SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK PART 5....... God have mercy!

[Tamdin]

Can't believe we're onto another new thread already!

tam for your night my lovely. any reason for it, or just one of those crappy nights do you think? the continued success with cutting down the milk is something positive tho big hugs and love coming your way via t'internet

thnaks tibs. hug taken with thanks

dh 'voice of reason' said "remember he had his injection a week ago" when i was swearing under my breath at 1 o'clock so he's probably right but I was not feeling very patient last night!

So tired today but have no major plans and it's raining again so will go for a doze when ds goes down for his nap at 11.

What you up to today?

hello, am a newbie, somebody kindly invited me over, following one of my posts in a quest to find sleep. DS is a 5.5mo disco-diva night baby. I'm not sure what I need to do, but here goes, this was my night:
DS settled in cot 7pm
woke 7.40, settled quickly
woke for sleepy feed early 9.20(had just got into lovely bath!) BF 30m by which time bath cold, but at least I got an early night!
woke 11.40 BF20m
woke 1.20 BF20m
woke 3.10 BF30m
woke 5am, settled back in cot
woke 6am, took in bed with us
BF 6.30, both fell back to sleep up for day 7.30
does this qualify me as a fully paid up member over here?? during the night wakings now it's at least good to think there are other folks out there just like me doing this across the country right now!

wow choolie, welcome, but sorry you find yourself here. hope we can be of some support along the way. was your baby always a horrible sleeper, or did it happen around the 4-5 month mark as happened to some here.
we also have a blog about sleep deprivation of the baby kind www.sleepisfortheweak.wordpress.com

morning choolie and you def qualify!

we're all in the same boat. sounds like you lo is doing the classic wake evry 2 hours to feed that we've all been through.

my d sis 18 months! so am not bf anymore and we co-sleep. my major aim atm is wean him off bottles at night as I think he's using themas a crutch to go back to sleep when he wakes. we're doing well with it atm. got him down to a few ounces.

next step after we move house is to get him into his own bed.

Ep meg amber and tibs are all bf and their lo's are younger so might be of more use to you than me but I'm feeling your pain sista!

try this for the walks leaflets

Morning Tam, Ginger, Amber.

Choolie I think I was on one of your threads. My DS is 6mo next week and just like yours by the sound of it... until last night we were co-sleeping but he had just got too big and wriggly to settle, we all need more space so last night he was in his cot all night. Have yet to crack the bf-to-sleep problem but he has bad eczema so if left to his own devices will scratch and scratch, making it worse and waking himself up. So for now I am just going with it, we have hospital appt next week so if he gets any treatment that works, then I will start doing the 'gradual withdrawal' sleep training method.

Baz, I'm begining to think that mine only needs 10 hours too because no matter what time she goes to bed. 10 hours later she's up for the day.

Well done Meg. Nice to have an occasional cuddle with the DH isn't it?

Tam your night sounds terrible. Hope you can rest today. It's a bit out of character tho isn't it?

Choolie, you definately qualify. My DD has never been a great sleeper but she's definately started to settle down a bit recently. She's 11 months but at 5.5 months she was probably much the same as yours. I think in the last 2 or 3 months shes got consistently better and I'm sure it's just an age thing.

Better dash, a scary looking baby is making a bee line for the lap top and this morning she's into bashing stuff so I dont' stand a chance

ps - Ginger - thank you for the walking leaflets. I was wondering, are these easy walks to do with a (distinctly not off-road) buggy? I used to a fair bit of hill walking (climbed 2 of the Scottish Munroes whilst pg!) and I'm itching to get back out there.

thanks for walking leaflets ginger, looks great.
we had an ok night i suppose, but i made it bad for us by sending dh in first to see if ds REALLY needed a feed or would just settle. he apparently did really need a feed and would not just settle, cue a lot of crying until mum reluctantly got boobs out at 9, 12 and 3. did sleep until 7.15 though so can't complain.
don't know whether to feed him at the first murmur, or wait until he 'demands' a feed. you can't win really.

Well, the night of getting DS to sleep in his cot was an abject failure . Asleep at 8 after an hour of feeding and shushing, woke 9ish (DH settled) and about 10:30. Fed him and tried to put him back in his cot, he woke up each time and yelled. Eventually in with us at about 12:30, finally went to sleep. Woke a couple of times for feeds, then woke at 6:30. Am of those babies who latch themselves on at night, as DS just kicks and yells till I wake up and latch him on myself...

Keep reminding myself that we have been here before, as DS refused to sleep in his crib when he was a newborn, but we got there eventually. Slowly but surely.

Tam: am def feeling your pain. We don't have the excuse of the MMR though!

Amber: I'm wondering that. I do try and hol dout but DS gets more and more unsettled till he's too revved up to sleep. Don't know if I should persevere or just feed him straight off.

Glad to hear there were some good nights out there

And welcome Choolie . I am with you on the 2-hour wakings (DS is 10 months).

sorry for your crap night EP.
and it's such dismal weather today. i've got nothing planned either. coffee will be involved as soon as LO gets up though.

EP, i seem to fluctuate between the two. it was funny, i said to dh on the couch before i went to bed that maybe we will start doing a new routine, so if LO wakes before midnight, dh will try to settle him without a feed. if it's after midnight, then i'll feed him back to sleep. so LO decides to test this theory and wakes up at exactly 12. we send dh in. cue screaming until 12.30 when i feed him. then he wakes at 3, and i have this notional four hour feed rule at night, ok, so send dh in again. again, fails and LO has a massive feed in bed with me. normally he can't feed in bed as he finds it too distracting, so he must have been really hungry which then made me feel like a bad mum for trying to hold him out.

is it possible for a 7 1/2 month growth spurt? he's become a milk monster lately, and refusing most solid food.

again, i repeat. you can't win.

gosh, loadsa posts

tam, i was told thaat the time to look out for effects after the immunisations was 7-10 days after, something to do with incubation period. bit late to tell you now i spose

welcome choolie, although for your lack of sleep

ibs and ginger - am joining you with the 10hr sleep. dd seems to only need that although i try to persuade her she needs 12

EP for your night. you will get there

Amber - dd appears to have had continual growth spurts every other week, so the 71/2 mth one is very possible he's not teething is he? i only ask cos dd goes off food in favour of boob when shes teething. it offers her comfort for the pain.

Baz, I'm a walker too and desperate to get DD out there into the fresh air. These walks are flat and mostly along the canal towpaths which are pretty accessible although there are occasions where you may have to lift the buggy down steps etc. The towpaths are narrow in some places too (especially central London) and you have to share with cyclists (not all considerate) but on the whole absolutely fine for almost anyone. If you wanted you can walk all the way from Hertford down the River Lee into London, through London and then up to Birmingham! The canals are all interconnected. Until recently I worked for the organisation that manages them hence my knowledge, I'm not a canal geek!

Morning ginger amber and ep
wish we lived near each other today could really do with a siftw coffee morning!

things are getting better though....someone has put an offer in on our apartment this morning!!!

tam for the offer on your apartment.....i was thinking that too about getting together, maybe if i get dp to drop me off in birmingham, i could walk along the canal ginger might take me a while tho, and the weather's a bit crap....thought it was funny that you might be a canal geek

Tam yay for your offer. Have you got somewhere to buy yet?

I think DS might be moving towards a two-nap pattern... yesterday and today he has had a long morning nap (hour and a quarter so far today) and yesterday he had long lunchtime nap too. So not sure if today I should try keeping him up a bit longer between morning and lunchtime nap, to see if he can then make it through til bedtime? When did everyone else's LOs go from 3 to 2 naps?

Also forgot to say, last night DS around 4am was making loud lip-smacking sounds in his sleep... must have been dreaming of boob... gave me and DH the giggles! Sooo sweet!

Thankyou all for the welcomes. No, DS wasn't always so, at around 3 months I happily told my friend (mum of 2) that he was sleeping through from sleepy feed to 5am, sometimes 7am and she laughed and said you just get usedto a routine and they change it all...a few weeks later I understood why when it all went pearshaped and has got steadily worse! a few weeks ago I'd managed to get him down to sleepy feed, 2 or 3am and 5am, now it's increasing further! frustratingly I can't get him to take more feeds in the day (life is too interesting) and he's desperate to start eating, he's so far loved his first tasters so I don't want to delay the solids, so here I am, it's so good to not be on my own with this any longer! - do I just happen to only know people who's babies all slept through from an early age, or is there really loads of denial out there about this? I'm telling anybody who will listen about his sleep patterns in the hope i can either help somebody in the same boat or at least find somebody who's been through it too! yes, I'm a baby sleep bore by now, sorry.

hi Meg, yes, you came on one of my posts, thanks, I did mean to come back as realised I hadn't commented on your message - I guessed you were being woken more than me, so total sympathy for that one, I can just about cope with what I've got now!

Tibs - could be teething, but then i've been blaming it on teeth for teh last 4 months and he's still as gummy as ever

tam and tibs - come on down for a coffee morning - would lurrrrve it right about now.
megs - how cute those little lip smacking sounds!
choolie, i know what it's like the not eating in the day thing. sooo frustrating when you know they'll just make up for it at night. Don't konw what to suggest other than the ol' darkened quiet room trick and chanting the mantra: it's just a phase.

ds is so close to crawling. so cute. so scary!

amber, i know, frustrating aint it? dd had teething symptoms forever before getting even the whiff of one, then they started coming thick and fast!! She's the proud owner of 8 now!!

choolie - i know someone who had a bubs a month before i had dd. she seemed to take great delight in asking me about dds (crap) sleeping habits every time i bumped into her. this was until about a month ago, when her lo (12mths) became a really crap sleeper too now i could be petty about it and snigger behind her back, but to be honest, i know how miserable it can be. besides......i'm bigger than that

ah yes, I've managed to tag a feed onto his day time naps now, it was the only way I could get him to feed in the day. so now as well as spending half the night awake in my bed, I spend half the day there with the blind drawn! at least i get to relax and either catch up on sleep or read a book!