7 MO waking every 2 hours in the night.

[nello]

Feeling too tired to even write this post!

DS, 7MO who slept through the night until 4 months sleep is getting worse and worse. Last night went to bed at 7pm and then woke at 11, 1,3,5 and was ready to start the day. Not sure what to try, but have another LO to look after, aged 3 and this sleep deprivation is not making me a very good daytime mummy :(

DS has two naps in the day - 1/2 - 1 hour in the morning about 2.5 hours after waking and a longer nap of about 2 hours after lunch. He eats three good meals a day, plus 5 breastfeeds.

I have no idea what to try. He is currently in a bedside co-sleeper but often ends up in bed with us which doesn't help him particularly. Wondering if we should move him to his own bedroom.

Any ideas?

[shushpenfold]

Sorry - another vote for controlled crying here....works miracles for both parent and child. SO lovely when after a very few nights (3 in each case with each of my 3 children) they can self settle happily and even cuter when they start to wave night night at you

[firsttimemumma2014]

Nancy where did you find your consultant? Internet search or was it a recommendation? Sounds like you found someone who really knows their stuff, but I've heard other reports from friends that aren't as positive and they felt consultant was a waste of money. Do sleep consultants need to be members of an institute/ have an accreditation or anything?

[nello]

nancy - not at all know-it-all! Very helpful. What was the consultants advise when the baby wakes in the night? Thanks

[NancyDroop]

I don't know about accreditations etc, our consultant was a personal recommdation (Nicola Watson, very knowledgable and lovely sleep consultant).

For night wakings it was more of the same (this was our sleep plan, from memory): wait 3 mins, go in pat, shush/put in dummy/turn on side (whatever your soothing technique is), then quickly leave, wait a few mins, repeat.

Now my little one might wake, give a whine, then just fall asleep: self settling woo!

We were also advised to make mornings quite different: turn on the light/open the curtains, whatever and announce: Good Morning! so the baby learns that when you come in without turning the light on, without talking to them then it's not morning and they shouldn't wake up.

[NancyDroop]

How are the babies getting on? Anyone had any luck with some sleep training?

[moomin35]

Still waking in the night here :-(
Goes to sleep fine around 8pm but then wakes around midnight and cries and I end up with him downstairs, I can't imagine he'd sleep if i didn't hold him and calm him as he gets in a real tiz when he wakes

[Schweetheart]

Still loads of wakings here (in Fact just feeding dd2 back to sleep now after she went down at about 7:30)

I'm going to try taking a gentler approach and cuddle her back to sleep for this first waking and go from there. I can't do controlled crying yet.

[RooTwo]

So interesting reading this and your experiences nello and NancyDroop ... I am on day 3 of gradual retreat with 11 month DD but finding it hard and constantly veering in my mind between which is the best route to take ... DH thinks we should do CC but I don't feel that I can quite face it, but having said that I'm wondering if me being in the room with DD doing the gradual withdrawal thing is not the best for her - just knowing that I'm there - I wonder if that just makes it harder for her. She takes a really long time to settle, kept waking last night and I basically had to sleep on the floor beside her cot holding her hand on and off. Wondering if we should just bite the bullet and let her cry a little more. I'm so tired, I don't feel I can go on like this much longer!