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

[Tamdin]

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

would be good if we all knew how 'normal' it is tam.

morning all.
mega pants night here.
ds not well. not sure if it's early back molars or ear infection?
has runny nose, high temp, is pulling at his ears and he couldn't sleep a wink so hence we didn't get any either!

he dozed between 12-3 but has been awake since then.
Feel so sorry for dh who has a a meeting this morning and 2 clients this afternoon. at least i can go back to bed.

hope there were some better nights out there

oh no tam, sorry to hear that.

we are on a standard two waking routine atm. last night 12.30 and 5.30, up at 7.30. couldn't complain. wanted to get to yoga this morn, but couldn't face staying up from 5.30 when LO had feed maybe should have gone to bed earlier.

Sorry you had a bad night Tam. Hope DS improves today and you get some rest.

Our night was unusually good - DS went down at about8, woke at 10ish when we went to bed, refused to settle in cot so in with us as usual but then slept till after 3 ! He was a bit unsettled after than and had another feed at 5ish but then slept peacefully till the alarm went off at 7 and didn;t need another feed. I'm putting it down to a busy day at the cms and plenty to eat - she's much better at getting him to eat than we are! Fingers crossed that this isn't a blip - if he sticks to this pattern I won;t worry about the cot for a while!

Morning everyone. Tam for your crap night, hope you can get some shut-eye today.

Amber and EP glad yours were good.

Ours was much better than the previous night, thanks to the sleepifying power of Medised . Didn't actually stop him waking, but meant he was much easier to settle when he did. Fed at 10.30, 2.30 and 5 then slept til 7. I think if left to his own devices DH would use it every night! but I feel bad about drugging him unless there's a legitimate reason, like teeth. Still, I do feel a whole lot better this morning.

Morning Everyone,

Tam - hope DS is feeling better this morning, and that you can both take it easy.

EP - for your good night. Hope more of the same follows!

Amber - don't blame you for going back to bed. My thoughts are turning to those 6.30 starts for work next month .

Ginger - very interesting to hear about your sleep survey. It helped remind me that DD and I are not so freakishly unusual after all.

Think last night was ok (but DH was in charge, so not 100%). He definitely got up at 1.30 and 5, and I got up at 6.

I'm going to try naps in the grobag again today. Chickened out of this last time, after repeatedly spending 45 mins to get DD to sleep for 30mins. It probably doesn't help that I'll still be swaddling her at night, but I can't face awful nights....

x-post Meg.

Glad your night was better.

Tam, sorry for your bad night. If it makes you feel any better we had anoher 2 hour waking in the night. Think the opposite tooth is making an appearence as she's back to being whingy and dribbly. We only had one day off that's just not fair. Hopefully when these two are properly through we'll get a bit of respite for a couple of weeks. Having said that. perhaps we can get it all over with now and then start getting some regular shut eye.

lovely autumnal day here. I love autumn, makes my heart sing when it's a bit cold and clear blue skys.

Ginger - sorry you had a duff night. Hope those pesky teeth hurry up and come through properly.

ps - I'm an autumn person too. Yesterday smelt autumnal, crisp and clear.

We're midway through DD's afternoon nap, without the swaddle. Normally she sleeps 1-3/3.30 with perhaps just one quick resettle with the dummy. Today after 15mins of trying to settle her in the cot, I gave up and cuddled her back to extreme drowsiness. Put her down and she started partying again. Repeated above 3-4 times. Not sure which is worse - having to be cuddled (virtually) back to sleep, or sticking with the swaddle (although I have faint, desperate hopes of improvement). Any thoughts?

Since my last message I have resettled DD 4 times. I am now typing whilst sat on her bedroom floor. The poor little mite keeps rubbing her face and waking herself up every few minutes, and I feel so guilty as if I hadn't swaddled her for so long she would probably have learnt to cope with wriggly limbs by now.

I feel so pathetic - I have only been "sleep training" (yuk!) for one day and already I want to jack it in

hi girlies!!!
we're back from the lovely pembrokeshire coast. had a fabtastic time, weather a vast improvement on last time. we even spent some time ont he beach dd loved it!!!!
one slight mishap and a trip to hospital with dd but shes ok and we managed to enjoy the rest of the hols.
unfortunately, the fresh air didnt have the desired effect on her sleep tho and we're back to 2 and sometimes 3 wakings a night. she's been really clingy again (teeth?)and only mama will do atm. its nice, but hard work.

ginger - hope all well at work and with lo. i love autumn too, the colours, smells....beautiful. hope los teeth come thru soon

tam, hope you enjoyed your hols. sorry for your crappola nihgt

EP, hope the flat is coming on well. yey fro your night

amber- hi love, hope all well with you.

meg and ibs, glad to see some improvements with you guys

will try to read thru other posts later on.
was a little sad to be home from hols, but nice to catch up with you girls

Welcome back tibsy. Hope dd is ok, sounds scary. Glad you had a good time tho. Tam's been acting like a teenager while you've been away

Baz. My DD went through a stage of rubbing her face and pulling the dummy out. She was never swaddled. I think it was the start of teeth. (that old chestnut!)

ibs, hope lo settles down soon. keep at it, you're doing a grand job

ginger, dd ok, had a nasty cut to the top of her right index finger and lost the nail. was very scary, although dp said i cried more than dd! ....tam, acting like a teenager?.....never! i should be so lucky, i reach the grand age of 33 on the 24th since having dd, time seems to be flying by. dont know where her first year went.
hope your dd had a fab birthday too

hi tibs, niceto see you again. glad your dd is ok.
ibs, what's up with these unsettled LOs. hope she learns to sleep swaddle-less soon. don't feel guilty though. you've totally been doing the best you can.
motherhood is way too filled with guilt isn't it. you just can't win.

Baz, don't feel guilty -- I never swaddled DS and still at 6mo he wakes himself with the arm-flailiing and face-rubbing, so at least you have had a few months' respite from it! He has also started pulling the dummy out, waving it at arm's length as if inspecting it before dropping it and then crying. Kind of cute but infuriating too!

Hiya Tibs, glad you had a good time and that LO is OK.

We had a complete refusal of lunch (broccoli and pea puree, thought it was very nice myself!), I think it was because I offered it after lunchtime nap and feed, so he just wasn't in the mood. Routine feels a bit all over the place at the mo, his morning and lunchtime naps are varying wildly from 30 mins to 1.5hrs so I'm just not quite sure where lunch should fit in, or whether to dorp a feed somewhere too. I'm sure it will all come clear in the end though...

Meg, just keep muddling along. i think that's just how it goes. i found lunch the hardest to get in a routine with (still do). i just kept offering stuff, even if it was a little bit, and if he refused, he refused. just kept BF on demand.

Hi everyone,

How were things last night?

Tibs - Glad you had a lovely break, and that DD has bounced back from her little mishap.

Meg - our routine feels a bit weird with the weaning thing. we're doing bottle at 11, lunch 12.15, bottle at 3-3.30ish, dinner 5.30, bottle at 6.30. Problem is DD does "demand" milk apart from at 6.30pm, which doesn't help. we'll see how this pans out.

Thanks for your kind words re swaddling, Amber and Ginger. DH and I were having a chat, and agreed that we'll try this experiment for 7 days. If we see significant improvements we'll continue. If not - hello, daytime swaddling!

ok night. DD needed resettling 5 or six times before 10.30, which is unsurprising given that she didn't sleep for much more than an hour in the day. But she then slept til 3 (swaddled!). Up at 5, 6.15, 7.15 for the day.

IBS, that's a good stretch in there!
we had a good night. LO woke crying at 11, but dh managed to settle him (no feed - yippee) then feed at 3 and up at 7.30. really impressed with the one feed thing.

hi! its quiet today. suppose ginger and EP are at work? wheres tam?
ibs for your good stretch. swadddling it is then amber for yours too

i'm feeling a bit despondent today, we had 'shite night' again last night bed at 9pm woke at 11.30pm for a feed, again at 2am but i managed to cuddle her back to sleep, then again at 4.30am for a feed, then up at 7.30ish. i suppose its not too bad, but i feel knackered today and a little bit teary.
was made worse by the fact that i mentioned to 2 people that dd still waking (i know, stupid mistake ) and they were both gobsmacked. made me feel like i'm doing something wrong. i know they didnt mean it like that but....

meg, did medised work its magic again?

Hello everyone!

Meg - I remember being really confused over when to offer food and naps and milk (and getting it 'wrong' on so many occasions) but it does all kind of fall into place. Hope you're having fun!

Tibsy - I have had a couple of those responses. And yes, they make you feel like a really rubbish mother. But people have a way of interpreting thing. Dh has had a bit of a epiphany with this and now whenever I mention babies sleeping through the night, he goes 'lies, lies, all lies' . It helps that men are less guilty about it - so his friends tell it like it is (and we stay over regularly with our friends with their 'sleeping through baby' who we hear crying and crying periodically through the night )

For me, I am loving that after a few REEEEALLY shit teething nights (up at 5.15 and couldn't go back to sleep properly - over an hour and a half , last night's 1.30am and 4.30am (I slept with her then in her bed) and up at 7.30am seem brilliant . All perspective, eh?
Dd has had THREE teeth (two molars) come through since I last posted - so has been fun.

BUT I still live in hope that it will sort itself out when she isn't teething (she settles beautifully now - and I don't have to stay til she is asleep, puts herself in her bed for naps too. )

PS my standard response now is 'oh, yes she sleeps fine. Obviously, she wakes a few times but sleeps well'

thanks mummym and wow! on the teeth. think dd might be heading towards her eyeteeth so that could explain things. and well, some days i cope better than others. i normally never the make the mistake of answering the sleeping question let alone volunteering the information!! foolish foolish woman
congrats on the self settling. i think its definitely the way forward. keep thinking of retrying it with dd. she was starting to do so well before
i like your dh's response

PS IBS- we didn't swaddle dd at all and she did exactly the same arm and legs flailing thing for -- ooh ages. but she doesn't do it now at 16mths. Occasionally her legs go. (can't remember when she stopped. Think i made the decision to stop holding her legs down at some point and just ignore it...). No one else I spoke to said their babies did it but she was (is) a pretty active little girl!!

Don't think you have broken her

Afternoon all. Just a quickie while I grab a quick cuppa during LO's nap! Last night was business as usual, despite giving Medised at 11pm (so only one dose instead of two the previous night), still waking every two hours until 4am when in bed with me til 7. But the teeth don't seem to be bothering him that much now, I suspect will be OK until the second one starts to cut through the gum in a few days.

I think DH is convinced that two doses of Medised a night are the way to go now

Anyway, have just had a research nurse round as we are taking part in this trial, have to keep a diary of LO's eczema symptoms from tonight.

Tibs I hope you're feeling a bit better now, it's tough isn't it, parents of sleeping babies just don't understand!

Wedding anniversary tomorrow so we are off for a pub lunch, and DH has had to cancel his normal Thursday night down the pub!