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Original poster

Need support- feeling really down about 9wk old sleep

29 replies

tinierclanger · 14/07/2013 08:24

Not sure why I'm posting as not really looking for advice, just feeling really down about sleep. DD now 9 weeks old and a few weeks ago was starting to sleep 3.5 hours at night, which I thought was great. Then she got a cold, then the hot weather started, then she had her jabs and is now.really unsettled.

Sleeps in the evening from pretty early - sometimes as early as 5 downstairs on our laps, then I take her up to bed around 9 and the past couple of nights she is unsettled till around 2- feeds a bit, drops off but will only stay settled sleeping on or sometimes next to me- not in sidecar crib. Sometimes I finally get her settled but now she only sleeps maybe 2 hours before waking again.

She naps in the day but nearly always on me, sometimes I can put her down for a bit but then usually wakes after 20 mins.

So fed up as it seemed to be going well and now feel like it has all gone wrong. Hmm DS shouting at me this morning as I had to stop playing with him to settle her for nap.

DH and I sleeping separately ATM except weekends by mutual agreement so he can get sleep and he is great but she is EBF so can't do much.

Please cheer me up! Sorry for epic post but v cathartic. Hmm

OP posts:
Original poster
tinierclanger · 14/07/2013 08:27

Just added formula to shopping list although really don't want to give up BF Hmm

OP posts:
ILikeToMoveItMoveIt · 14/07/2013 08:30

Would it help if I told you that it's normal? Because it is. I know it is beyond tough, but it will get better.

Your dh can still play a part in the night. When my ds's went through these stages I would feed and dh would settle.

If you want to tweak anything, I would try and work on settling her later in the evening 7-9pm. That way you can go to bed early and have a block of sleep.

Original poster
tinierclanger · 14/07/2013 08:40

Yes being told its normal helps so much as at the minute I feel such a failure! I think DH will give her a bottle of EBM tonight and I'll go to bed early. I don't know whether to start trying to settle her upstairs alone in the evening but she seems so little for it - I'm really torn.

OP posts:
Emmie10 · 14/07/2013 09:15

When my dd was that age I went to bed when she did. Felt bad sometimes that my husband would only be home from work for half an hour and I would head off to bed but he repeated the mantra "we do what it takes to survive! It's not for long".

Nannyowl · 14/07/2013 09:27

Hi OP

Try to get her to go off to sleep on her own in the day. That is not being in your arms. We all have deep and light sleep cycles. When your baby is in a light sleep cycle she is waking up, but might sleep longer if in her crib or cot at this stage. It is important she learns to get herself off to sleep; so put her down awake. Sometimes babies are better at this if dad or another person puts them down.
Also you could try a bedtime bath early evening, maybe a relaxing massage hen put baby down awake.
As others have said babies this age do still wake frequently in the night.
You must be very tired, could someone give baby an expressed feed so you can catch up on some sleep?

Original poster
tinierclanger · 14/07/2013 10:27

She won't go off on her own, she just cries and gets upset and more awake. TBH I thought babies couldn't really get the hang of that until they were over 12 weeks. Now I just feel worse. Hmm

OP posts:
curlew · 14/07/2013 10:32

She's teeny tiny. Do what works. REALLY don,t worry about self settling or anything like that. You can keep trying loads of different things and eventually things will change- or you can just carry on doing whatever's easiest- and eventually things will change. It's hard. But it passes.

curlew · 14/07/2013 10:34

Tinierclanger- it really isn't important that she goes down awake. It really isn't. What's important is that you do what's easiest.

Original poster
tinierclanger · 14/07/2013 10:45

Thanks all. I know the advice is well meant and I do appreciate it but I think right now I just need kind words and a reminder it will get better. DS was a bad sleeper and I just panic it will be the same even though on good days when I'm not knackered I can be more relaxed about it and remind myself to just go with the flow.

. I made it worse for myself first time round by stressing and blaming myself and I promised I wouldn't do that this time...she really is only tiny and will sleep alone some of the time so it seems fair enough really that she wants a lot of cuddles at other times.

OP posts:
Sleepstarved · 14/07/2013 14:26

I could have written your post OP only my DD is 15 weeks!
The longest sleep I had last night was two hours, she was awake every 90 mins from 8pm until 5.30 when she decided to start chatting and babbling.
I am almost at the point of putting her in the garden to CIO.
She never naps for more than 40 mins unless I am with her and feed her back to sleep, screams in pram and car seat. Will fall asleep in carrier but that is the same as being cuddled isn't it.
I too have a toddler and it just isn't fair on them.
I hate that I have apparently got another bad sleeper while a friend with twins has more 12 hour sleepers, long naps ect - they fall asleep on their play mat ffs.
I don't want to leave her to CIO as I don't think it's right but mostly because I don't think she would ever stop.
DH means well but can't really settle her.

NothingsLeft · 15/07/2013 19:33

I agree she is still a teeny, tiny little one.

If it helps my DS self settled from birth and has still been the worse sleeper going! It is not the be all and end all. I'm going to have the next one strapped to my body for at least six months and save myself the stress Smile

Original poster
tinierclanger · 15/07/2013 19:38

DH stayed up late with her last night and gave her a bottle of EBM and she slept a lot better last night so I feel more human. Have agreed he's going to do that every few days so hopefully I can be more relaxed about things Smile this baby definitely likes to sleep on people though! Will just have to get used to using the sling more.

OP posts:
curlew · 15/07/2013 19:48

Sleepstqrved- if she will sleep in the carrier- why not just leave her in there and get on with whatever you want to do? That way you can give her what she wants and sort of ignore her while you give most of your attention to your toddler.

Tinierclanger- you are doing all the right things, you are making her happy and secure. It will get better soon.

One bit of counter intuitive advice. I think it's a good thing to let your toddler know that you find the baby a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes. Do an exaggerated sigh and say something like "oh nooooooo what does she want now! And just when we were getting to the good bit of the game! [or book or whatever] Look, you carry on setting up the track [or whatever] and eat this chocolate biscuit, and I'll be back as soon as I can. OK?" I found this really helped when mine were small- it made the older one feel that i wasn't favouring the baby because i wanted to, and also it made it OK for her to feel a bit resentful too. Remember, if anyone has to be "neglected" it should be the baby!

Original poster
tinierclanger · 15/07/2013 19:52

Good advice re rolling eyes about the baby, I'll try and remember that!

OP posts:
curlew · 15/07/2013 19:53

The chocolate biscuit bit is worth remembering too.

karinmaria · 15/07/2013 20:12

Please don't worry about self settling! My DS is 14 weeks and generally a good sleeper. However this heat has completely thrown him and he was waking more in the night for a week or so after his jabs. I settle him in his pram during the day with movement and at night in my arms before putting him down (not in his cot, we cosleep and use a poddle pod). It's only been since 8 weeks or so that he's been sleeping for longer periods after I've put him down.

I was beating myself up about settling him with cuddles and him not sleeping in his cot. Went to a new NCT group today and the mums of the 7-9 month olds all said they did exactly what I did at this age and it slowly got better!

Just do what works for you. It'll work itself out.

Sleepstarved · 16/07/2013 13:36

I don't like wearing the sling all day because it gets uncomfortable on my shoulders and at the moment it is just too hot.
DD will only be in it forward facing now so when she falls asleep I can't bend forward to do things as her head will loll unless I hold it. All becomes a bit irritating. Loading shopping onto conveyor is particularly hard.
Getting toddler in and out of buggy, car seat, highchair ect is not easy either.
She is driving me mad though, ended up carrying her most of way back from the park because every time I put her down (asleep) she'd wake and start crying. Left her to cry for last 10 mins and felt so bad afterwards because she was in a right state and with such a look of terror on her face.
I swing between 'its cruel to leave her' to 'I can't stand this any longer'.

MrsDonaldDraper · 16/07/2013 13:49

Tinier - I wandered in here about to post exactly the same thing! My 10 week old has suddenly started going back to 2 hours max between feeds at night. She'll barely keep during the morning, but will sleep a bit in the afternoons. I had just established a routine of bathing her round 8/8.30pm, then bottle, then bed and the hot weather has put tht out of kilter too.

I read the baby books at the weekend and thoroughly depressed myself with news that she should be going 5 hours at night.

No advice, but a manly punch to the shoulder in solidarity.

philbee · 16/07/2013 14:03

OP exactly the same has happened here with 12 wk old DD2. She was going a good stretch at night so I'd get in bed about 8/9 and sleep for a while and she'd wake twice and settle straight away. Then we both got colds, plus the heat and it takes all evening of DH rocking her, sweaty and screaming, she often wakes after being out down, can't settle again after I've fed her. I got so fed up yesterday evening, I was crying and snapping and just feeling like the whole thing was falling apart. As a last resort I feed her lying down next to me in bed (like you my DH is in the other room, but he won't even visit at weekends Hmm) and she will drop off that way, but I don't like it because I worry and I also feel like I 'should be' trying to get her to self settle in cot, preferably earlier in the evening. I also thought 'sod it, she's getting a bottle of formula' yesterday as at least then DH could just have her and feed her if she's unsettled. Gah!

Original poster
tinierclanger · 16/07/2013 20:22

Manly punches all round! We will get through this!

OP posts:
lem31 · 19/07/2013 09:22

I could have written your post about my 6 week old. On a good night we may get a stretch of 2 hours at some point, but recently he will go into his Moses basket for about half an hour before waking. He isn't interested in food particularly, nappy is clean, just wants to sleep on me.
As he is obviously tired Ispent my night awake productively by buying a new mattress called a tomy sleepcurve. Meant to be good for reflux and colic and may be more comfortable so he sleeps better...??

He also was self soothing. Now wont so bollox to it quite frankly. It seems to be chance. Survive, then worry about sleep training when you are not exhausted.
Good luck - will probably meet you on here at 3am sometime...

Sleepstarved · 19/07/2013 13:18

So here we all are, with our bunch of tiny Klingons who won't sleep without us.
How are you coping? DD2 and I had one night of waking every 40mins but got back to every two hours last night. God I am tired, poor toddler was left in front of tv most of yesterday.
It's somehow reassuring that you are out there somewhere going through the same and I didn't break DD - she did this on her own!

Original poster
tinierclanger · 19/07/2013 14:06

After a run of only settling on me for a few nights, she settled back into the crib all night - longest stretch about 2.5 hours but still felt like a massive improvement so of course I feel all sunny and optimistic today Smile

OP posts:
notsochic · 19/07/2013 14:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sleepstarved · 21/07/2013 13:13

Hi gang,
I am not coping with this co-sleeping/boob all night, I am so tired I feel like I am going to crumple in a heap.
DD has not gone back to her long first sleep of the night so it's 2 hourly from the moment I put her down and she may take 3 goes a putting down.
I don't know what to try, CIO and CC are off the cards as I don't think she would ever stop or stay asleep if she did go off.
I guess I bite the bullet and keep putting her back in her cot. Maybe when DH around so I can catch up in day.
Naps are the same, needs walking or feeding to sleep and then carefully put down so she doesn't notice.
God I miss those early days when she'd go down at 8pm, wake a little, put herself back to sleep and go through to 2/3 once even 5!

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