The great non-sleepers, newborn and beyond.

[NinaMarieP]

Thread number four (I think).

Welcome to all past posters and any new ones who are also up at all hours!

So tired! Didn't get in until 11 and DS doing usual wake ups! Had a great evening out though, I completely agree it's so important to do something you enjoy and be yourself not just mummy 😊

Hopefully the cot transfers went well!

@jellybean2017 I know what you mean about being yourself, not just mummy. A colleague texted me last week with a question about something I put in a report before going on leave and I called her and we had a 20 min chat. It felt so refreshing to talk about something from my former non-baby life.

Past two nights were obviously a fluke.

Tonight I thought we were onto a winner as he was in bed by 8. HAH!

Woke up at 8.40 and had to be picked up and settled.

Woke up at 10.40, before I'd managed any sleep, and although I got him back to sleep at least 3 times he woke every time I put him down. By 11.30 I ended up having to feed him as he just wouldn't stop screaming otherwise.

Got to bed at 12.05.

Had to give him the dummy at 1.30.

Had to bring him into bed at 2.45 because he wouldn't settle again.

We are now on a 4.30 feed and I've had 3.5 hour sleep if I'm lucky.

This is one of the nights where I feel like I don't like my son very much.

Totally get what you mean @Nina. After a fairly promising start tonight has been crap from 1.45 onwards. Currently DS is attacking my boobs in between loud ear piercing wails. He's gumming away at my nipples hard and it really bloody hurts. Fed up. Really hope your DS settles soon.

Can I join? My child is far older than most of yours though... they are FIVE and still don’t bloody sleep. Or, they will sleep, but only next to me every bed time is a daily battle of wits. They shout “huggy” every 5 minutes, ask for water, ask for the toilet, too hot, too cold. This can go on for up to 90 minutes.

How the hell do I get my 5 year old to go to sleep quickly and sleep alone in their bed all night?!?!?

@fruitcider welcome! Although those of us with newborns/little babies may despair further if we know we have five more years of this...! Haha 😂

Think we just slept for three hours... He was laying on me obv. But I will take what I can get at this point 😶

Welcome FruitCider

Last night didn't get much better so really feeling it this morning.

We've got to go to actual shops this afternoon to finish off our Christmas shopping. Not looking forward to it at all

It’s very rare to have problems this late. And once they are asleep, they are asleep. The problem with cosleeping with a bigger child is that they wriggle a LOT and keep me awake 😭

Hello fellow mums 😊 I'm new to this so I'm sorry if I post this I correctly.
I really don't know what to do with my lovely 8 months old girl. We have quite a good routine during the day and night. However she wakes up loads during the night. Basically our day looks like this: up at 7am, breakfast at 8.00, nap at 9.30-11ish, milk as soon as she's awake, lunch at 1ish, second nap 1.30-3ish, milk when she's awake and then dinner at 6-6.30, bath and bed. She's normally asleep by 7.30. Then she starts waking every few hours... either for dummy or just moaning and trying to roll onto her side. I can't really figure out what is the actual reason for all these wakings but it's sooo tiring..I normally give her a milk feed at 5am ish.
Any advice with what I can do to make sure she sleeps longer? I feel she must be tired too wth all this disrupted sleep. I do not want to leave her to cry either.
So sorry for such a long post.. but mama is soooo exhausted! Thank you in advance 😊

@FruitCider I also have a 5yo. I let her come into bed with me once. Never again.
Dh is sleeping in another room at the moment because of the 3 month old waking up. Dd had a bad dream and I said she could lie with me. I thought it'd be quite cute to have cuddles and it was early morning so wasn't all night. She wriggled and wriggled and I ended up kicking her out! Sod that! It's not how I imagined in my head.

DD was a bad 'n last night! She was wide awake between 3 and 6am 😣 I could have cried. She had trapped wind and kept playing with the duvet (I kept moving it away from her) and the bed guard! So naughty.
I did go shopping today, though. She wouldn't sleep for DH, but no major drama. I came back before she was due a feed (yes, she had finally stopped feeding hourly!).

Oh no @AMagdalena, sounds like a fun night!!!

DS has been napping on me since 2.45. As always, I daren't move him. Got so much to do though 🙈 ah well. Hopefully he will be happy with DH for an hour or so when he wakes. Then I can crack on!

Now got in bed, DS having a feed staring around the bedroom

I'm really really really hoping for cot sleeping

We braved the shops today, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be

How was everyone's day?

Just finishing my last feed before I get a few hours sleep before the overnight shift.

I went to a friend's flat today and she gave me a huge stash of bf-ing kit including reusable breast pads (& a few disposables), a tube of lansinoh, warm/cold compresses and those silver nipple cups.

I'm really excited about the cups because I've had sore nips and even if the silver does nothing, protecting them from friction will help them heal.

DS is really doing my head in today. Another day of 25 minute naps and overtiredness, both his and mine. I'm feeling quite low at the moment. I have to bookmark these posts to remind me of how relentless chronic sleep deprivation is, if I ever think of having another baby. Hats off to all of you with more than one child, I think I would've lost it completely if I had a toddler to look after as well.

Well I've broken, another load of failed attempts and I'm in tears. I could literally just get in the car.

DH is now trying but not having any more luck.

It's just so relentless. I just want a couple of hours of him sleeping and staying in his cot.

@Ven83 I have also decided that DD will be an only child. Having her 5 weeks early by EMCS then dealing with reflux and a husband who isn't pulling his weight; there is no way I'm doing it again. I'm going to get a coil put in ASAP.

@Meepmoop I'm sorry to hear that you are having such a hard time. Several times I've been tempted to run away. Is there anyone who can look after baby during the day for you for a few hours whilst you have some respite? Offering you a hand hold.

DD will also be an only child. I've had it up to here tonight. DH has been fucking pointless this weekend as he has a cold and can't cope with her for more than 30 seconds anyway. Weekends seem worse I think, because it shouldn't all be down to me because DH is also home; but somehow it's still all down to me. I think this entire weekend he's changed 2 nappies and done half a bottle.

She's refused to sleep for more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time since lunchtime and even then it's been her sleeping on me so I'm just sick to the back teeth.

Tried to put my child to bed at 20:00. They fell asleep at 21:30 with DP laying in the bed pretending to be asleep. They woke up at 23:30 needing a wee/drink. Just gone back to sleep. I haven’t slept yet

meep tell me to piss off if my suggestion is irrelevant but have you considered cosleeping? Though my child is 5 and we still have problems it saved my sanity in the early days. Some babies (IMO) just will not sleep on their own.

My DS will alao be an only child! Love him dearly but I also cannot imagine doing this part again with him at toddler age! 😶 DH keeps saying "when we have another baby" etc and I think he thinks I'm joking when I say there will be no more 😂

DS is once again only happy laying across me 🙈

Another night of refusing to sleep past 2am yawn. He's congested which doesn't help.

to everyone suffering tonight. @ven83 sleep deprivation grinds you down, it's horrendous. And Meep right there with you on the desire to escape. In the early days with DD, there was a hotel being built up the road, and I used to fantasize about escaping there for the night all by myself, to get a night of uninterrupted sleep.

Hate to say it, but despite DD being a sleep thief of the highest order, I did go on to have another!! Don't believe the bollocks people say about not being unlucky enough to have two non sleepers. Lightening certainly can strike twice 😂

Ds is our second and we have a 5 year old. It's a bigger age gap than I would plan for but it is so far working really well for us. Dd is at the age where she wants to help. She's really good with ds and tries to get him to sleep in the day. She sings and reads to him and he loves it, just drifts off to sleep! I give her a treat when she's done it so she'll quite happily invest time in doing so! Plus, because she has worked hard to get him to sleep, she stays quiet and tries not to wake him. Bonus!
Her age also means that she is at school most days so I can have 1:1 time with ds. When she's home it's all about her and he fits in around her routine (except for emergency nappy changes or feeds of course). It does mean I'm distracted by her a lot of the time so I don't get to hear every wimper from him and worry about whether I should pick him up or shush him. I simply cannot sometimes, as long as he's safe in his Moses, sometimes I just have to leave him a few mins whilst dealing with dd. Sometimes I return to find him asleep.

Night times are hardest because I worry about one waking the other. My idea of absolute hell.

I don't know that I would be able to cope with a toddler and a baby. Too tricky.

Today has been hell though. I think with Christmas and school and all changes to routine, dd is excitable, loaded up on sugar and overtired. She was a little cow today and she was hard work. Ds didn't get a look in all day as a result. He just went with the flow.

Have to agree that having a toddker and baby is a challenge! DD is 2.6 and while she's a delight, she's also a typical toddler with all the tantrums and storm clouds that involves. Like you say @hashtag, sometimes DS just has to get ignored while I deal with her.

Actually it hasn't been as hard as I thoight having two although it's very early days and may change as DS gets bigger! But it is full on and it has meant that my marriage has taken the hit as DH and I have barely any time together, and when we do we're too exhausted to do anything more than watch Netflix! I'm sure this will get better though...

DS hopefully asleep on me. Going in for cot transfer in 5 minutes time...wish me luck...