The dreaded SLEEP REGRESSION support and solidarity thread!

[Tiredemma]

Here we are. Sleep deprived, emotional and craving all things sugary just to survive the day.

bah.

Oh my word ladies, every night I'm hopeful of improvement just to have it all shattered - another night of waking every other hour & that's with me co sleeping from 2am & feeding him - maybe you have to leave them to cry during the night! I am ebf but maybe I need to put him on formula so there's no doubt in my mind whether he is hungry or not, I feel really conflicted with the thought as fed ds1 myself with few problems until he was 14months but I've got to do something or something's going to give & it's going to be me! I don't want to sound completely dramatic & there are plenty of people who think "it's a baby for gods sake get a grip"- but this morning as another long day stretches ahead of me I finally feel a broken woman!! I'm laid here in the dark now - ds is looking at his dreamshow & I could just weep!!

Boo - I think that people with good, settled sleepers simply can't understand the anguish these babies cause. I know I feel like this when I meet up with other mums. But when you're up every hour every night and then deal with a grumpy baby who cries all day it more than tests your patience.

Our sleep issues aren't to do with hunger so I can't even hope that solids are the solution. I really don't know what to do. I might just have to leave her to it tonight. I can't cope with yet another night of hourly wakings.

Just tentatively popping back in.

DD has had solids now since Monday 3rd and bar the odd night of having to pop the dummy back in, she has slept much better. Two night ago we had a couple of hours of random crying- but last night she slept well again.

For me I feel solids have helped- but they never helped with Ds2 who will be forever known as sleeper from hell.

My ds refuses a dummy so the only comforter is my boob I am the ultimate human dummy!! I think like you wine spider any less than 3-4 hour wakings I'm going to refuse to feed him & leave him to it as surely a 5mo can not need feeding every 2 hours through the night!! I've just told dp to brace himself for tonight & he has told me he may work late instead of coming home - to be fair I don't blame him can't see it's going to be a peaceful night!!!

Meeting friends this afternoon so I'm going to cheer myself up by having a big piece of cake with my cuppa!!!

We've kind of cracked it. She self settles now and wakes every 3 hours for food which in going to work on by giving her water as at nearly 5 months she doesnt need fed at night.

I had to really work at teaching her to settle and that food didnt come everytime she woke.

I learnt she wakes up but doesnt need me so i let her moan back to sleep

But any little thing like her jags seem to make her wake a lot. The only constant is that she always settles herself to sleep when she first goes to bed.

So Cinderelly did you sit with her while she cried type thing? How long did this last? Is she on solids? I've avoided CIO methods but feel it could really be the only thing left for me to try!!

Boo, I never left her to cry it out, nor did I really leave her to cry at all.

At first I put in crib awake, if she cried I shushed and patted/rubbed tummy. Stayed with her through the inevitable wake ups to immediatly shush pat. Around a week I think...a very long week!

Then when she stopped waking a lot after her initial put down, I left the room returning to shush pat if she woke. At this stage I still patted to sleep, for a few days.

Then I started putting her down awake, left room immediately and returned if cried but just layed hand on chest and shhhh till calm, walking away before she fell asleep. Sometimes she'd be crying before I even got to door.

Biggest breakthru was noticing a difference in cries. One was shouty...I left her to it and she'd shut up and fall asleep. One was her having a moan...let her moan for a bit, standing right outside door & she would go to sleep. One was real and I never left her for those. If she didn't really sound too upset I would give it 30 seconds before going in. She's given a lot of love during day and is very secure baby, waking up with a massive smile.

So I guess I did let her shout cry a bit but I felt sometimes she needed to & was never left to cry properly. That worked for us. The book previously mentioned called the good sleep guide helped a lot.

:.sorry not on solids and took a couple weeks as I didn't want her to be upset.

I just think my ds would be screaming I don't know how much I could pat him before I gave in I think I would have to go downstairs out of the way!! These baby's - I must keep reminding myself how good he is in the day!!

Honestly, that has been my biggest obsticle...thinking it wouldnt work so not trying. All babies are different...chances are it wouldnt work for you, but it might! When I started, she would cry and I'd think 'nope, not workinf' then there'd be a pause, or change in the cry to slight whimper for a bit & I'd get the incentive to persevere and not pick her up. I feltbetter knowing I was there for her and not leaving her when she was distressed.

Plus I ate A LOT of icecream to comfort myself!

Cindy thanks for that. I think we may have to try something similar. There are definitely different cries, and I think sometimes DD cries for my benefit as the crying escalates when she sees I'm there. I have left her to chunter numerous times but always pick her up when she starts proper crying - maybe I need to wait a bit longer and see what she does. I think the problem is persevering and being consistent night after night. Often I begin with resolve but by 3am I just do whatever I have to do to get some sleep.

Ditto everything you just said Artemis!!

Well bugger me, DS slept through last night!

It didn't start brilliantly. We put him down at 7.10 and he woke half an hour later and took over half an hour to resettle. Then he woke again almost straight away so I fed him and finally got him settled at 10.15. I heard him stir at 1.15 but unbelievably he got himself back to sleep with no intervention, then slept till 6.15. Brought him into bed to feed and we dozed for another hour or so.

No idea how this happened, his naps were really hit and miss yesterday. The only different thing was I gave him 3 lots of solids. I know, it's not supposed to make a difference.

To pay me back for a great night he's now resolutely refusing his morning nap! Can't have it all eh.

Wow noisy that's fab remind me how old your ds is? When did you start solids?

Noisy- DP told me that he heard a man on the radio say that his baby son was horrendous at night and they started to give him banana before bed (something to do with Melatonin in the banana??) and his son started sleeping through.

Last two nights I give DD half a banana mashed with rusk at 5.15 pm- she has a bath, then a 70z bottle at 6.20-6.30

bar a shove in of the dummy at around 1am, she has slept from 6.45pm until 7.30am both mornings

Co-incidence? possibly- might be back to square 1 tonight- but I really think theres something.

And DP now thinks he is 'dad of the year' because he suggested the life changing banana to bed time.

Wow due to various commitments involving travel throughout next week (& ds is only just 5mo) I am putting off weaning until the week after next but will definitely give the banana thing a try!!!

This is another thread altogether but how have you all generally started with the weaning - with ds1 it was baby rice with various fruit/veg purées added now different people are advising me different things - some say just the purées without the rice, some say finger food straight away??? I am a bit of a "oh my god" he is choking"!!! when It's just a little cough so I find this unimaginable yet a few people have told it's the way forward with weaning now?? Any thoughts/ advice welcome?

booville its been 10 years since I last weaned a child- I just do the following (from this week)

Morning (after bottle)- About 6/7 spoonfuls of porridge

Lunchtime- small HIPP yoghurt (DD only has about half of it)

approx 5.15- half a banana mixed with 1 rusk and formula

The banana and rusk are fairly 'lumpy'

Boo DS is 24 weeks tomorrow. We started solids last weekend (I know, not 6 months...)

Lol at your DP Tiredemma he's probably ever so proud of himself. Hope your good nights continue.

We had our visit from the sleep lady today. She was very nice, didn't tell me much I didn't know already, but I did feel strangely reassured.

Boo giving finger food is known as baby-led weaning. I think it's more for those weaning at at least 6 months.

Today's menu was baby porridge at breakfast time, homemade pea & sweet potato puree early afternoon (DS wasn't too enthused with my cooking haha) and half a mashed banana with pear puree before his bath. He absolutely loved that. I'm hoping we see the sleep-inducing effect of the banana soon as DS is currently wailing while DP tries to settle him!

DP was home from work early this evening and insisted that he gave DD her rusk and banana- going as far as saying "it was my idea"

He thinks he is a genius.

Haha tiredemma well if it works when I come to weaning ds I will happily call him a genius!!!

Has anyone much knowledge on this baby lead weaning then? I must admit someone has mentioned it to me & insists that's why her dd is a wonderful eater - eats anything apparently!

A friend of mine is doing it, though tbh I think she does occasionally spoon feed too.
She gives her dd things like slices of pepper, apple, bread sticks etc. I think the idea is that baby holds it herself, gnaws on stuff and gets used to different tastes, then eventuality progresses to eating it. If you look in the Feed the World section on here there will definitely be threads on it.

DS managed a 7 hour+ stretch last night from 8.30 ish to 3.45. I don't dare to hope we're out of regression, and sadly I was awake for 2 & a half hours from 2.30 (stupid insomnia) but it's some kind of progress.

Another crap start tonight. Took ages to finally settle DS from when we started trying at 7.15, then he woke 30 mins later and took ages to resettle. Then another wake up after 30 mins. I got into bed just after 10.30 and he woke again soon after.

Given that it's now 4 hours since he had his bottle I'm BFing him to sleep as I just want to go to bloody bed. I guess this is what you'd call a dream feed, except that he was already awake!

Really can't predict how things will go for the rest of the night.

Well our night was another shit one. Awake 8 times between 1.40 and 6.20. At about 3am I wanted to just leave her to cry I was so tired and fed up. She's not hungry so it's 100% not being able to get herself back to sleep without us and a dummy. I really don't know what to do but we can't go on like this