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..?

Hi Natasha - 9 month sleep regression maybe? Big growth spurt/developmental leap so he could genuinely need the feed. If you give him a full non-watered down feed at 11 or 12 would that see him through until 6? If it does, come back and let us know what 6 hours uninterrupted sleep feels like? My 9 month old feeds 3-5 times per night still, despite eating like a horse at nursery all day so some just do like/need their nosh.

Speaking of my pus-eared 9 month old, he seems to have recuperated - back to his very jolly self at home and at nursery, thank goodness, and he's learned how to share! Specifically how to share his evil, incapacitating cold with mummy and daddy! I'm in bed with him napping at the mo, hoping he'll have a long one so I can have a restorative kip myself. A girl can dream big, can't she?

Glad little elph is on the mend. Though I was soooo looking forward to pis of baby in swimming cap :o

DD slept well last night. we watched all 3 hours of batman in one sitting! amazing. However, today she has joined the vomit club and is puking at even the sight of food. even a small bf resulted in vomiting 5 mins later. Poor sausage :(

natasha it really is normal for an 8 month old to feed a few times a night. All that growing and learning clever things is hungry work. I'd give him a full feed when he wakes and see how he settles after.

Never fear - he can't get water in his ear for at least six weeks so search for swimming headgear is ongoing

Please, vomiting bug, please pass us by. We've had our share, thanks.

We ended up napping for almost three hours Be careful what you wish for. Tonight could be PAYBACK.

Dd's been a bit stressy today but no more sick so that's a relief.

elph extra points if you find one with rubber flowers like old ladies wear :o

Thanks ladies. I'm glad iv got a few answers an not "it's just a phase" and yea it prob is down to that! And hopefully it is just a phase.
I'm just really curiose or like what Happened you used to sleep right tho like a log.
Maybe he will calm down when he's figured how to crawl we're so very close.
Thanks for your answers very helpful x

We have the diarrhoea and vomiting bug, what's the chances of DT1 keeping it to himself and not giving it to DT2 or DD?!?!

Gutted, we're meant to be going to stay with ny mum for a few nights having not been anywhere for over a year. At all. Don't know what to do now, he's not been sick this morning...

elph any swimwear success?!

hear hope she's totally better now
Natasha, my 'good' sleeper has 1-2 feeds a night, very occasionally just started to sleep through. My bad sleeper has 3-5, and they're over 10 months, nearly 11 in fact! Growth spurt, developmental leap, could be loads of things. My DD slept through from 3 months to 13 months. Then just stopped...

This seems to be the most promising so far. No rubber flowers He'll look like the Karate Kid. Does anyone know if there's any problems with sticking an earplug in a baby? It would only be on the left.

Natasha - since you've gone from sleeping through to a few wake ups, it probably feels worse than those of us that have never had sleepers with three million wake-ups a night. Hope it gets better soon.

Shhh...don't tell anyone but last night dd went to bed at 6:30, woke for a feed at 10:30 and then slept with no more then a snuggle required until 6am. This has never happened before...ever! I am still in shock.

sounds exciting Roar. Hoping for a repeat for you again tonight.
No such improvements to report here. In with DS for the second time tonight (which is pretty good going for him.)

Hello all :)

Welcome Natasha, no pattern here to improved sleep dd1 was a frequent waker from birth and woke every two hours during the night at 8 months old. Dd2 Slept brilliantly until 5.5 months and has been a frequent waker since then. She wakes more when ill or teething, but at 1 year old now goes for a 4-5 hour stretch without waking between 1am and 5am on a goodnight.

Elph glad to hear babyelph is on the mend.

Hear sounds good, hope she is on a roll.

Sorry to hear of sickness Dog and Dreaming hope it bypasses everyone else in your house.

Stitch up to her tricks again, Awake between 4-7am last night/this morning. Viruses, teething = fed up mummy.

I'm so ill, feeling very woe is me, and bloody hell hear that's amazing, I'm beyond jealous...

Coughs, colds, d&v for me and DT1, bad bilateral conjunctivitis for DT2, both babies up 3-4 times each. Grimness.

Off to check out baby elphs swimwear now :)

Don't be too jealous dreaming we also have the sickness bug. Yesterday dd had nothing but bm which would have been fine except feeding her made me throw up. Not one of my most fetching moments.

Also just had a call from my DM who looks after dd on Tuesdays to say she is now being really sick and they are going to have to cancel my dad's 60th birthday trip to Spain tomorrow. Aarrghh....now I feel ill and guilt ridden :(

Oh no Roar, poor you and your poor parents! It's not your fault, but I'd feel bad too. Can they reschedule? Did you abe any more good nights before the bug set in?

Dreaming, wishing you and dc a speedy recovery. It's got to that time of year when everyone's reserves are low but winter just keeps going on and on and on and on. Come on Spring. We're ready for you now.

Stitch, hope you've had some better nights too.

DS has a cold. It's not too bad, but his sleep seems to have decreased in direct proportion to how much snot his nose is producing (a lot). I've been in to him about 50 times already this evening. I think it's going to be a loooooong night.

DS has returned to the bad old days of waking 40 mins after going to sleep, then awake every two hours thereafter. Ugh.

Off to test the new swimming headband tomorrow though

Oh! And the Pampers Baby Dry nappies have been a winner. No more complete costume and set changes at midnight

Hello ladies!

I have the solution to our sleepless nights. After a truly dreadful run with DD, she has slept through for two (yes, that's TWO) nights. (And that's a pattern, right? Right??) Down at 7pm, dreamfeed at 10.30, back to sleep until 6.30am! I can only attribute it to.... vaccinations. Specifically her third lot (massively overdue - I kept forgetting to book her in due to sleep deprived memory loss). Long may it continue - bet it won't though...

elph, sorry to hear about the gunky ear. I remember when DS used to get lots of middle ear infections; the Dr actually said he wished he was allowed to perforate the eardrum to let all the mank out (apparently NHS guidelines forbid it). Hopefully your DS is well on the mend now. And great news on the nappies!

roar and dreaming, how go the Barfchester Chronicles?

stitch and Lucy, any better nights at your end?

?? All over as of today but i hardly dare say it in case I jinx it...

Though I have had my Worst Parenting Ever day too. Shouted at 2 out of 3, just was useless in every way, so dispirited about it. They had us up 11 times a few nights ago, then 9, then dh was so exhausted I couldn't wake him last night so i battled my duo alone til 3, he got a bit more sleep, but i lost the plot at 5:30. Hence terrible day, but also DT1 is even more demanding after having my mum around the last 4 days so trying to demand the level of attention to which he'd become accustomed but dh and I can't provide. He is such hard work. It's awful to say, but more than financial/ house space/ pairs of hands/ any other reasons, having another baby like him puts me off going for dc4 :( *disclaimer, of course he's loved, very much so, but hes a high needs baby and its hard...

Hurrah though fish, two nights is A Pattern. until it isn't jabs you say, 2 months to go til I can book the dts in then ;)

I NEED some sleep to stop me being so rubbish with the dc tomorrow, especially DD and DT1, but DT2 isn't well, temp 39.5 before, so I'm bricking it for tonight...

Good luck all!!!

Aw good luck Dreaming, glad the vomiting seems to have passed. The short fuse of tiredness is easily done, you are a trooper, tomorrow is a new day.

If it is any consolation I have been a crap mummy this week, no energy to do anything but the basics, just feeling like crying all the time. Dd1 just talks all day long and my brain hurts, I have resorted to allowing her to play lengthy periods of CBeebies games just to have some quiet. Stitch is climbing to the top of the sofa in 10 seconds flat and is having to spend more time than I would like in her playpen, just so I can get things done. Think I may have anaemia, took extra iron and vitamin C for the last two days and started to see some small improvement.

Fish that sounds promising and at the very least you got to recharge your batteries a bit.

Roar :(. Sorry to hear you are all sick too, hope you are all recovering now.

Elphaba glad to hear you have tamed the night tinkling, hope you will get a bit more sleep now that is sorted.

lucy how is ds now?

Huh. Normal, crappy service was resumed last night - up at 10pm, and then again at 12 for 3 hours. And again at 5.30. I hate being right

dreaming and stitch, I too have earned the Rubbish Mummy Award all too often over the last 9 months. (And dreaming, how you even retain your sanity with 3 dcs is a source of awe to me.) At present I just feel so fed up with the 2-steps-forward-2-steps-back. As John Cleese said in Clockwise, "it's not the despair I can't stand, it's the hope!"

I just feel "lost" as a person. DH and I have been out once as a couple since DD was born, and even then we took her with us. (Because what babysitter is going to put up with an inconsolable infant?) In a way I can't wait to get back to work, at least then I'll have some function beyond a milking machine crossed with a washing machine.

And my back is killing me (sacroiliac joint dysfunction) and I think my gallstones are getting frisky.

Argh!

Another bad Mummy here. I feel extremely impatient towards poor ds1 and his 5 year old energy, boisterousness and all round NOISE when I feel this tired. We have definitely not seen any improvements. Me, dh and ds2 all have a horrible cold. I'm pretty sure ds2's first tooth is imminent as last night was marginally better due to him being dosed up to the eyeballs every couple of hours with calpol and calprofen but in general nights are hideous with lots if awake, inconsolable crying. Yawn.

Oh dear. What a sorry lot we all are. If I wasn't such a raging cynic I would suggest some sort of group hug but maybe group whiskey and weeping would be more appropriate.

Last night was back to horridness again with constant burbly belly and farting. The problem is we have also had some really amazing nights (only 2-3 wakings) so I fluctuate constantly between hope and despair. I think I just want to be sure what is being caused by the gluten free, what's the tummy bug, and what's just pot luck. At the moment it's impossible to tell.

This week dd watched an extraordinary amount of horrible histories. Hah! Not just TV but age inappropriate TV! I can practically hear the phones ringing at social services HQ as I type :o

fish I remember with fond wistfulness the sedative effect of the second round of vaccinations and often wondered if it would be unethical to go in and get them repeated every now and again. I think DS woke only once the night after he had them then had a four-hour nap the next day. It was, however, one of those situations where you go from dancing jubilantly to anxiously making sure that little chest is still rising and falling as it should be.

dreaming you mean you might actually have been considering a fourth? Dear life. Admit it - you quietly adore the exhaustion, don't you

Well, I think we're nine month sleep regressing here. DS is developmentally leaping by day and a manic flea by night. He pulled himself up to standing for the first time yesterday and popped up onto all fours today, followed quickly by realising that he can scoot around backwards (usually to start playing with power cables) remarkably quickly. I predict crawling within the fortnight. His steady trickle of polite babble has also turned into a manic, incoherent, stream-of-consciousness rant, which was quite funny yesterday when he was clearly giving the dog a piece of his mind. Nice as all this is, it means we're probably going to have to drop the cot mattress down a level now, which is going to make some of my settling techniques more difficult or impossible i.e. no more leaning over and lobbing a boob into his face so he drops off in situ.

Night all. Lock 'n load.

And, uh, happy 700th post

elph, you're right
What am I thinking, I have THREE children under 3 and will have for a further 6 months 6 days until DD turns 3, and I'm guessing, when i lose my '3 under 3' badge on that day my life will not actually become instantly easier. Someone slap me with something, no more dc for me!!!!!

Can you tell I've only just got them all to bloody bed?

Your ds sounds like there'll be no stopping him soon!

Still it was a much better day today as though i was weeping with exhaustion at 4am, when dh helpfully informed me I was losing the plot (oh really darling, how did you figure that one out?!) I somehow pulled through and don't feel I did terribly today. Oh wait, today consisted of going for a 1.5 hour walk in the morning, DD mostly in buggy, dts in buggy, then back for lunch, DT2 hot and bothered, put to bed straight after lunch, DT1 and DD briefly played with, then DT1 stuck back in the buggy to take DD into the garden as DT2 woke up (oh, dh is napping here BTW, he's so tired) so poor dts stuck in the buggy, then a swing, then on a trike, then buggy... Then in for a quick play and tea. So, see my babies issue?! Always strapped into/onto something. 11 months tomorrow. DT1 can roll very well, scoot round on his tummy and backwards on his tummy but can't go forwards. Can pull to stand in the bath, and occasionally on something the right height. DT2 can roll, a bit. That's it. That's all they can do... More mother guilt, as some of it is lack of opportunity to put them down as there's two of them... Like today, I'd have brought out a rug if there was one to pick up and race after DD with. Our garden wraps all round the house, so lots of scope for toddler misdemeanors, so to avoid having an abandoned baby,, they're buggied to bring with. Sigh.

fish I've not been out with dh hardly at all since DD born nearly 2.5 years ago but my me-ness improved dramatically when she was toddling, not feeding in the day and a bit less dependent on me in particular. Hang in there, this really is a brief period...

And thanks everyone for messages of support in the Crap mummy stakes. Believe me, you can't outdo me (did I mention I feed my babies bourbon biscuits to keep the mealtime bedlam to a minimum when i can't cope?! DT2 once had only 3 rich tea biscuits for his tea...). Oh dear, how rock bottom standards are since DD!

Anyway, I'm off to paint up ready for the night, like you elph.

RARRRGH!!!! into the nighttime battle we go!!!!!