New SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK thread - are we still here?

[PavlovtheCatthatgottheCremeEgg]

Another thread. My didn't we get full quickly! night sleeping good. Naps...not even 5 mins so far today...

yippeee. last night LO woke once before DP went to bed, and then at 12.30 and 3.30 for feeds, then woke at 6.50 for the day. yay. i think that is the best night we've ever had.

and he's started taking naps with a bit of perseverance. he's having his second in his cot for the day. he had one this morning, then napped in the sling while we were out, now back in cot. yay.

go amberjees lo, go!!! really chuffed for you amber hope the course went ok?

still very confused by what method to use pu/pd leave to cry what do i do and do i really have to?

tibs - no haven't read it. too busy reading all the how to get baby to sleep manuals in the world! but i might track down a copy to read while he naps - yeah!

ratfly i'm with you about the "sleep when the baby sleeps" advice. i never heard anything so ridiculous. and it got spouted so many times when he was a real youngin'. they didn't really get that he HAD to be held around the clock or he cried. if you put him down asleep he woke up. so unless you learned to sleep while you were holding him (a tough ask), you didn't sleep. he's about 3.5 months now, and only in the past few weeks do i feel like there has been any noticeable improvement. he still generally wakes up a lot, but is easier to settle. he used to just stay awake from 1am if you didn't hold him - horrid! i think the only advice to give is to keep trying things, be creative, and try to read their signals. i think ds kind of tells me when he's ready to do things. the naps have really improved in the last week, i didn't really do anything in particular rather than just persevere.
i used to always breastfeed to sleep/rock to sleep etc, because i would do anything to get him to sleep. now i try not to bf/rock to sleep, but if its necessary I do it. It helps at night if I think he's not hungry yet to get DP to settle him, it seems to work a lot better. Though sometimes he has surprised me and been really hungry 1 hour after a full feed. So its a lot of guess work really!

kathy will your ds sleep if you hold him/pram him/sling him?? 5 hours is not a lot - how are you holding up?

tibs, i just never know whether to think thinks are changing or whether to just be grateful for 1 good night ...

the course is great, i really enjoy it. LO slept in the sling for 3/4 of it, then i put him down on the floor and he was in a great mood (all that sleep last night and today did wonders...)

DS is 10 weeks old and am in middle of sleep deprivation hell! He wakes about 4-5 times a night, not to feed just to grizzle and moan. Have tried leaving him but just results in a meltdown, so am getting up and putting dummy in and resettling, which works but only for about 30-45 mins and then am up again. Have resorted to having night nanny now and again to stop me from losing my marbles, but am desperate to stop the constant up and down at night as am healing very badly from a C-section and can barely walk by the early morning with all the up and down every night.

any ideas???????????

Mae, just wanted to introduce a bottle at bed time and the last feed so that DH can do it and I can a)party (!) b)go to bed (more likely). I've been expressing but it's so time consumming and I'm really only managing about 4 oz a day which is only enough for one feed.

Tam, justin trouser snake?

ITH haven't heard of goatsmilk formula. will look into it thanks

amber, well done

sorry i haven't acknowledged everyone wiggly baby on my knee! will see what tonight brings

mehdi and faithl, welcome both and you need to be here. mehdi, how old is your lo?
i'd start by taking a glance thru the rest of the posts as we are trying several different methods between us and have a range of lo's ages too. sorry cant be of more help atm but tea making beckons. be back later

faith - you poor thing re: csection scar . 10 weeks is very young to expect much more imho. could the grizzling be just him resettling himself/wind/needing hugs from mummy? very young to do anything about it i would think. sleep deprivation is a killer - believe me on this thread we know a thing or two about sleep deprivation!.
peed off today as my period started and i am still bf morning and night! what's all that about?! guess it means i am fertile too . i'd better be careful (mind you have only done the deed twice since ds's arrival last september. no wi have another reason to avoid it!

ginger - meant to say re: bf, i very gradually weaned form bf in the daytime and replaced with ff's. at first ds would not take more tahn 2/3oz's tops. now he downs 6-7oz no problem. i still cannt bring myself to stop bf first thing and last thing though. i keep feeling pressured that i should but then i think wtf should i?!!! i wouild like to give a bottle now and then at bedtmie for convenience sake but i cannot seem to give up.

faith, so sorry you are feeling so terrible. i really know what it's like. my ds is now 16 weeks and a bit better, but the only real advice i can give is to get as much help as you can. great that you can get the night nanny sometimes. i used to get a student to hold him for 3 hours in the afternoon so i could have a nap. like most people say on this thread, they will sleep more when they are ready, you can just gently encourage them as they grow.
xx

Faith - that sounds really knackering, and after a c-section too. At 10 weeks I think you just do everything you can to maximise your sleep. I used to live for the weekends when DH would pound the pavements for an hour or two while I had a nap at home. Don't know how you feel about co-sleeping, but sometimes it can get you a few hours extra. That's if your baby sleeps better snuggled up with you, unlike my DS who either thinks the milk bar is open, or decides that 2am is a great time to kick, pull hair and stick fingers up my nose whilst laughing manically (he is nearly 9 months old tho)

yeah, i really wanted to co-sleep in the hope that it would make things better. but my LO slept worse I think as every little movement would wake him up.

hi again faith, knew i could rely on my fellow sleepless mummies to step in sorry you're feeling so rotten. am with cruise when she says its early days yet, however, i would recommend a look at elizabeth pantleys 'no cry sleep solution' for some ideas of good 'habits' to get into. and co sleeping in the early days was an absolute godsend for me. hugs x

hi again faith, knew i could rely on my fellow sleepless mummies to step in sorry you're feeling so rotten. am with cruise when she says its early days yet, however, i would recommend a look at elizabeth pantleys 'no cry sleep solution' for some ideas of good 'habits' to get into. and co sleeping in the early days was an absolute godsend for me. hugs x

oops

am so proud of dd, she's jsut fallen asleep on her own. i finally took the plunge and moved on to the next stage of gradual retreat. i was only about 1metre away, but she fell asleep without me singing to her or touching her feet. clever girl
unfortunately, it felt like i was completely going against my natural instincts and really wanted to cuddle her, it felt so wierd being that detached. god, i'm never happy...how do i get round that one?
anyway, happy sleeping everyone. fingers x'd for a good or even average night for all

Hello to all, can I join you?

Tonight is my first 10 day sleep log for EP's no cry sleep solution and I'm hoping for a little improvement on my last log of hourly wakenings .

DD is a six month old co-sleeping boobaholic who demands milk and cuddles in return for short bursts of sleep. Very tiring indeed.

Am sick of RL friends with perfectly sleeping babies, and am secretly hope that it's all a cover and they're getting less sleep than I am ....

That's great tibsy - definite progress . Know what you mean about the 'not needing you' thing. I haven't bf DS to sleep for naps for the past 2 days and it feels a bit odd. Really appreciated the snuggly bedtime feed tonight (still dozes off on the boob then). Ginger - I was too to admit to my NCT group that the reason I was a bit late meeting them when we went out for our girls night out last week was that I had to boob down the boy.

Hi everyone. Hope today wasn't too tiring, and you managed to get naps, and settled for the evening.
Amber - I am trying to get ds to nap in the cot too. It is great when they finally do isn't it - the only thing is keeping them asleep...
Faith - I am only a couple of weeks in front of you. Hectic nights are awful! Make sure you get someone to help you in the daytime, so you can catch up. Do you keep a sleep and feed log, so you can spot any patterns?

I appear to have had a good evening (so far, I will probably jinx it now). He napped 5.30 - 6 (I managed to watch Neighbours without the subtitles on for once!) then dad came home and we did bath, lightning quick massage, swaddle and breast feed, then story. ALl while a lullaby tape was playing in the backround. Then dh bounced him to sleep.
I know we shouldn't bounce to sleep, but we are tackling 1 thing at a time. If we can get him to sleep without screaming in the evening, we have made progress. Lol!
Anyway, he is currently asleep IN HIS COT!!!!! Not sure how long it'll last.

x-posts Horatio, welcome, but sorry you find yourself hear (and those other mothers are lying, either that or they drug them I tell you ). There is hope for the boobaholic tho...

here obv

Horatio - know what you mean anbout other mums apparently sleeping babies. Secretly I think, and hope (in a nasty kind of way) that they aren't REALLY sleeping through!

thanks mae and lol at boob down the boy
welcome horatio my dd was a boobaholic too, there is hope honestly, its been a long, widing road to get there, but it does happen! i still resort to boob to sleep if needs must
ratfly, i too watch programmes with subtitles on and sound down (thought i was the only one)!! it really p**s me off when you cant access them for certain sky channels. how sad! i quite agree about tackling one thing at a time.

I was hoping I wouldn't be joining you guys but here I am

My story: Ds1 was a terrible sleeper. He woke every 2 hours until he was 8 months old. He still didn't sleep through until just a few months ago at around 3.6.

Now we have 5 month old ds2. He was born 3 1/2 weeks early so the dr. had us wake him every 3 hours to feed which I believe set the pattern rather firmly. Still, I think I could handle even getting 3 hours sleep. Over the last 3 weeks he has regressed to every 2 hours and sometimes not even that.

Here is last night:
11:30 - 12:30 - am nap, will go longer at home but we were out and about with ds1

4:00 - 6:00 - afternoon nap

acted like he would go down at 8:30 but did not go to sleep until 10:00 !!

woke at 1:00 and nursed

woke again at 3:00, got furious because I would not nurse him. I rocked, walked, put down, picked up, gave pacifier (he's never taken to them really) and finally at 4:00 fed.

woke again at 6:00!!!! I resettled him and he went back down in about 5 to 10 min

woke again at 7:15 for regular morning feed.

Dh thought I was being extremely cruel (both to himself and babe) not to nurse ds2 at 3:00. I tried to get him to understand that we've got to break this every 2 hour habit, especially as dh will be going out of town for a week in two weeks time and I can't bear the thought of coping with this sleep schedule on my own for a week.