Misery loves company: riding the mo fo out into Part II

[ElphabaTheGreen]

In our last exciting instalments:

Needles was at breaking point with a screaming 10 mo DD

Hear had experienced the magic of ONE unbroken night!

Dreaming was continuing to confound all with her ability to manage three children on four or five minutes a night, thanks to DT the Terrible.

Stitch was still having her sleep eaten by...erm...Stitch.

Poppy was pondering how the actual fark she was going to manage a newborn on top of BabyAmex's night time shenanigans.

And the desperate Elphaba had turned night duties entirely over to DH with mastitic results.

Join us with your stories of misery and woe in this, the most sleep-deprived corner of MN!

Gah. I think I've said before that when I feel I've got it tough I just think about Dreaming. I'll add Stitch to that list now too.

Well we have decided to give trying to get dd to settle for dh again. So I am now doing all bedtimes until after we move in a month or dd suddenly decides to let dh have a go. We just don't have the energy to argue about it when we will only move and muck everything up again anyway. I really enjoyed it when dh was putting her to bed though :(

We've got exactly the opposite problem here. DS has decided quite adamantly that Mother Must Not Put Me To Bed. The only way I can get him asleep is if I take him into bed with me, then bang goes what little excuse of an evening I've had since he was born. For DH, he'll go into his cot and be asleep within 10 minutes. That's all well and good, because I'm more than happy to delegate any part of that child's godawful sleep that I can, but DH often works in the evenings, either at home or at the other end of the country. So most of the time, it's me and DS, acting like he's a cat I'm trying to put in the bath if I have the audacity to get him in his cot for me to have a couple of hours before his first wake up to, you know, make myself lunch for tomorrow, fold piles and piles of laundry or some other such indulgence.

Oh, CHILDREN!

And can those that know please tell me when the tantrums ease off a bit? Seriously, they're getting ridiculous and nursery says he kicks off big-stylie with them as well. The other day they reported a horizontal rage triggered by him not getting a red bib instead of a blue bib at lunch. Every morning poor DH sends me a miserable text following dressing-rage plus or minus getting-in-the-car-rage plus or minus walking-across-the-nursery-car-park-rage. We can't walk him on footpaths, as when we get to crossing a road it's prostration and wailing when we won't let him walk across. To name but a few examples. It's positively wearing.

Can I join this thread? My 1 year old DD is driving me potty with continuous sleep regressions and I feel like sleep deprivation is draining the life out of me.

Soooo good to know others are out there.

Argh! A new person! :o

Hello bobs. Nice to meet you. My name is hear and I have an almost 2 year old who thinks sleep is something that happens to other people.

Hello Bobs. My DS believes sleep is for the weak, and after 20 months of it, I am very, very weak.

I've given up thinking in terms of 'sleep regressions'. Just as with labour with DS there has been a marked 'failure to PROgress'.

DS has turned into a fucking monster.He's up to his eyeballs in painkillers because of fucking canines that bother him so much that he bashes everything and wails like mad.To add to an insult we've got a fucking cold so wake up each other trying to cough up the guts.

' Misery likes company'? Hmm... not if that company is bleating on about regressing from 14 hours sleep to 12... oh I just don't know why my angel wakes at 7 instead of her usual 9am.

fuck off.

3 kids... 3 year old twins and a 9 month old.
last night boy decides to keep sitting outside his room crying because he's tired.
finally settle him after 3 hours.
then sodding baby wakes up all happy & ready to play.

Baby wakes at 4 or 5 if im lucky.
I'm absolutely sick of it.
Googling through the night I search for help but just find annoying posts about easy babies and whingy mums with nothing to whine about.
gah.
I knew I'd find some 'proper' company on mumsnet!

What's really annoying is... baby is fucking massive. Formula'd right up. Not hungry. Just bloody awake. Seriously... makes me want to stab myself in the eye.

Can you give me some hope? When will they sleep?
people say oh... one day you won't be able to get them out of bed...
when's that?!
I don't care if it's years away... I just want to know!

I hear you BrainLikeASieve! I sometimes lose my rag if people complain about being 'exhausted' having been up at the unGODly hour of 6am after 12 unbroken hours of sleep. I really need to sit on my hands to avoid making snidey comments on some of the posts on the sleep boards (but sometimes I really can't help myself )

Total cot refusal from DS last night. I was in bed with him from 8pm, then he was whinging and thrashing from 3am until about 4:30. Plus I think I'm anaemic - results of blood test pending. Absolutely beyond shattered.

I have been known to laugh somewhat hysterically at people telling me how they just can't cope with their precious bundles waking up at 5am and then (and this must be the killer) going straight back to sleep again until 7. I am pretty sure dd has never, ever slept past 6:30, even when she has been up half the night and not napped at all the day before. I do think that once she might have slept until 4am without waking up...or maybe that was some sort of amazing wish fulfillment dream.

While we are on the subject of annoying comments it drives me mad when dd has a busy day or doesnt nap well and people say 'well, I'm sure she'll sleep well tonight'. No! She will not sleep well, she has never slept well in 2 years of countless exciting days out and many short naps, she has never ever magically then slept through the night. There is absolutely no bloody reason it will be different this time. The reason dd is crap at sleeping isnt because she just needs more bleeding exercise!

..and breath...

There must be something in the air as dd keeps wanting to be rocked to sleep like a newborn. I've had to refuse as my back is knackered and I just can't do it if I want any chance of being able to bend down the next day. Cue crying and shouting until she falls asleep from exhaustion.

Rubbish about three anemia elph bit at least if you know it is you can have some iron and hopefully feel better (says the voice of optimism) :o

Hi all, I thought I'd join this thread to have a whinge about the fact that my gorgeous, gorgeous baby gas been waking up on average every 1.5 hours for 2 years. I am broken.

I am the only one who can settle her, which means sometimes I have no sleep at all when it's a bad night. On a good night, which is rare, I get woken up every 2 hours.

How do you lot manage the sleep deprivation? Oh, and it'll be great if you could tell me definitively that shortly after their second birthday, toddlers start sleeping through for 14 hours.

Thanks in advance.

Oh, and we co-sleep and bf, which is the rod I created all by myself

Ha. CockD0dger. I love the name!
But definitelt no laughing at your girl waking up over and over again.
blimey. .. here's me whinging about early starts.. but I do occasionally get 4 hours of unbroken sleep And that seems to be just enough to keep me going.
If it's any help... my 3 year olds tend to sleep from 7.30 to 6am+
They take it in turns to have occasional bad nights... but mostly they sleep right through.
girl came into my bed at 2am last night but just zonked out without much fuss.
Don't be too jealous though... baby was up over and over again.

HearMyRoar...i get helpful hints from all angles and none of it works!!
Today's was... let he sleep more during the day. ..
LET her sleep?!
She wont sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time in the day. If I try & resettle her all hell breaks loose....

I shall call you D0dger, as calling you 'Cock' will make me giggle and snort.

Have you tried night weaning, D0dger? I assume she's up for boob every 1.5 hours? This is what my DS was like up until 15 months when I put the kybosh on any night feeds and it did improve the frequency of the wake ups. I jacked in BFing altogether at 17 months when his only remaining feed of the day was 4am, on account of it being a bollocks time to be woken up for an hour when I need to be up for work at 6am. Two or three hellish nights but if you keep her in bed with you to do it, you might be surprised at how quickly she goes to sleep.

Can I join?

I have 6.5 month old twin boys who are poo sleepers! We have tried many things and em have a great bed time routine, bath, massage, boob, book bed. Dh sings and then leaves room and they fall asleep. Thought this might help with night waking etc but no! One is ok and wakes every three hrs, though has a tendency for a 5am start. The other wakes every two hours. So I am up most hrs of the night. Napping is a total mess. Sometimes get them down in cot and randomly will sometime do a decent nap but most days it is half hr at a time and not at the same time!

Aaah!

I had exactly the same thought about dodgers name elph. I had to stop half way through a post and go away because I am childish and purile :o

Anyways, on the weaning subject you will find many bfing co-sleepers here so get comfy. Though I think we all have pretty much stopped the bf in a desperate bid for more sleep. I don't say this is anyway to pressure you or to promote this as a magic sleep solution. I stopped at 18 months when I suddenly realised I just didn't enjoy it anymore. It turned out that dispite still feeding (by which I mean waking, latching and having a good chew) every 1-2 hours at night she was singularly unfussed when I stopped. I had one night of grizzling and that was it. I was a little put out to be honest.

The best thing about it was not so much that dd started sleeping more (she did in time but that might have happened anyway) but that dh could settle her and do bedtimes. Not that this lasted. Currently only mum will do, but hey, it was fun for a bit. :)

Welcome bees, think yours are rather younger then ours but we do have someone else with twin boys! Though as they are getting on for 2 now and still not sleeping not sure that will make you feel better really...

Has someone been on a recruitment drive?

Where is Dreaming, speaking of our original mum to twin boys? You don't suppose the terrible DTs are suddenly sleeping, do you?

I know elph I feel suddenly all popular. May be we should tidy up the place a bit.

Thinking optimistic thoughts here... Yes, I have no doubt dreaming is not here because she is too busy luxuriating in the warm embrace of a full nights sleep with blissful sleeping toddlers all around. It is not at all because she has crawled into an exhausted heap too broken to type or remember who she is...oh no...

Well, I'm on the floor on an air mattress in DS's room, with him snoring away (finally, after much rage) in his brand new toddler bed in attempt no. 578 to get him staying in his own bed, in his own room all night. Note that I didn't say 'sleeping through the night' - that is a concept on a par with Santa Claus and the tooth fairy to me. I just want him happy enough in his own bed that he'll pull his own damn hair to get himself back to sleep. I embark upon this in the full knowledge that it is highly unlikely to succeed, but if there's the smallest chance I might be able to return to my own bed, then I shall persevere until he breaks me again

Ho Ho Ho, yes, that's right, I've been sleeping too much to post. NOT. I just keep losing you, and the dts and dd are squabbling so much in the day, I don't have time for t'internet on my phone. Serious problem, natch.

Very excited to see all the new twins knocking round here. Mine are two in 7 weeks. No sign of any sleeping. Thinking of moving Dt the Not So Angelic into a bed. Is he ready? Very doubtful. Is it driving Dh wild that Dt the Terrible comes in with me, he goes into Dt the T's bed, and then is often joined by the other for the rest of the night? Yes. Hence the theory one more bed will mean he can get into bed with him, wait til he's asleep, then get back into Dt the T's bed by himself. Ahh, what a sensible plan

bees, by 6.5 months, with a just turned two year old dd, I had nearly lost the will the live, and nearly cried as much as the dts. (Though outdoing them would have been nearly impossible, they screamed for soul-destroying hours each day). You are doing amazingly!! Mine only napped in the buggy then. Fucking nightmare, esp when i had to take dd too in our triple buggy. Though once, once, I got an all three asleep win

Another bf, co sleeper here. My boys turned out to have reflux and food intolerances though. Dt The Not So Angelic is way better now. When he feels like it, he sleeps through. As in 7:30-7:30. Ish. When he doesn't, nothing resettles him. Dt the Terrible is better now I've stopped bf. Cold turkey at 17.5 months. I hated it by the end, but remind myself it was a good thing... So he's still puking. Less, and i do think its my shitty parenting and allowing some dairy (he begs and cries for a spoonful of Yoghurt, but of cake etc and I give in) . But he's got a barium swallow on Thursday. I'm at work (though hating it, and have resigned!!!!!) So Dh taking him. Dh useless parents having Dt2 and dd- never had them before. He's got to fast for 6 hours, then swallow a fizzy mixture which will expand his tummy, then drink the barium tracer. He will be hysterical, I know it. He only wants me when he's like that. I just don't think he will do it . I'm so worried. My gut feeling is it won't show anything. His puking had improved, hugely, on omeprazole instead of ranitidine, but now he's refusing to drink it. Gah. Anyway, my gut feeling is it'll be hugely traumatic for no result. Dare I just cancel?? Dh thinks he should have it to check there's no hernia, narrowing etc. Plus no meds for 3 days before it. I'm not worried about that though, as he's barely taking it anyway.

Sorry, off topic rant. He is slightly better at sleeping. Wakes between 9&11, repeatedly,I go to bed with him then. If only I could endure him constantly pushing at me with his feet, we might get some sleep, but it wakes me up so much, so i move him, so he wakes. He wakes if I go for a wee, he wakes if i go to dd or Dt2. He wakes if i roll over too fast. Sigh.

elph he is better in a single bed actually, fingers crossed for your ds!!

Btw DOdger , I'll sign up to the sleep after 2 theory :) . I did capitulate and night wean plus stop bf to see if it helped- I was just like you, and elph and hear before that!

And hello to brain . I almost don't dare post now, maybe I'm getting too much sleep for this thread now?! Even Dt tge T often getting to 6:15, 6:30

6 hour fast! Argh! Do they do it first thing in the morning so you can just miss breakfast? I have to feed dd at least every 2 hours during the day or she turns into a screaming mess. She would be hysterical if she didn't eat for 6 hours.

I guess you have to do it though, as if you don't and there is a problem you would feel awful when you found out. It is horrid knowing they don't understand and will be so upset. When we had to take dd in to get her eyes checked they put drops in and dd went into meltdown. It took 2 nurses to wrap her in a sheet and hold her down so the optometrist could look in her eyes. Poor muffin :(

No hear I rang up, 3:15 pm is the only time, Thursday afternoon the only day as its a consultant radiologist who's there too. Gutted. He will be beyond hysterical. I tried to say he wouldn't cope and she tried to tell me he might be fine. This is the child documented as too hysterical to be weighed apart from in mums arms (then weigh me, natch) at the normal, chilled out consultant clinic.... Oh god, I'm panicking.