SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK PART 6 - now with added caffeine*

[ImBarryScott]

• I wish.

Morning all,

Hope you find this!

for your rough night Amber.

After a few good ones, we had a crap one too. Up at 1.30, 3, 4.30, 5.30, 6.15........
I think she was a bit overtired last night. Hope we can get her napping better today .

So how were all your nights?

EP no major reason for the healt kick. Dh and i had just gotten into a habit of having 2 or 3 glasses of wine a night and wanted to take a break from mid week drinking! the carb thing is to see if i can shift the final 2 or 3 pounds of baby weight. legs arms etc back to normal but can't get rid of my pot belly. maybe it'll never go back
am aiming for flat tum before i consider no. 2!

IBS - it's all yours love

hi all
am feeling poo as dd awake from 2am til 4ish arrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh or something like. am never letting her go to bed at 5.50pm again. she was ok til 9.30 then woke, woke again at 10.30 then again at 11.15, so i gave her a bottle. then woke at 2, i gave her a bottle, she had that, then just lay there talking and grumbling til i eventually tried her with the boob and she fell asleep, dont know if it was cos of the boob or cos she was so bloody knackered

oh tibs that's a toughie
no more early to bed for baby tibs!

took ds to his new music class this morning. he was bit shy/apprehnesive at first but warmed up by the end and was dancing and jumped around like the head case he is . playgroup back on tomorrow too. 2 hours of ds playing while i drink tea nd talk rubbish to the girls...yay!

anyway, sorry about that....

meg and ginger - i think its a linda farenstein (not a literary classic at all!!! ) its ok, cant deal with anything too intelligent on this much lack of sleep

welcome macneil, skirmish and flumpity and hi to mae

EP, hope lo feeling better

i'm sorry have tried to read thru the posts, but so many, and theyre just floating in front of my weary eyes [sorry for self emoticon] a big to those with good nights and a big for those who joined me in hellnight

x posted tam, music class sounds lovely!
wish i could do that when i take dd to her groups, but she's so desperate to walk, she grabs hold of the pushchairs to scoot around with. only problem is, she keeps falling down as theyre not weighted at the front......means i have to go round with her i cant wait til shes walking

oh and ibs, meant to say, i like your new photo on your profile, gorgeous

tam, yours are lovely too i like lo's fave pjs!

i've put some new ones from our hols up...

tibsy - DS is the same with pushchairs, desperate to be off. Now that he's crawling and cruising I encourage him to get a good workout during the day in the hope that this will knacker him out and he'll sleep at night.

tamdin - now that bf is just morning and bedtime it feels much more manageable. Am so glad I didn't give up a few months ago when I was so fed up and feeding at all hours during the night. Especially as all around me people were saying that he would start to sleep if I put him onto bottles...

thanks tam, could totally be teeth - but i'd like to see some evidence soon to justify this craziness!
tibs, oh dear what a horrid night. there's something in the water this week my love.
tam, i've also made a pact to do heaps more baby activities. we started yesterday with baby yoga and stay and play and today with tune time - singing and dancing around like lunatics. i think he is much happier having the extra stimulation. hopefully once this teething thing passes, will also wear him out enough to sleep better. i think it also keeps me sane having something to aim for in the day. ie. having a shower at a civilized time in order to get out of the house!

mae, i know, last time i took dd swimming, she slept thru that was ages ago tho, must take her again soon

amber, just read thru your post, you've been having some shockers too my love....onwards and upwards!! it will get better, it is just a phase....

flumpity - have just read thru your post. for those long wakings. having just had one last night, i totally sympathise, and that was just one night. i'm definitely a believer in sleep when they sleep, balls to the housework for a bit

ps. EP and anyone else, i haven't planned anything tomorrow, so if you want to meet up, happy to do so.

I have read all the posts but have got probably 5 mins before she wakes. We had a 1 1/2 hour wake in the night too. I know it's teeth though. This is exactly what happens when she's cutting teeth.

As a beacon of hope though we have seen some remarkable improvements recently. We also went through the regressive stage at about 9 months but we're seeing some consistently better sleep. Recently she hasn't woken in the evening and is waking after midnight, and mostly after 2. OK, so sometimes she's awake for a while but this is so so much better than before where we were having to settle her 3 times before going to bed at 10 and taking her with us then being up all night. i really think age is the key (I know I've probably jinxed myself but it just feels more predictable at the moment) funny thing is, we're doing everything you're 'not supposed to' too. We are cuddling her to sleep and putting her down asleep and figure this out, she sleeps better!

hi ginger!! for that long waking, but for the improvements. many's the time i remember you giving up on an evening and going to bed with dd to settle her (as did i, was a real pita). am really pleased for you.....think it might be teething this end too, flaming red cheeks and muchos grumpy

ginger for dd's improvement. She's grown into it as has ds imo.

Apart from illness and teeth he's settled into a 2 waking routine. 1 to come in with us at 11ish and 1 for milk. Obviously I wish he didn't wake for either but atm they only last a matter of minutes and I don't even come round properly so it'll do for now!

hi tibsy and ginger, kind of nice to see you're having similar problems although BIG commiserations to you too. I live in eternal optimism that tonight might be better... DH is away on tour this week which makes it much harder when i'm on my own. DD was grizzly and miserable all day partly because she was knackered and partly teeth and she's noshy beyond belief and you can feel the beginnings of little sharp edges at the bottom gum in the middle. poor thing. i guess she doesn't do it on purpose but boy is it hard going.

sincerely hope i won't be posting again at 4am...

you're all amazing. i've lurked on this thread for a while now always hoping i wouldn't have to join it

morning!!!

flumpity, am hoping that absence of a 4am post indicates a doable night!

our night (2nd night of bottles instead of boob)
bed at 7.30pm
woke at 9.45pm shhhh pat
woke at 2am bottle
woke at 4am bottle
woke at 5.30 no bottle, boob
shes still asleep with her dada
i think shes really missing the boob and that its more trouble than its worth atm plus i feel really mean, when she woke at 5.30, her cheeks were hot (teeth?) so i thought boob would be better....

anyway, i've been enjoying these school mornings, even tho i hate being woken by an alarm clock, with a passion!! but because dd has been sleeping in, it means i get 30/45 mins of headspace before she gets up and the chance to enjoy a cup of coffee and read of a book in peace. a very good way top start the day!!

hope there were some good nights out there and especially you amber, its hard when you get used to relatively good nights, to go back. its only for a short time tho, i'm sure, and your lovely boy will be catching those zzzzzzzzzzzzz's again x

Morning all,

Hi Tibs - glad you are making the most of your morning me-time.

crap night here. up loads, though only not to feed.

Well, it's confession time. I am having some serious thoughts about cc. I know lots of you don't like it, and I think those reasons are very valid.
But we're having some problems. DD has become dependent on the swaddle and dummy and is having to be re-swaddled and re-dummied countless times, night and day. Not such a problem for me, but she has become progressively rattier during the day as her stretches of sleep shorten. We've been trying gentle approaches to removing both over the past week, and have not seen any progress. I just want to give her the sleep that I can see she so desperately needs.

i know prolonged crying is not good, but dd is currently crying loads anyway as she's so cranky. i'm terrified about it not working though - imagine all that misery for no result .

Sorry about DD's teeth Tibs. DS just cut another one, so that would explain some of our problems! Last night not too bad, no Medised, a bit unsettled but nowhere near as bad as it has been.

Tam: baby music sounds great . DS alsoo on the move all the time, I tend to take him to the park (on my days with hiim) to wear him out. A few steps but slow progression on walking here.

Amber: the Ask Moxie site is brilliant. The 9 month sleep regression makes so much sense to me, as does the 'do whatver to get your LO to sleep'. It really doesn't make any difference to us if DS goes down asleep or awake - he still wakes up! Also glad she understands about the napping in pushchair thing. Am holding out hope for 15 months now...

morning - another not too bad one here - woke at 5.45, milk, then back to sleep with me til 7 - much more civilised and i feel half human today!!

Baz: have a look at this site: moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/

she ha a theory which makes sense to me that there are 2 types of babies: those who release tension by crying and those who increase tension. So you leave them for 5 mins to cry and see what happens. If theya re winding themselves up and getting more upset, you have one of the latter and CC unlikely to be a long-term soliution. If they seem to be getting quieter, leave for another 5 mins and see what happens. If they cry themselves to sleep, you might have one of the former who needs to cry for a bit before settling. Worth a try?

I don't think you can underesrimate the effect of the 6 months growth spurt either in messing things up!

If you decide to go for it, good luck . It def works for some babies, just unsure whether it would work for DS.

Amber: would love to meet up, but still v coldy (me more than DS now). I expect the last thing you need atm is a cold! We'll havet ot do it some other day, though.

glad you had a better night Skirmish

EP and skirmish for your better nights

Tibs i'm sure dd will get used to the bottle very soon (is it ebm or cm?)and sound slike she's def teething so it's hard to judge anyhting correctly imo. Glad you're getting your coffee in peace in the morning

Flumpity am also hoping that due to lack of 4am post that you had a better night

IBS... don't worry there's no judgement on here. You have to do whatever you feel is right/would work for you. We have never tried cc because i really don't think it would work on ds. He's getting too old now where he can get out of his cot and come into the living room so it would be cc and return to bed which is just way too much of a pita for me!

Think EP's advice is spot on. do a bit of research and then maybe give it a gentle go and see what happens. You might find however that when she goes to nursery (which is soon isn't it?) that she settles down to settling beter at nap/bed time because they won't swaddle etc at nursery and they'll 'break' the habit for you in a way.

our night ok
bed at 8
woke at 10 (had bottle early)
woke again later asking for milk was told no
went back to sleep until 8

That means he did 10-8 with no milk

Goes to show he can do it.
think i'm going to go cold turkey on the milk soon and tell him he's a big boy and doesn't need it.

Hi all.

Tibs what year is your DS in at school?

I had a moment the other day when I was waiting at the family planning clinic (no rush to get a sibling for DS! ) with LO, and got chatting to a woman there who had a 16-year-old DS. She said, "It goes so quickly, seems like yesterday he was a baby, now he's 6ft 2!" Just made me realise how soon all this will pass.

Baz at the end of the day only you know what's right for your family. TBH if I had a cast-iron guarantee that CC would work, and not do any lasting harm to LO, I would probably do it. But because of his eczema I just can't see it working, plus I couldn't risk changing his lovely smiley personality.

Anyway we had a night of two halves. Very unsettled in the evening (many trips upstairs) but once we went to bed was not too bad... fed 11, 2.30, 4.30 and up at 7.