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Aaaargh! Nine months painful comfort sucking

4 replies

PlanetMJ · 16/03/2018 00:11

My nine month old DS cosleeps due to always being a truly awful sleeper. The four month sleep regression nearly broke me but following a slight improvement for about six weeks where we even had a few nights of only 3 wake ups, the eight month regression is still going strong.

He wakes 8-10 times a night.

This I can just about tolerate if I go to bed when he does. What I can't stand is the comfort sucking he insists on to get back to sleep. He doesn't latch on properly, or he does but then pulls off to flutter suck on the end of my nipple and although it doesn't hurt it's incredibly irritating and over time is making me sore.

I have been doing the pantley pull off for months,, unlatching and pressing his chin and although it eventually works, more often than not he just gets utterly furious and screams with rage and thrashes about.
Its making me so angry and frustrated. Will not take a dummy, no way Jose.

He naps at 9.30 for 30-45 minutes then again at 13.00 for 2 hours although I usually have to resettle him a couple of times to get this. Bedtime is 7pm and he falls asleep quickly on the boob. He wakes at anything from 5am to 6.30.

He eats loads of solids and is on the 75th centile. He is an extremely happy baby during the day.

I spent two awful nights trying to only feed him back to sleep every three hours and rock him the rest of the time before putting him in the cot next to my bed but I was exhausted. He cried alot and after rocking, holding till he was asleep and then putting him in his cot, he often woke up straight away.

I always thought I'd never sleep train if it involved any crying but he's crying anyway and all this is pretty extreme isn't it?

I had a glimmer of hope two nights ago when for three nights in a row he reduced to only five wakings and I felt we were turning a corner. I was a different person when not utterly shattered! I started planning to start trying to get him in his cot again but the last two nights it's back to hourly wakings.
PLEASE HELP!

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
crazycatlady5 · 16/03/2018 08:42

I’m so sorry I’ve no advice as months 7-11 were awful for us, everything you described we had. Now at almost 14 months it’s a distant memory, it all changed by the time she was a year. She slept through once! And now wakes 1-2 times, I never ever thought we’d get there. And the painful comfort sucking stopped too x

HopeAndJoy16 · 16/03/2018 08:48

We're in the middle of this too, dd (10 months) will pretty much only go back to sleep by feeding. If I try and unlatch when I think she's asleep she gets so angry. I'm struggling because I NEED SOME SPACE. We had a horrific night last night and it just feels like it's never going to end Sad. Sorry no advice, but lots and lots of empathy Flowers

OrangeHorse · 16/03/2018 08:51

Do your HV do visits to help with sleeping near you? They do near me. I'd give them a call and see if they can help. What you're going through isn't sustainable 😢

PlanetMJ · 16/03/2018 09:28

Thank you all for your support. It really does help and huge sympathy to others going through it. Hearing that he may just grow out of it is soooo heartening.

My fil is terminally ill in hospital at the moment and DH is understandably preoccupied so I'm putting a brave face on. Ive had two bereavements since xmas and in December we received the utterly devastating news that my lovely little brother who has two young children and a wonderful wife, has a horrible degenerative, Life limiting illness. It all means my emotional energy to try and make changes to sleep habits is pretty depleted. I think that's really good advice about contacting the health visitor. They were brilliantly supportive with breastfeeding and I remember one lady telling me about helping a mum of a ten month old to do gradual retreat because her baby was waking every two hours

I remember thinking " gawd, I would never let it get to that level!" So clearly this experience has been sent to humble me😀

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