What do I need to do with 24 week old?

[cupcake78]

She's getting worse!

She was a great sleeper when born. Did really well and even slept through some nights.

Then it all went wrong . At 12,weeks her colic got really bad and it turns out she is CMPI. She got a scare and has become very clingy. At 15 weeks sleep regression hit and we've never recovered.

The last two nights she's been in with me and dh (who I wish would just bloody sleep on the sofa but oh no we've all got to squeeze in together).

She used to self settle, she now doesn't! She used to stay asleep when we put her down, she now doesn't!

The last two nights she's woken up nearly every flipping hour in with us.

She maybe had 3 naps a day for 30 mins .

We need a routine, we need sleep, we need her to not get used to being picked up and brought in our bed at the slightest murmur .

What should I do?

Lots of sympathy here as ds was also a great sleeper til 17wks. Things had just improved loads two weeks ago and then he got a cold and it all went to pot again, I'm hoping we will get back to normal soon! Things that seemed to help with pre-cold improvement were: doing the bedtime feed at the start of the bedtime routine instead of just before bed; feeding when he woke up but always putting him down awake; helping him get to sleep at bedtime without too much help (he can self-settle but as far as I can tell he actually sleeps better if I stroke his back while he goes to sleep rather than leaving him to completely self-settle), playing white noise all night; making sure he gets decent naps which means having him in the sling as this is the only way he'll go longer than 30mins.

When you say 'at the slightest murmur' are you giving her enough time to self-settle? It was a big break through when I realised ds actually makes a lot if noise when he's resettling himself so I now give it a bit of time before I go in. If co-sleeping helps you survive I wouldn't worry too much about doing it in the short term, I had ds in with me during the worst and it never seemed to affect his ability to sleep in his cot. I found 'the no cry sleep solution' had some useful suggestions but otherwise I just experimented.

Hope things improve for you soon.

Were partly to blame because she's been so uncomfortable for so long that we would never leave her. If she made a noise I was there because it usually resulted in painful screaming.

She's starting to get better now so we need to get to know the happy dd that we've never really had.

I know most habits can be broken with a few days of cc when she's older but I've had enough of the tears to last a lifetime.

I don't really know where to start with her or do we just stick with the bedtime routine and hope for the best?

Hey cupcake, I have no helpful words, but I'm watching with interest as we're going through the same with our 25 week old. I've read loads of stuff about self settling, routines blah blah... Our's is so stubborn! She's now in the sling and out for a long walk with her dad. Have you read the info on the Isis website? No help again, but at least made me feel better.

Poor little thing, colic sounds miserable, i don't think you're to blame you've just made sure she feels secure. now she's happier i would definitely just spend some time learning her noises. when i say i leave him i don't mean leaving him to cry, they just make a lot of noise in their sleep so if you rush in you are sometimes disturbing them while they're tying to get back to sleep! It took me a while to figure this out and that was without colic in the equation.

Does the bedtime routine reliably make her ready for sleep? When he was smaller I watched ds's sleep until I found a time he fairly consistently did his longest stretch of sleep and then did the routine to fit. Once he was ready for an early bedtime I gradually did the routine earlier and earlier until I found the time he seemed to naturally want to go to sleep. So now the routine is really strongly associated with sleep. This is the most important thing I've done as it then made helping him go to sleep without so much help much easier. I then just experimented with ways to help him get to sleep and found stroking his back (he goes to sleep on his side) works well. Basically whatever you're doing just do less of it very gradually until you reach the point which works for you and baby.

For a bit I just worked on the bedtime and then took him in with me from his first waking after I'd gone to bed. Things gradually got better and i reached the point where he slept in long enough stretches that i would just feed him and put him back in the cot. I made sure i was putting him down awake rather than feeding to sleep. of course it may be that he simply grew out of the sleep regression, impossible to know!

I think the most important thing is to find a way that doesn't make any of you stressed but just gently helps your baby to sleep a bit better. Agree with Princess that Isis is very reassuring reading.

I give up ladies! She's now got a stomach bug and throwing up everywhere. A routine is not going to happen anytime soon.

All bets are off when they're ill - ds has another cold so was rocked to sleep last night. Hope your little one is better soon x

Same issues here with 24wk DS! We seem to have broken the dummy habit but he's now reliant on me for getting to sleep so we're back to square one with self settling baby steps are called baby steps for a reason I spose!