Misery Loves Company...nope. Still not sleeping.

[ElphabaTheGreen]

Long-term sleep deprivation getting you down?

Join us here for and plenty of sympathy.

Ride the mo-fo out or something must be done - the choice is yours.

And remember the First Rule of Sleep Club - do not mention that things are going well or you will PAY.

As a follow up, have just looked at Ann's website - it says waiting list full till May, guess that answers one of my questions.
Will join in with you guys and keep hoping that "things will just get better" and perhaps try to stop thinking about how tired I am - maybe that will help!!

Can I join you, have just read your thread & got the rage reading the 'oh dear my lo gets too much sleep' thread, I need some solidarity from those with non-sleepers. Dd is 9 months now, normal sleep to about 4 months & has since descended into a spiral of more & more ridiculous demands - she's now in her pram from bedtime until about midnight so we can repeatedly rock her back to sleep, then she comes in with us for feeding at least every two hours until wake up at 6. Is there any way back from this madness?! (Sorry that was a bit long)

Hello gentlemonkey. Solidarity only from me I'm afraid, no helpful suggestions.
Whilst it's not good that so many of us have crap sleep it is nice to be able to talk about it - even the "original non-sleeper" from our antenatal group now sleeps perfectly. And either others don't talk about it in real life, or lie. I mainly don't bring it up, as I feel like crying, and sick of folk saying "just do controlled crying" - not so controlled when the baby seems to be about to vomit.

Triffeny - did the babycalm course have anything helpful to say about weaning off cosleeping and night feeds? I bought their toddler calm book and so far have just been reassured that despite what all my acquantainces toddlers seem to do, my daughters night waking is not unusual, but didn't really find any practical tips (admittedly haven't finished it yet)....just feeling increasingly anxious that another small person will be joining our brood in 4 short months - anyone else muddled through such small age gaps with troubled sleepers? (clearly, although I can't remember it, there was a brief interval in which we did have better sleep otherwise I definitely wouldn't be in this situation!) Guess one silver lining is that my daughter is now bottle fed so if need be, DH can do her feeds (but surely she shouldn't be needing night bottles?!)

Anybody else sleep deprived and have DH that is still sleeping at this time on a Sunday? So angry! Sorry for the vent. Been reading thread through the night and feel like both parents should be in it together.

Still in bed at 11am! we consider 8am to be an extravagance these days. I hope you handed him a baby and a kick up the arse mamab

lilipot15 I'm afraid not really, the tutor was clearly pro co-sleeping and bf until self weaning, and at that point when baby c. 6 months I never thought we'd still be at this point at 15 months! So didn't ask. There is a new babycalm sleep book due to be published on march 5th, will be buying that.

Thanks Triff, just wondered if any wonderful solutions! Cosleeping is okay until they decide it's time to tap you, open your eyes, poke your nose at all hours.....mamab my DH doesn't lie in like that but does struggle to get back to sleep if woken and tells me about that which is irritating...wonder where the baby gets the poor sleep from?!

Lilipot we worked out a little while ago that many of us are also not great sleepers

Sorry to hear you guys are joining the thread (no offence, I'm sure you'd rather not have to! ). I hope things improve for you all soon.

Last few days have been better here despite early starts, last night actually pretty good. Still a 5:15 start but I'll take that after a decent night. Of course his cold has almost gone which pretty much guarantees that he'll have a new one next week and everything will go tits up again! Still we start with Ann next week and I'm both looking forward to it and also a bit anxious about what it might entail. I suspect the biggest battle will be around feeding to sleep, I hope that I'm wrong.

Sorry, I meant to stress welcome to the new joiners. 'Tis good to moan with people who understand rather than the rest of your friends who have supposedly good sleepers

attitude which Ann package have you gone for? Hope you get some results. We're the same, get past one cold and dread the even more worsening effect of the next one....it shall all pass, eventually!

Lillipot only you can decide whether to ride the mofo out or if it's SMBD (Something Must Be Done) time...

Vacillating between the two and stop starting are absolutely fine

Have you read the No Cry Sleep Solution? That's a good starting point for gentle sleep training methods. CC/CIO are not the only options despite what many people will tell you. I know people who have done CC and swear by it. I also know people who have done CC and it didn't work. It wasn't for me so we never tried it.

I'm about 7/8 weeks in to sleep training with DD2. We've stopped night feeds (with OH's help) and are working on resettling from night wakings. We're not there yet but her sleep has improved from 1-2 hourly wakings to a regular 11-4.30 and occasionally 8-4.30.

I fully expect very regularly broken sleep for at least the next year and even after that. Low expectations help me cope as does copious quantities of chocolate

We're going for the full 6 week package in the hope that going at a slowish pace will be easier. In for a penny in for a pound and all that. My DS is not as bad as many of the babies on here but we have the bad habit of feeding to sleep for all wakes etc. so plenty for her to work on .

I was conned into believing that bf would protect my darling from illness but apart from a few weeks respite over Christmas & NY he's had back to back colds since October!

Raspberry I hope your Dd is better.

Elph, forgot to say I sympathise re naps. We're still struggling with dropping it and DD1 falling asleep in the car then refusing to go to sleep until some ungodly hour. We play it by ear now, if she's had a crap night or early start I might ask her if she wants to go and read a story then do her bed routine or take her out for a drive. Otherwise she has quiet time on the sofa with a blanket and the tv and I will do anything to avoid a car journey

Thanks attitude and chocolate....I think there is something in adjusting expectations- it's just that I'm so blooming tired! Not sure that my constant looking for reasons - colds/teeth/wonder week/whatever else is that helpful either.
I will take a look at the No Cry Sleep Solution. Hope it's a fairly easy read with easy-to-find practical tips - I am not up to much else. If it weren't for the prospect of a new baby in a few months I'd just ride it out, but decided I need to look at some options for the moment.

Lilipot it's tough at the best of times, it must be awful being pg as well. I know the feeling of being too exhausted to do anything other than what works to get them back to sleep as fast as possible. This is why I am still bf to sleep at 13 months...

When ds had his 12 month review the HV told me that they had new research and no longer advocate cc or cio. Because we had already booked with Ann I stupidly didn't bother to ask what they now did recommend so it might be worth asking?

Hello all!

lilipot Ann would have an initial chat with you and advise you whether three or six weeks would be needed. I did six weeks with DS1 when he was 21 months. I'm doing three weeks with DS2 (6 months) because I'm already familiar with how she works and have been bombarding him since birth with Ann-stylie-tricks, so I won't need the extra weeks of 'preparation' that people new to her approach would need.

Starting in earnest tomorrow.

Good luck Elph, we start on Tuesday

Welcome to all the new people, sorry to hear there are so many of us in this position but also quite reassured.

Well it was business as usual for DD2 last night, 10+ wakings. Doesn't help that she has started having 20 min naps, that's not even one sleep cycle ffs! So jealous of elph and attitude starting this week, only 3 weeks, 4 days to go!

Someone asked which consultant my friend was working with who produced miracles quickly without cc, it's someone called the sleep ladybased in Edinburgh.

I wish you were starting this week too scotty, you are really in need of it. That number of wakes is horrendous, you must be exhausted. Hopefully our experiences will be positive and give you hope that in less than a month things will start to improve for you too.
I'm starting to doubt my ability to see through what might be needed, I so hate him getting upset. Must be strong!

Thank you attitude, it's not bad on a night when she cuddles back to sleep quickly, we co sleep. How old is your DS? I actually think it's harder to cope with with older ones in some ways as you really end up thinking they should be sleeping better!

Scotty He's 13mo - certainly old enough to be sleeping through!

First chat with Ann done - LET'S DO THIS, PEOPLE!

Woo hoo elph! Best of luck for tonight!

Good luck starting the work elph. I bought the no cry sleep solution and the no cry toddler sleep book - figured if we're past the points in the baby book it will help next time! Parked up whilst DD napping so about to get some tips....