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Moved baby to his own room and it's not going well - any advice?

8 replies

Trinpy · 28/02/2015 13:29

We moved him into his own room a week ago because he is a very light sleeper and I was sick of spending every night not daring to even roll over in bed in case it woke ds up, silently hating Dh for breathing so bloody loudly. It's been a huge relief now not having to worry about all that.

Problem is that he is still waking up during the night but not settling back to sleep. We are exhausted. Please can you look at his sleep pattern and give suggestions?

8.30pm - bath and bf. If he's still not sleepy after this then one of us will read a story to him which calms him down, then we rock him to sleep aiming for him to be asleep by 9pm.

(wakes frequently for rest of evening but self settles).

12am - wakes for bf.

(wakes and is settled by Dh).

4am - wakes for bf.

(wakes again usually around 5ish, settled back to sleep by Dh).

8am - wakes up. If he is bf straight away then he goes back to sleep until 9am, if he isn't then he will wake up for the day but be tired and grumpy (and still cry until he is bf).

The times when I bf him are when he won't settle at all without it, he just starts crying and crying until he starts retching. At least one of the times he wakes up we get him back to sleep only for him to wake up again 10 mins later. He eats lots of solids during the day and drinks water from a cup but won't drink milk from a cup or bottle. He has a dummy for sleep but will keep spitting it out and crying until he is bf.

He's almost 11 months old.

I would love to hear any advice you have Thanks.

OP posts:
PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom · 28/02/2015 13:42

How did he get back to sleep when he was in your room?

Trinpy · 28/02/2015 15:13

When he was in our room we had one side off his cot bed and pushed it up against our bed so he used to fall asleep cuddled up next to me and then he would shuffle back into his own space in his sleep iyswim.

Dh has been bringing him into our bed during the night to cuddle him to sleep but when we put him back in his own bed he wakes up after about 10-15 mins.

OP posts:
PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom · 28/02/2015 17:42

Sounds like that's your answer then. Being in his own room won't teach him how to settle independently. And it may make it worse if he's used to the comfort of hearing you.

Your next step is choosing yoru options for that issue. Smile

Rosieliveson · 28/02/2015 17:54

I feel your pain OP. My little one was a terrible sleeper and is only just sleeping now (touch wood) at 18 months.
I did gradual retreat to help DS get to sleep without rocking and cuddling. I also cut out the night feeds and only offered water so there was 'nothing worth waking up for'. He was fully weaned and wasn't hungry.
After a while, when he woke in the night, I started leaving a longer time (unless clearly distressed) until I went in to soothe him. I had a 5 minute max but he was usually asleep again by 4. Gradually, he stopped waking so often then stopped waking at all.
I'd recommend gradual retreat as a softer approach Grin

Trinpy · 28/02/2015 23:29

Thanks for your comments Smile.

Argh stuck between a rock and a hard place with this because it wasnt working anymore having him in with us for the reasons mentioned in my op and it's obviously not working with him being in his own room either. I'm going to give it a good try though because I can't be arsed with taking the cot bed to pieces and reassembling it in our room again .

How does gradual retreat work? I tried it on the second and third nights of him being in his own room and he got really upset, threw himself around his cot and then pulled out his dummy and lobbed it at my head Shock. Don't think I did it right!

OP posts:
PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom · 01/03/2015 00:27

Gradual retreat takes a lot more than two nights I am afraid. It is gradual over many nights. Each night a bit less settling.

Trinpy · 01/03/2015 09:12

Ah ok, thanks. I think I need to read up on this stuff.

Last night went badly. He woke up 3 times before 1 am. I fed him at 2 am and to sleep only for him to keep waking up. Decided to wait 2 mins to see whether he would self settle like he does in the evening, went in
after 1.5 mins because and found he'd been sick all over his grobag. Now feel like the worst mum Sad. I brought him into our bed (Dh moved to the sofa) and he slept through until I woke him up for a bf at 8.30.

Not sure what to do now. Clearly he's not ready to sleep on his own yet.

OP posts:
Trinpy · 01/03/2015 09:13

*because it obviously wasn't working

OP posts:
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