Sleep is for the Weak! we got too big?!!??!?!!??

[cruisemum1]

can you believe that?! we got too big?
we should surely get an award from Mumsnet?

ILB, dd has refused to take a dummy, ditto bottle (although will take a little now), but i think i would have used one if she had. ds had one and it was a godsend as i didnt bf him. cant remember how/when i weaned him off it tho as it was so long ago!!

Meg - sorry los eczema has flared up, guess the heat and general stickiness hasnt helped?

ILB my DD was a great sleeper up to 14 weeks(doing 9 hour stretches) then all went pear shaped until 6.5months - she was sometimes waking every 1.5/2hrs - never less than 2 night wakings often 6/7. I am so anti dummy as I remember babysitting my nephew when he was 18months and having to go up and put his dummy back in every couple of hours. Try GW/GR, does involve some crying but they are never left alone and I am not convinced that there is a cryless solution - when my DD falls asleep in the car she cries for up to 10mins then zonks out, why should she do differently in her bed?

Tibsy - I had real problems weaning my DD, found she hated being spoon fed, end up putting her food on pitta bread or rice cakes, or even the lip of the feeding bowl.

hi everyone, my we're busy today! ILB, sorry to hear things are so hard. we've all been there (some of us are still there!) i had the privilege today of going out for 3 hours without LO to my breastfeeding course as DH is home this week. it worked well, i fed him down to his nap at 12, and got back at 3, and he had another feed. he had 1.5 hour nap, and then was apparently really happy. yay for him.
tibs, have you tried the baby led weaning approach at all? do you think it would work better for your LO? or may be just as frustrating for you. i've been letting LO grab raw and steamed vegetables, and he likes to hold them and lick them sometimes. nothing more going on than that. i just thought i'd let him get used to the textures and that before i start to serve up 'meals' for him to throw on the floor

thank you for your kind words and welcomes! I think I'm going to bite the bullet and try the baby whisperers pick up/put down thing... think I need something structured to help him settle himself, has anyone tried it? I stood in boots looking at the dummies but didn't get one in the end - scared of adding ANOTHER problem to battle with later!

Morning all,

Welcome buttons - but sorry to hear things are a bit tricky for you right now.

How were things last night?

Meg - any improvements on LO's eczema?

LO screamed from 6.45 -10 while I held her. Really could not work out what that one was about....it's so hard when you want to make their distress stop, and you can't.

The upside - she was so knackered after the screaming she slept 11-6! So at least I had some sleep afterwards. Obviously, the sleep is not worth her being so upset, but a small part of me thought "...so you can do it, then!"

Cranial osteopath today - will be interesting at least.

great night for us....ds slept in his cot from 8 until 5am! didn't wake for milk at all. brought him into bed with us at 5 and he went back to sleep until 7.45am feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeling good ladies

x posted bags. for the upset (overtired?) but yay for the 5 hour stretch. Ds has seen a cranial osteptah since he was born. not sure if it ha helped with the sleep but the other aspect is it is supposed to improve their immune system and 1n 16months ds has had 1 major cold and 2 litlle ones only lasting a few days. not bad considering the horror stories of unwellness you hear from some people.

sorry for all the spelling mistakes!

mornin ladeeeez and bubs,
tam - big up for your sleeptastic night my lovely go lo go!!!!!

bags - for poor lo, its horrid when they get so distressed and you cant seem to comfort them isnt it? good news about the stretch of sleep, but you dont want lo to be going thru that every night in order to get some sleep i know

thanks tap and amber dd is having 'real' food, as i like to call it, alongside the mashed mush!! in fact breakfast and lunch is usually a smorgosbord (sp?!!) of stuff with maybe a yoghurt for brekkie too. but shes still spitting!!! managed to get her to eat her yoghurt this a.m by diverting her attention with some jangly meditation balls

our night was good, dd was not settlng with me in the room, thought i was doing my nurturing bit letting her fall asleep on the boob the last couple of days cos of the teething but once i left the room, after the initial shout, she slept til 3am its hard leaving her, even if she is happy because it just comes naturally to hold/touch/nurse her til shes asleep, but at this stage (nearly 10 mths) she really does seem to sleep better if she falls asleep alone
am sure she'll change all that soon just to make me eat my words

Tamdin for your good night, and Bags for your good stretch.

We had neither of those here. LO awake so many times that we just lost count... whether it was the eczema, hot night or whatever, the dummy didn't seem to help either, so got hardly any rest until he came into bed with us at 5ish

Meg: for your bad night.

A bit better here - only woke every 2 hrs or o and did one stretch from 1 to 430 without a feed (tho woke at 3:30 briefly). Was a nightmare to get to sleep though - he normally goes down at 7ish, but has discovered how to sit up from lying down so he was practising that and giggling a lot until nearly 9pm...

Yay for those with good night, esp Tam

meg, for your night and poor lo with his eczema, hope it improves soon

slim - lol at your ds giggling to himself. had a wonderful image of a baby pulling himself up to sitting then having a jolly good chuckle about it

Tib: he flips over then shuffles back onto his bum and hey presto! I was sitting on the bed with a book waiting for him to stop thumping arounf the cot and there he was with his face pressed to the cot side a la feeding time at the zoo. He was very pleased with himself

aaahhh ...... i know its bloody hard work sometimes, this parenting lark, esp with little sleep, but its moments like that that just make it all worth it
ooohhh, ive got a touch of the warm and fuzzies!!!

Woo-hoo Tam! Let hope this is the shape of things to come.
Tibs for your good one too.

Meg - fingers crossed for better things

Slim - LOL at your LO - sounds very cute!

well congrats and comiserations to all

just quickly we had two stes of four hours rather than 3 sets of three so im happy but strangly tired

thanks bags

booby 2 sets of 4 sounds good odd how you feel more tired if you get a bit more sleep, think the body goes into sleep starvation mode, so when you get more than youre used to, it sucks it up and craves even more!!!

ginger where are you?

I hope you all don't mind me joining in on this - feel a bit cheeky!
Tamdin I am totally in awe of your night! Amazing. And bags 11-6 is wonderful too, though obviously the crying is not good - poor lo, and poor you too, but as you say, you know she can do it now!
I was going to do the pu/pd thing last night but I felt too bad so decided to start by rocking to sleep instead of feeding - small steps instead of a big shock. I fed him at 7,9,11 to help him last longer and he didn't wake till 3, really good for him! He woke a couple of times after that and took ages to settle but I didn't feed him again till 6.45 which is also a result for us. When I put him down for his nap this morning I tried to get him to go to sleep himself, he was so close but kept startling awake and then started crying hard so I picked him up and rocked him to sleep. Should I have left him?! Tibsy I think maybe I should have after reading your post - I find it really hard to read why he's crying and very hard not to pick him up straight away

will catch up later but to let you all know I'm still here. had sme terrible nights bahhhhhhh

ILB what age is your ds? tibsy and a few others have done a method called gradual retreat or gradual withdrawal (i always get those mixed up)and it's what we did over time (a long time!) with ds. i didn't know it had a name then but basically we progressed from rocking him to sleep to patting and shushing in cot to leaving him alone. For his naps he puts himself to sleep. no tears involved (thank god because i don't 'do' crying To use tibsy's expression). at night however i still stay and pat his back as he cries when i leave the room and i don't want to do CC. He's getting better as he gets older but we still have some 'bad' weeks too. x

DS had a total meltdown when I tried to get him napping in the cot this morning. In the end we had to put him in the car seat and take him for a drive, as I was going to NCT group anyway. Then fell asleep in car seat again on way home from the group - so he hasn't had a cot nap today. Am hoping this doesn't mean tonight will be a nightmare (though how it could be any worse than last night, I'm not sure).

I got really upset and started crying, does this happen to anyone else when LOs won't sleep? Just so frustrating and upsetting to see him getting overtired (and scratching at his eczema) and screaming.

oh Meg, I feel for you - it sounds awful.
Please don't worry about getting upset.
I was in tears last night when LO was having a "moment" (3 hours more like!) last night. I keep trying to stay calm, as I know this is best for her, but it's awful when you see them in such distress. And I wouldn't have before this considered myself as someone who cries easily, but it really tugs at your heartstrings .

Fingers crossed for a better night for you - who knows, perhaps your DS will have burnt off lots of energy today?

Meg: it is upsetting and not something you can cope with on little sleep - when DS is having a particularly bad night I feel despairing. The eczema sounds painful - what are you using for it? I've heard good things about Aveeno but that might be for older children. DH has eczema so I'm watching DS for any signs but none yet.

We have tried loads of stuff for eczema: Aveeno made him scream, Epaderm, Diprobase, Cetraben, aqueous cream, Oilatum all little/no effect. On Monday the gp gave us Allergenics lotion and that has made his skin bright red (like sunburn). This afternoon it has started to blister and peel... phoned the out-of-hours GP service (our doc not in) and they told us to take LO to hospital this evening.

So for LO but hopeful that they might be able to give us something that helps.

Meg - so sorry for you and LO. I do hope that something positive comes out of your hospital visit tonight. Let us all know how it goes - sending big hugs.