. That is an achievement in itself, no? I even got the four of us to twins club and back as I had to as I only started it with a friend recently relatively on time and unscathed.

Vomit tastic here last two nights- not a bug, just distress of dt1 as I tried to settle him in his cot. Or rather, last night, he woke, I fed him, put him down, dt2 woke, I went to him, dt1 woke again (2 minutes later, of course) but dh thought I was still with dt1 as he hadn't heard dt2 wake... so he didn't go to him. Cue gallons of distressed crying induced vom 3 minutes later- seriously, what the f*ck was dh thinking when he didn't hear me in there with him?!?!? SO then I had to finish with dt2 n then sort out the vomit, and then re-settle dt1... in bed with us of bloody course.

Good luck for the night ladies!

Hello, I'm still here too. Elphaba, sort to hear about little elph's ear.i hope he's on the mend. Dreaming and dog, I wish you a vomit free night. We're just back from having had a few days away over half term and ds2's sleep was marginally better (because I took him in with me pretty much when I went to bed, and without dh there we could languish in a huge double bed, just the two of us) but now that we're home he's woken up again all evening. Oh well, the few days away have done me good I think. He's such a cheerful little boy during the day I'm not feeling too stressed about the nights right now.

Oh no Elph :( poor little Elph, hope he is feeling better and the anti-B's are doing their job.

Dreaming hats off to you, I don't know how you do it, I would be a jibbering wreck by now with three waking.

Sorry to hear about the vomiting Dog, hopefully it has moved through quickly.

Stitch is 1 tomorrow, it has gone so fast. She is climbing on the sofa and up the bookcases, my little baby is gone, my toddler is definitely here.

Hello all, my 8 month is terrible at night he goes down when put to sleep by himself at 8 but come 11/12 he's up an screaming for milk??? The same at 4 an again at 6! Iv tried everything giving him a dummy (a cherry shaped one) iv tried using warm water and reducing the milk everytime! It's like having a newborn again! He used to sleep right tho no problems! Now it's Like we've hit a brick wall it's exhausting! Any ideas welcome??? A friend said its because he might be starting to crawl but it's going on for weeks!

Sorry dreaming, I hope things do improve soon. Welcome Natasha, although hopefully your stay here won't be a long one and your lo will be sleeping well soon.
Here, I've just been woken by dc2 throwing up all over the bed again. Thought I was prepared with strategically placed towels etc but she managed to evade them all. Luckily had a spare set of bed and baby clothes so we're back in a clean(ish) bed now. Oh the joys of co sleeping! Starting to wonder if I should take her to the doctor, although she's not got a temperature, will see what tomo brings.
Hoping youse all are having better nights x