Getting to the end of my tether...we seem to be going backwards.

[DetentionGrrrl]

Can anyone offer any advice of my 7mth DS? He is still waking 2-4 times a night, and drinking alot of milk at night. The last 2 mornings he's been up at 4.30am.

This is roughly his routine:

Bath, book and bottle 6pm-6.30pm

Wakes every 2-3 hours. Can sometimes be put back down with an ounce or two of water and a cuddle, but mostly a feed.

Wakes up 4.30-6am (it varies)Will be up for an hour or 2, take a feed and then go to sleep in the morning for anything between 30mins-2hrs.

Usually naps for an hour early afternoon.

I'm back in work in March, and don't seem to be getting anywhere. Have followed NCSS loosely, and only really seen improvement in getting the afternoon nap right. I was scanning a book by she-who-can't-be-named, and it mentions pushing the morning nap forward and having a sleeping bag rather than blankets.

Can i get some pointers from someone who's mastered sleeping through? (But please no posts from people telling me their child is 12 and still hasn't slept through!!)

BTW- DS eats well and is now formula fed.

i followed swmnbn and found her to be brilliant, took a while to get into the swing of it but now its easy dd2 is 16mths and i followed from when she was 2 weeks.

she sleeps 7 til 7 then 12.30 to 2.30 ish

i am a childminder and have taken on another 2 under 18mths all 3 are in bed asleep right now. The newest edition is 6mths old hasnt had a routine since before xmas and i've had him since friday. It's not easy you do have to be strict but you can get there imo.

hth - not trying to brag btw its been hard work but im just saying if you stick to it it can be done.

btw my dd does have a sleeping bag and a light show.

i would say while you are still off it is worth persevering and not feeding your dd in the night if you do only give her a couple of ounces but give her water first the more water you can get down her the better this will force her to drink more milk during the day which is what you want. im sure you dont but just incase def do not give eye contact or talk or put the lights on when she wakes in the night. i have always just gone with putting dummy in and light show on and leaving her as best i can without trying to wake her older sister who she shares a room with.

We had a simalar problem with ds ( 8 months).
He was waking up at 4 0 clock and wouldnt sleep again until about 7.30.
I think that its his day time naps that affect how he sleeps at night.
For example:
He has bath about 6.30, bowl of porridge or simalar with warm milk,bed at 7pm.
Dp does dream feed at about 11pm which he'll normally take about 4oz.
Ds wakes up about 6am,7oz bottle. I keep him awake until about 10am,6oz bottle.
He'll have about 45 minutes nap, playtime until 1pm then has a proper dinner and yoghurt.
Has another 30 mins nap about 3.30 then has 5oz bottle.
Then plays until 6pm then we start the wind down for bed again.
Is your ds on solids? Is he active during the day? I find ds sleeps really well when he's been rolling round and playing all day

what's swmnbn?

ah, i get it (doh!)

as for naps def do 9am to 9.30 and 12.15 to 2pm does she still need her 4.15 nap?

i used to dream feed about 10.30 pm cant remember how old she was when we stopped that, i didnt mind doing that i did mind getting up at 4am

he usually naps twice, once early morning, then anytime between 11-2pm for an hour.

I need to stop the early morning one anyway- we both go back to bed because i'm knackered too. This morning it was 6am when we went back until 7.20am.

It's going to be hard work isn't it, sticking to water and delaying the nap? God i need proper sleep!

1 baby gone home and other 2 still sleeping - trust me if you do this it will be worth it, you will thank me or swmnbn i promise.

Thats the tricky bit getting up at 7am everyday regardless of how long either have you have slept for. I can remmember being so knackered to start with now we take it in turns to get up on sat n sun and whoever gets a lie in gets up at 9am then the other can go back to bed as long as they ;like unless we're going out. not so bad now she sleeps most nights - we still have the odd teething blip so not perfect but do able.

dg,we chatted on ncss thread(i was moljam)were stopping feeding at night now too as getting desperate.a couple of us were discussing doing new thread.ive been reading baby whisperer.
is swcbn ok for 13 month old?

you-know-who has a website, i think i'll have a look at it. Don't want to say too much on here obviously. i think she says the longer it's left, the harder it is, but 13mths should be ok i think.

Have told DP to get some earplugs...it's going to be a tough few weeks, but i have a sleeping bag for DS, and it'll be water only at night now. i'm not being tough enough- as soon as DS isn't happy with water i give him a bottle full of milk.

i'm really dreading this

dg my email is [email protected] if you want to do this together!although my ds is older!might make it bit easier for us both to have support!

that would be awesome , thanks! Have added your email, and i'll drop you a line so you get mine.

I've just bought the sleep book by 'that' woman to have a proper gander. Pantley's was nice in theory, but it was a bit sugary and her email peed me right off!

I'm going to find it so hard to not just give in to him when he wakes though- he's usually attended to asap with milk and cuddles, but nothing is getting better!

Tonight's the night to start i think.

yay!i will join you-tonight the night!!!scary.i agree i like pantley in theory but to be honest-i 'need' a quick fix as lack of sleep is affecting my parenting to all 3 children!

Well, i tried water and silent cuddles first, then a couple of ozs of milk when DS was too upset for me to handle. He drank 8 ozs through the night, as opposed to the 20ozs he drank the night before- a victory i think.

Was hard having him crying though and not making eye contact or shushing him- i did stroke his hair which made us feel better.

waiting for the book by that woman now.