Sleepless of Mumsnet - join us if your LO consistently laughs in the face of sleep!

[Purpleboa]

Hi everyone. I thought I'd create this thread when I saw that there were quite a few of us lingering on the 4 month regression thread, with babies that clearly didn't get the memo about things getting better!

I've seen another thread for parents whose children are long term poor sleepers but I think it's been relegated to zombie status. So I hope nobody minds if I start another one! If your LO consistently struggles to sleep, whether it's down to diet, night terrors or just sheer bloody mindedness, please pull up an armchair and join in! I'll supply the espressos, hugs and chocolate, wine and tears served after 4pm.

I'll start: my DD is 25 weeks. She's gorgeous, adorable and the absolute light of my life. Unless it's between the hours of 7pm and 7am! She's struggled with sleep always. I thought things would improve following the 'fourth trimester' but she got a cold, reacted badly to her jabs...and before I knew it we'd cruised into the 4 month regression. Which she's either still in, or she's teething, or developing, or wonder weeking, or fck knows really!

The past two weeks have been particularly painful and I feel I'm reaching the limits of my endurance. I love being her mum, I love spending time with her...but not sleeping makes it oh so very hard.

I have found Mumsnet to be a wonderful source of support during those dark and lonely hours when you feel like you're the only person in the world going through this. So I wanted to give back and support others too.

I'll put the kettle on...

I also read something the other day that said if you give a banana after dinner it helps their sleep no idea if it works or not as I tried it last night then had some sort of black out. Ds loves bananas though so will try it again tonight and report back!

Maybe I'll try then. I feel a lot of pressure to get her down quickly though so I'm with Dh and that means that trying stuff that may take a while can be stressful.

Dd didn't lose any weight because of cmpa, I have oversupply which balanced it I think so she actually gained very well as she was being flooded with milk

I think they are supposed to take their tired cues from the bedtime routine so.if you have already fed they should stil get that its bedtime from.bath, the song you sing....etc

Zombie you're right about illness. We've had 3 nights of 11-4 then back down til about 7 then at 4 am this morning she woke up coughing and sneezing and has another horrid cold. Dh is on nights so I'm on duty alone for 4 nights now. Dreading it

Fluff I always feel pressured too! I think ds picks up on it.

Good luck think, hope the next 4 nights go well.

Omg. Ds woke up, I went in to settle him, it was at that point my husband decided to take the recycling (glass) out slamming all the doors on the way. The recycling bin is right under ds window

Zombie at least your dh didn't go out 5 mins after you'd resettled and left! So frustrating

Dd is not at all happy tonight. So unsettled. If this continues am going to put her in her pushchair in living room and spend the night watching Netflix

Dreadful night and dd in a real mood this morning. Can't wait for this week to pass

Think I'm going to change everything up tonight. Going to move feeding to before story so she gets pjs-feed-story-bed. Going to try to hold her to sleep and also drop the song I've been singing and move that to when I'm putting her pjs on (as it calms her,stops her wriggling) and only use white noise which I'll leave on all night.

Then I'm going to spend the next 2 weeks attempting to get it so I can put her on the cot awake so start off holding her on the chair, then holding her near the cot, then in the cot etc

Basically I don't think it can get much worse and I need to feel like I'm doing something!

Good luck fluff!

I'm feeling so low today has been exhausted. Dd just seems like such hard work. She goes from giggling to screaming in less than a second with nothing in between. And spends so little time happy in her bouncer/playing. Wants to be held constantly and screams if I leave the room. Ds isn't getting the attention he deserves. Hope it's just her cold and my tiredness

Feel at breaking point

That sounds a bit like teething. Dd is incredibly clingy when teething.

Well, my resolve is piss poor. Gave up with not allowing her to feed after the story after about 30 seconds of her trying to feed through my top and then screaming in anger and then sobbing. I couldn't bare it! But she pulls off so it's not like she has nipple in mouth and tbh I keep reading stories about them just not needing to feed to sleep at 9 months so I might reassess then and possibly try to pull her off a bit earlier and sing my song to get her to sleep (as also enjoy that bit so blatantly keeping that too)

What I have done today is try and up the feeds so hoping she feels less need to tank up at night

Probably is teething. She's dribbling like crazy and ds always used to get ill a few days before a tooth came through but dd's gums don't look like there's much action

Fluff I would guess feeding to sleep is one of the benefits of breast feeding - if it works... I would think the issue is if she's using you as a dummy in the night?

How's weaning going? Dd is becoming a spoon refuser and just wants finger foods but isn't actually swallowing much of course!

I have a fast let down so she's never been one for holding on to my nipple, she feeds then pulls off and doesn't need it in her mouth to sleep so I think that's good and sometimes I can sing my song, pull her off, pop her in the cot, she blinks once or twice and then goes to sleep so I think that's ok?? I just read this webpage about making sure the way they get to sleep first can be recreated without you, but maybe I can just record my song and leave if playing all night? (Which will probably give her some kind of psychosis!)

Weaning is ok, still hasn't eaten loads but she did try some broccoli and chicken so that's something. She's getting better everyday but generally doesn't seem bothered by food. Interestingly I spoke to my friend who has a baby born on the same day, she's gone over to hungry baby formula and purées and baby rice and the baby has the exact same sleeping pattern as dd regardless so that's comforting in a small way that I'm not doing everything wrong!

Oh just that sounds tough if you never get an evening or bed to yourself

Hi everyone, just catching up. Been staying with my parents this week so it's all been quite busy.

DD is really suffering with her cold, the poor mite. Last night was co sleeping, tonight will be again. My parents don t get to see her much, so it's a shame she's so out of sorts. Still, we had a nice day with afternoon tea for mum's birthday.

Fluff we're the same with weaning! Trying a bit, just doesn't show much interest. I may punch the next person who instructs me to fill her up so she'll sleep. Er hello, what do you think I'm trying to do here?? I've stopped giving myself a hard time though. I know she'll get round to it in her own good time.

The room we're in at my parents is right next to the loo so very noisy. And my parents aren't the quietest of people! Tried to ask them politely to keep it down, but their response was ' Well she needs to get used to sleeping through noises!' Sigh...

Hoping for better nights for us all! Particularly to Think. And good luck Fluff! I need some of that resolve! Welcome Just. That sounds intense! Everything I'm dreading about having a second child...

I feel like I need a plan too fluff re feeding to sleep in the night. But I also can't be bothered with the hassle of doing something new that will involve me being awake any longer during the night. Today he only had 30 mins since 10 30am so am hoping he'll be so tired he'll do a long stretch.

I tried him on that neocate today and he had 3oz. I put some raspberry milkshake stuff in it to make it taste better. Then he came up with a massive rash and had red cheeks

just that sounds exhausting having both in bed with you.

Fluff sounds like a good plan. Really hope you see some improvements soon.

Think ds goes like that when he has a cold/teething. She probably sensed the change of dh not being there too.

Just.... Bloody hell, that sounds rough. Have you had any advice from gp or anything?

Purple, happy birthday to your mom! Hope your having a nice time.

Hv are rubbish aren't they?

Dd has had her first wake but managed to settle her with popping her on her side and signing the song. Usually I'd feed so this is progress i suppose. When do you know they don't need to feed though? I don't want to not offer it and leave her hungry

I guess base it on how long she goes in the day so if she wakes less than x hrs after her last feed then try not to feed that time...

Ergh just what a dick thing to say

Been up for the past hour with ds he won't settle and I'm so tired.

Every time I try and move him he just screams the place down I tried nurofen incase he's in any pain and gave him water. Don't know what else I can do am just sat here holding him trying not to fall asleep