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...

Amber, mine does the head thrashing too, I call it her Stevie Wonder impression. Beware the dreaded 4 month growth spurt. That's when we (Cruise and me) started this thread. Cross your fingers that your unsettled period is almost behind you. What sling did you buy? I bought an Ellaroo recently and do love it but it takes a bit of getting used to. I am half disappointed that I didn't go for something like the Ergo.
RE: the DF: I have always fed DD before going to bed. Followed the SWCBN idea of waking them. She now routinely wakes at that time whether hungry or not so next time I won't be following that advice.

Jabber. My DD has been weaned for a couple of months now and it hasn't made any difference at all. Sorry to disappoint but I lived with that hope too. That's what is so frustrating when people tell you to wean early because they don't always wake because of hunger.

Mae, that's lovely

Tibsy, Gradual withdrawl working well. Moved to standing by cot tonight and not one tear. She fell asleep really well while I just whispered. Then about 10 minutes later she let out a blood curdling scream and went into meltdown. Got her out of the cot and she was screaming, stopped, farted and did and almighty dirty nappy!!! Anyway, change and cuddle later and she settled again just me standing at her cot side and so far not a peep. I'm chuffed and hope it wasn't just a one off.

Anyway, off to pump. (express!)

morning all. not too bad a night here. Bed at 8 up at 12 and 4 for milk up at 6.30 for day. better than the last few so hopefully he's working his way back to the 1 waking a night(or even none yeah right!)

catch you all later.

morning everyone!
tamdin - that doesn't sound too bad a night - back to 1 waking anight would be great!
ds woke at 2 for a feed, then at 4 with (I think) itchy eczema. Took til 5 to get him to sleep, then up at 7. I am knackered.

morning ladies, i have skim read the posts, but so many!!! i think half of them were yours redbeki
a lot of improvements me thinks!! go, go siftw lo's!!!!
swizzler, your tues night sounded good and mae, your nap experience [gooey, ahhh emoticon!] i still let dd fall asleep with boob in mouth occasionally if i think she needs a bit of extra comfort.

shes full of blardy cold again, streaming eyes, the lot. dont think its conjunctivitis, but has anyone had any experience of using breast milk to clear it?
anyway, our night as a result, was mixed. she settled to sleep well thats my girl!!! and self settled several times, but think she needed mama cos of her cold so brought her into bed and she slept ok, bit restless (blocked nose ) and had a huge feed at 5am. i'm so proud of her!

ginger, i'm really pleased its working for you, hope you had a good night after a promising start. theres a whole thread on it if you want to join us on that too ps i call the head thrashing dds stevie wonder too

tam, how are you doing? hows dh and his mum? big, big hugs to you. have been thinking of you xx

morning ratfly, x posted! those hour long wakings are an absolute killer arent they. hope you get to rest up today

mornin all. ginger just wanted to say i am so pleased that gw is working for you both . did she wake in the night? did it help at all? ds woke last night and night before . but resettled himself in less than 5 mins. i had to go in of course but kissed him and stroked his face and then left. i guess it's inevitable that there will be glitches isn't it ? he did wake at 5:30am and i got him at 6am and bf back to sleep in our bed. it was lovely .
tam/tibs sounds like things are looking up 4 u 2! fab
ratfly - long wakings are the pits , esp when lo thinks it's playtime.... aarrgh!
redbeki - lol are multiple posts - thought you had finally lost the plot!
see you all later.............

Have posted this message under sleep hell as well! must be desperate! Cruisemum suggested I come for help here!! x

Am in a horrible sleep hell with ds2(7 months) at the moment and I would really appreciate any suggestions with regards to how to deal with it! Admit to being a bit crap with routine and tend to do the easiest option when it comes to the night as I have to be up with ds1 in the am.
Basically, he has never slept for more than 3 hours at a stretch since birth - which is horrible. My dp and I now sleep in different rooms so it is only me who has to deal with his constant night time demands. I feed him (brastfeed) back to sleep when he wakes, although I know that he is not hungry and only uses me for comfort. I also rock him back to sleep and sometimes I can get away with poping his dummy back in. The worst thing is that when he wakes there is often no re-settling him and he can be awake (screaming and clawing at me!) for 2 hours plus. He is also awake for the day at anything between 4-5 am which is hellish. Have been vaguely following the Elizabeth Pantley no-cry sleep solution-perhaps my lack of consistancy is a problem but he is a very demanding high-needs baby - unlike ds1. Sorry if this is rambling but I am so tired and feel that I am becoming quite depressed by lack of sleep. I know that he is only small and needs his mummy but his wakefulness is beginning to impact upon my feelings for him and I am becoming resentful towards the poor thing. Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

someone will be along soon hannah

hannah that sound like very hard work. do you co-sleep all night?

hi hannah but so that you're having such a hard time of it. how does he fall asleep initially at night time? i know that a few of us have found that our lo's sleep improves when they start learning to fall asleep without being rocked, bfed or 'stimulated' to sleep.
tam has been following the ncss with her little man and has had success with it. its a bit up and down atm cos of teething and stuff, but thats only to be expected. i think its a lovely method of leading los in the sleep direction.
i've been trying gradual retreat (i put a link for it for ginger somewhere in the thread if you want to take a look)
i think consistency is the key but we all on here know how hard that is when you feel so tired you feel fit to drop. i must admit, i've been a bit of a lightweight until recently. anything for the easy life, except i guess it isnt in the long run
keep posting and we can all try to impart our knowledge (thru trial and error most of it!!). if nothing else, you'll get support by the bucket load

hannah 2nd everything tibs said. Unfortunately consistency seems to be the only way forwrad which i also am not so good at in the middle of the night or when we want to go to friend's for dinner and he has to stay up later but the consistent bath/story/bed time routine from ncss definitely helped us. things have been a bit cked up here recently because ds had mumps vac and is teething (big top molars) and also dh went away for weeknd and ds slept with me entire weekend so not lovin the cot so much atm. daytime naps still fine. settle himself to sleep etc but night-time wakings have increased and standing up in cot shouting at me (he's still in our room at 15m...i know i know). anyway as tinsy said keep osting and hopefully we can all help each other through this phase. 'it's only a phase' SIFTW mantra!

oh Tibs looks like i've renamed you tinsy!

thats ok, ive been renamed worse

Hi all, the weird thing is that I put him down initially at 7 awake (having been breastfed, routine, singing, bath etc etc) and then he will 9 times out of 10 go to sleep on his own - so he CAN do it. But then when he wakes after a few hours he seems to be frantic for some kind of comfort. I do co-sleep for most of the night - his cot is still in my (no longer our!) room at the end of my bed and I put him in there with me after he's woken and I have gone to bed. However not ideal as he has fallen out twice despite bed raills and I have rolled on him as am knackered. Anyway, thanks for your support and I will try a little bit more consistency. I guess he will sleep eventually....?!

cruise,I know,My mouse was flashing loads when I posted,next thing I know ,it wouldn't stop.Don't know what happened,as for losing the plot,I lost that sometime in the early nineties!

Hannah, that is soooooooomy experience it's spooky. My DD is almost 8 months now and I've also been co-sleeping with DH is a different room. Well, about three days ago I thought I'd really go for the Gradual Retreat and the improvement has been increadible. I'm hoping it's not just a coincidence. She always settled OK but would never stay asleep so by 10.30 was always in bed with me. Last night I progressed from holding hands which we've been doing for a while to just standing by her cot. I rubbed her back and held her hand until she'd calmed down and then let go and just whispered. We had no tears and she didn't wake up until 10.30 when I fed her and repeated the process. She woke about 11.30 and I just stood and whispered and she settled until 5. I kid you not this is absolutely not heard of. I couldn't settle her at that point she seemed to awake, I also had to change her nappy because of the most almighty poo so DH brought her into our bed, didn't feed and she slept until 7.15 Honestly it's the most fantastic night we've had so far and I hope and plead that it's because of GR and not just a one off.

I second what Tibsy was saying about consistency. I realised that's where I was going wrong so I made a decision and told DH he needed to help which unfortunately means he's a little sleep deprived too but hopefully it won't be for long. I was so proud of my DD last night for doing all that herself.

Please, I hope I haven't jinxed it all by saying how wonderful it was.

Tibsy, I'll join you on the GR thread when I get a minute, thanks

Hello all. Look my bags aren't nearly so big now I've just got to stop her pooing in the night. Anyone got a cork?

I feel like an outsider on this thread now i've stopped breastfeeding,but I just can't leave you all!

Well done ginger,that's fab

It's when you start sleeping Redbeki, then we can no longer be friends

thanx ginger

go ginger! fabbo night
redbeki, i 2nd ginger, consistent sleep and you're outta that door never to darken the doorstep again!!!!!

for ginger. x

Well, since Monday's momentous 12 hr sleep, things are still going well - sleeping until early morning feed (Weds 4.30, today 5.30) and then back to sleep for a few hours, so I'm pretty pleased with that. He even woke up in the evening on Tuesday and I was calm enough to just go in and shush/pat him a bit and let him suck my finger, rather than picking him up straight away and sticking him on the boob.

ginger, i bought the calin bleu gauze sling. i used to use the Kari Me, but its getting a bit hot with the warmer weather. i think we will end up getting an ergo as well for dh, he doesn't like messing around with all that material. we really do carry him a lot, so justifies being a multi sling family.

well ds had a horrid night last night, woke pretty much every hour. oh well, and we'd have a few nights decent run as well.

i think 4 months is quite early to self settle, but ds really can do it if the conditions/mood are right. its gettign quite difficult to put him to sleep and keep him asleep, so it actually works a lot better if he puts himself to sleep. often i end up holding his hands or patting him and he'll drift.

Amber, my DD was great at self settling until about the four month mark that's when it all went wrong so I don't think it's anything you're doing. Maybe they just become more aware of you, themselves etc. Hopefully tho, those of us with older babies who seem to dictating the change themselves, are giving you some confidence that it won't last forever. I'm saying all that with bated breath and crossed everything for tonight.........