Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

still not sleeping through!

41 replies

emilykatesmum · 23/01/2004 15:55

hi my little girl is 9mths and still doesn't sleep through.
We had a weeks worth of goodnights from hear but where back to sqaure one again with it all.

She now wakes after 4hrs and sometimes after 3!!!

any advice would b greatful i need some sleep

OP posts:

Ruth21 · 26/01/2004 11:00

Allatsea, how old was your ds when you did this? I bought Baby Whisperer a couple of weeks ago and despite finding the overall tone of the book extremely irritating, tried to implement the pu/pd approach with (then) 4 week old dd2. It ended in lots of tears, mine as prolific as dd's. I gave up and am now rocking/feeding/cuddling and generally doing all the 'wrong' things to get her to sleep. I don't really mind doing this at the moment, but if pu/pd really works as quickly as people say, maybe we should try again. When I tried it a couple of weeks ago, though, I never managed to get her to sleep for more than a few minutes that way--every night we tried, the attempt went on so long that she was hungry again and I had to feed her. Maybe she is just too young?

jennifersofia · 26/01/2004 13:45

Sleeping with your child / children is not a 'bad habit' as long as everyone involved is completely happy with the situation. For me, though, we were all miles happier (and better rested) when dd could just be laid down to sleep in her own cot, and she settled herself when she woke up instead of needing me. It all depends on what you can cope with I guess - not having proper rest makes me a grumpier crazier mummy, for others hearing their baby cry for an extended period (more than 10 minutes) may make them go round the twist. (Mind you, that makes me go round the twist too, but I knew that it would be for a limited time..)

aloha · 26/01/2004 13:57

Ruth21, I think she is too young. 4 weeks is sooo tiny. She's still adjusting to the world IMO. You might want to try to keep her awake more in the day to encourage more sleep at night, but at that age they need to feed around the clock anyway.

mrcheese · 26/01/2004 14:08

Hooray My ds too- 1 - monhts, am having a show down at the moment.. and I will win.

agree 4 months is Far too young - over 6 monyhs imo

allatsea · 26/01/2004 15:42

I agree with Jennifersofia - if you're happy with what you're doing to put your children to sleep then why change it? I know that I couldn't survive having my baby in bed with me (tried it in hospital for 4 nights and allit meant was I didn't sleep at all!) With dd nearly 2 and ds 8 weeks I needed to be in a situation where I could settle them to sleep quickly and reliably. I started with the BW when ds was 7 weeks old (a week ago today). I followed it for every nap and at nightime for 4 days and then when we're in for naps since then. In the last week ds has slept from 7pm to 5.30am with me waking him for a feed at 10.30pm. I've just put him down now, but since he was overtired I have just held him to my shoulder whilst he cried and cried until he calmed down. He then went down fine, I hope, for the next 1.5 hours or so.
Ruth 21, ds is also a very efficient feeder, even as a newborn he could feed enough in 5/10 minutes to last him 3 hours. I didn't intend to start this until he was 7 or 8 weeks old. I hadn't thought of doing it a 4 weeks, at that time I was having to feed at 7pm 12am and 4am.

allatsea · 26/01/2004 15:50

Ruth 21, i found the BW book rather confusing and the information on her website (from other mums) more revealing.

motherinferior · 26/01/2004 16:20

Ruth21, you're still in the twilight zone. Hang on in there. Things get a bit clearer later on, honestly.

charlieplus3 · 26/01/2004 17:06

hi sorry your having such a tough time. There are alot of threads going on this subject at moment so you are not alone.

I found my ds slept alot better once i moved him away fom me, i think my smell(good i hope) disturbed him.He has been sleeping through for near on 2 weeks now and is 19weeks. My ds who is 20 months still doesnt.

I cant sleep train with her as too upsetting she oftem is voilently sick so we do end up sleeping with her. Just hoping she will grow out of it.

Good luck

clairemagnolia · 26/01/2004 19:35

Wasn't offering bait, honest. I just feel that there have to be simple solutions to these things. I do realise that everyone's situation is unique. What really annoys me is the million pound industry of so-called child-care manuals offering the latest sleep training technique. If it was natural for a baby to sleep through we wouldn't need books surely? I expect my son to learn to sleep alone eventually - we all do one way or another - but I don't expect to teach him just as I haven't taught him to talk or walk. I will wait for him to do it in his own time.

clairemagnolia · 26/01/2004 19:46

Forgot to mention a book called Three in a Bed by Deborah Jackson which I found very enlightening. It goes into the history of bed-sharing - or not - with babies and has lots of info regarding safety and cultural practices in other countries. Cots are a very recent Western invention.

hercules · 26/01/2004 21:07

i have also read said book and thought was enlightening. ds was never sleep trained and did it fine, he also decided himself when he wanted to stop cosleeping. no tears or trauma. all we got from people was that he'll still be shring our bed and bf whem he is at uni. well he is nowhere near to uni and no longer bf nor cosleeps. there are lots of other places in the house to have sx not just your bed.

Clarinet60 · 26/01/2004 22:32

Sorry allatsea, yes, you did make it clear that you don't leave them. I've only just logged onto MN, as too busy emailing you!
Ta muchly.

Ruth21 · 27/01/2004 11:47

Just to clarify, I wasn't doing pu/pd at 4 weeks with the idea of getting dd to sleep through the night, but rather to get her to sleep in her basket at all, especially in the evenings. She tends to get overtired and grumpy in the evenings, but won't stay asleep in her basket, so has ended up many evenings asleep on me or dp, or in a wilkienet. Recently have 'solved' this with the discovery that she tends to stay asleep if put down on her tummy, but that's not really a solution is it? (Might start another thread on this.)

Interesting that you did the pu/pd at 7 weeks, allatseadd is now that age and seems much more in the world, probably more ready for that sort of thing, though I don't think I'm going to try again just yet. I will leave it at least a few more weeks and see how she goesmaybe she will sort things out better herself and we won't need to do it at all. (Though that's the approach we took with dd1, and we ended up doing cc at 7 months and not really getting her sleep sorted until she was about 20 months.)

Out of interest--has anyone actually done what Tracey Hogg suggests and put their baby down to 'settle itself' to sleep right from day 1? That just seems impossible to me.

bunnyrabbit · 29/01/2004 21:48

Did PU/PD from about 8 weeks and worked really well....

aloha · 29/01/2004 22:34

Ruth21, my ds hated his basket. He was, oddly enough, much happier in his cot. I gave his basket away.

Ruth21 · 30/01/2004 12:56

That's interesting, aloha. DD's cot is not yet assembled, and since we are having the bedroom decorated in a couple of week's time, it won't be for a while yet, as I don't want to put it up then have to move it very soon. But maybe she will also turn out also to prefer the cot. She is going to outgrow the basket soon anyway.

Flip

1 2