desperate for sleep 7months waking 5 tims a night PLEASE HELP

[jenthehen]

DD2 started off quite good waking only twice a night but now is dreadful and I resort to bringing her in with us attached to breast at about 5am to catch some sleep before 2 yr old ds wakes at 6am.She's a 96 percentile healthy baby on three solid meals a day aswell as breast milk and some water and formular from a beaker during the day. She won't touch a beaker at night. She is awake at the moment, the second time since 7.30pm. Please help as I'm finding hard to cope during the day.

Have you tried controlled crying? Does she have a dummy? Does she actually seem hungry in the night or is it more for comfort?

Controlled crying worked for my ds but when dd cries it wakes him and then ihave two to contend with! Won't take a dummy she just plays with it.

I cant tell really if comfort or hunger. She doesn't scream she just cries and then starts to fall asleep on the breast. She also only sleeps about 30mins during day but is a contented, happy baby.

I know its hard with having an older one there as well, my dd was disturbed by ds. Could you possibly get older child to stay at a relatives house for a night or two?

We had to jiggle around the sleeping arrangements when we were cc ds2, to try to keep it quiet for ds1. Suspect that ds1 was gradually acclimatised to noise levels as ds2 got older and older.

Any measures that you can take to keep it quiet for your ds? Swapping bedrooms around for temporary period while you cc might be worthwhile - ie even if you end up sleeping on blow up bed in living room or elsewhere - given that cc generally works quite quickly.

Yeah we have found that as well, as im sure you have if you used it before. I know when youre tired its such a hassle, but its worth it in the long run. My dd used to be awake regularly most of the night for months on end and only had 30mins in the day so i didnt get chance to nap then and it is complete torture, i dont know how we get through it, but we do!

thanks folks i'll probably try cc at the weekend. DS1 will have to try and sleep through it payback for his two sleepless yrs!! dd now asleep on my knee so i'm oing to try and put her down and get some sleep. night night

Good luck, hope you have a better night, goodnight.

jenthehen, my ds is 8 months and is waking in the night, last night was 2.30am, not usually as early as this. Don't know whether teething is waking him or he is genuinly hungry( I have a thread on this). Decided to offer him a small 4oz bottle, which he drank quickly, so I think he is a bit hungry, then woke at 6am, after going back to sleep at 3am, and drank another 7oz!! What milk and solids is your dd on during the day? Do you feel she is getting enough during the day, I am now not sure ds is getting enough calories in the daytime. His typiacal day is:
6/7oz bottle between 6 and 6.30 am
Breakfast-will only eat bit of fruit and baby rice, anything more seems to put him off his lunch.
Lunch, 5 cubes lamb casserole, 3 sweet potato, 2 veg.(smallish cubes). bit of fruit and yoghurt sometimes, and small drink water
3pm 5-6oz bottle
5pm 5 cubes potatoe/veg mix(any more and will refuse bottle)
7pm 6-7 oz bottle, followed by some fruit and baby rice.
Dropped the luchtime bottle couple of weeks ago himself, started to not want it with his lunch.
Do you think he is getting enough during the day, let us know what your dd gets during the day?

My ds is 7.5 months old and has spent the last six weeks waking up every night all night for no reason. We have managed to get two teeth and a cold in that time, but as far as I can tell he has now worked out that if he cries we come evenutally and give him a cuddle, where upon he goes straight back to sleep! Having spent the first half of this morning in tears, I have now decided after being told very firmly by a friend that ds is now in charge and he shouldn't be - that I will do controlled crying. The biggest problem I have with leaving him is that dh gets crosser and crosser which makes me feel worse and worse. I have no doubt that we will be awake all night but its saturday so tomorrow dh can sleep!

Am feeling horrid at the moment, resenting dh because he gets away all day, comes back late etc and then makes plans for Saturday so i get no break at all. We are both very tired and therefore arguing which is very stressful too. Frankly i cant see a light at the end of the tunnel and dont want to be a Mummy anymore!

My mother tells me that i should think of all those poor mummies that have had this problem for six months not six years (ds slept 7pm - 7/8am every night from 4 weeks old and prior to that only woke at 3am for quick feed so have been very lucky!) which frankly doesnt help at all, so now dont call her!

Can only think now that because of teething/cold and then teething again, the night sleeping routine has gone out of the window so need to get it back bylettibg him know who is in charge!

Now - this is a Gina baby and nowhere in either of her first two books does it say HOW to do controlled crying! Please can someone help with this so i can start tonight.

Daytime sleeps have gone totally up the spout too and he is grumpy all the time i guess because he is tired.

Please can someone help me before I go mad - properly!

Plus the blasted dog is having a phantom pregnancy and is driving me up the wall!

oh poor u Widget { { { hug } } }

My 9 month dd is recovering from a cold and it's taken 2 weeks to get sleep routine back.

I'm not sure how to do controlled crying either really. I'll ask a friend who has just done it. She said it was a nightmare for 3 nights. Her ds made himself sick with crying 3 times a night. But after the 3rd night he settled himself and things have improved from there.

Hope you get some more advice in the meant time.

Mum's are good at saying just the wrong thing at times like this aren't they, you have my sympathy.

jenthehen, our ds was a poor sleeper too until at 9 months we discovered that giving him a big bowl of cereal just before bed made him sleep through. Just an idea...

You have my sympathy, jenthehen. I too suffered from a very wakeful baby. Sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture, so it's no wonder you feel so low! Is there anyone who could take DD2 off your hands for a night or two, so you could catch up on some sleep? It's not much comfort to you now to say that she will grow out of it eventually and things will get better, but she will and they will. Take one day at a time. Good luck with the cc if you decide to give it a go tonight. Don't know whether you might find this or this helpful, as alternatives to cc.

We had terrible problems with ds's sleeping. He got up every 2 hours until he was 9 or 10 months. I found that focusing on getting better and longer naps during the day actually helped his night sleeping as well. He had been only taking little 20 minute or so naps (if that) but we got him up to 2 naps per day of about 1 1/2 hours each.