SLEEP IS FOR THE WEEK part 7 -- prop your eyes open with matchsticks here

[MegBusset]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

how are you this morning chibi? things will get better. a second the thoughts on slings, they have been an absolute life saver. ds was one of those babies that just wouldn't be put down for the first 3-4 months, even if he was asleep. so lucky him, he got carried everywhere and had all his naps in the sling. now he naps best in his cot and i get all frustrated because we can't go out as much - go figure!!

yay tam, tibs and beal foryour nights.

EP hope ds is settling down a bit.

RoRo, the fireworks were absolutely crazy last night - but ds slept through all of them - unbelievable.

Well, guess what we had 4 nights in a row of sleep throughs until 5am!! I was trying to see how long it could last. 4 days of feeling like a normal person
Last night the spell was broken though with a 2 hour waking at 2am, but to be fair ds seems to have a new tooth broken through this morning..

Amber for your nights... wondered what you were keeping under your hat!

for the other good nights.

Ours was so-so, cough still bothering him a little. Bed 7.30, unsettled from 11-12 (kept rolling onto front and waking up, then had major crying/coughing fit despite giving cough medicine, Medised and water, so ended up feeding), then woke 3.30 (fed), 6.30 (in bed with us and fell asleep after a quick feed), had to wake at 8 otherwise the whole day would go out of whack!

So that's not too bad on paper, but I seem to have relapsed into feeding more than once a night, which I am a bit about.

roro for your restless night lovely. hope you get a better one tonight

amber - i knew it, sleepthrus!!!!! for last night and los pain, but for tooth

EP for restless night and you feeling knackered. hope you manage to rest up tonight

tam for your night love. looks like theyre here to stay, for sure

beal, apologies, misread your post.

meggy for poorly lo. dd feeds more again at night if shes under the weather or teething. you'll get back to it i'm sure

Amber, I want to know what you're doing. I NEED to have a breakthrough...your DS sleeps in a cot? Does he like that? Ours co-sleeps, which is lovely after a day away from him, but after an hour or so of the rolling around, I begin to think that maybe he'd do better in a cot (though it would have to be a king-size cot because he's a king-size 7 month old).

Meg, when did you go down to one feed a night? I pretty much feed on demand at night out of fear that if I don't offer boob, DS will wake up fully and want to play, and then I'll really be screwed the next morning.

Coffee's almost gone...

Meg, it's tough when you have to go back when you feel you're making progress. i always think 2 steps forward, 1 step back though.

RoRo, we've been through an absolutely shocker few months of a billion wakings a night, and often lengthy ones too. it's just starting to calm down now. doesn't help when you throw the odd tooth in the mix though!
ds sleeps in cot only because he gets too excited in our bed mostly. i've spent the last few weeks trying to night wean and then he did it himself one night when he just plain refused to feed even though i was desperate to do anything to get him back to sleep.
but then he fed last night, again i was desperate and whipped out the boobs.
so i don't know. we're not doing anything in particular, just trying to gently gently go in the right direction.
oh and i started putting the lullabies on repeat all night in his room. coincidence??

RoRo, I decided a few weeks ago to stop feeding to sleep, and try to settle without feeding when he woke in the night... the not feeding to sleep is going fine, and for a while he was making it through til 4ish most nights without feeding. But then when the clocks went back that became 2-3ish, and since he's been ill I've fed him midnight-ish too (on the basis that he has a cough/sore throat so needs a drink). I tried offering water last night at midnight but he just went bananas.

RoRo I think it's so much downto individual babies and what works for the family. In a way, if somethings not working you can try and change it, but then sometimes changing it makes it worse and you go back to the original. I think it's just about trying things bit by bit and doing the best you can. And knowing that even if nothing is working and you just keep doing the same ol', eventually they WILL learn to sleep!

Beal + Tibsy for your nights, Amber for yours, a whole string of sleepthroughs, fantastic!

EP + RoRo, for the rough nights, RoRo, I can't imagine having to go to work on the back of a bad night, gues I'll find out in a few months.

Last night was v unsettled, lots of wakeups + tears. We are going to try settling without boob (I have been v naughty with this), letting her cry a bit longer (but not cc) and putting her in her own room. I hope it helps, it can't make it much worse.

Thanks you all again, you are all lovely. You are the only mums I know who don't have perfect textbook babies (or will admit to it) and this makes me feel less alone + less rubbish.

My LO has put herself to sleep on her playmat! I was upstairs posting when she started to grizzle + cry so I though ok leave her a few minutes...it got suspiciously quiet so I went down to take a look + there she is, lying curled up on her side, thumb in mouth snoring in that cute way she has! What a shmoo!

Normally naptime is cry-fest here, I am going to celebrate by watching America's Next Top Model with a big ole cuppa.

bless your dd asleep on her playmat! i always wished mine would fall asleep like that so i didn't have to put in any effort.
chibi hope your nights get better soon. just remember feeding at night is not 'naughty', sometimes it's the only way through! and i can't believe that more than a very small handful of people have those 'textbook' babies. seriously!

Amber and Meg, thanks for that. I guess things are pretty much working for us now with the exception of a few nights and he's teething like mad so I shouldn't despair. It's just sometimes it's hard to make a change for fear it could make things worse, and yes, indeed, they could v. well get worse.

ANTM! ANTM! OMG OMG! I love that show, good for you Chibi, you seriously deserve the indulgence. Just don't tell me who gets eliminated (secretly hoping it's that vile mood disorder weirdo mum with the way-too-hot-bod for carrying a child for nine months, and seriously no way she bf).

way to go chibi's lo. you so deserve it my lovely enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!!

roro - lol, you make me laugh

Well done Chibi's DS

Also, I strongly suspect all those mothers you know of lying through their teeth. Was talking to one mum of a champion sleeper (slept through from about 2 months IIRC) and he's started waking up in the nights - she just bought earplugs

DD that is

I have a bad habit of assuming everyone's baby is a boy - don't know many people who have had girls in RL (no idea why)

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Just got out of a meeting with my boss, every word he uttered sounded to be like "blah blah blah, and blah blah blah, so blahhhhhh"

Is it almost 5pm?

almmost 5pm RoRo!

RoRo - i reckon you probably know before us who gets eliminated. you're prob a few shows if not a whole series ahead!

Ep - i know no girls either!

RoRo - i'm not not ttc, but not trying either! if that makes sense! i dont trust female contraceptives. to cut a long story short, i got pg with ds1 on my first EVER time, on the pill and using a condom and second time i had a mirena coil in....had to remove whilst pg, not v.pleasant! and DF hasn't gone to get anything for himself so we're not using anything. i am still bf, i know its not a full proof method but it seems to be working so far!

meg - i stopped night time feeds a few weeks ago to, not sure how i feel about that, but now he's starting to sleep better, i figured if i dont give him anything to wake up for, he wont!

Apparently 9months is an esp. bad time for sleeping....fun, that's my next month up the creek!

Chibi - i always wanted mine to do that, but i've instilled in them that sleep in the car or in a bed/cot, it;s really annoying. if d1 is really really tired in his pushchair he wont sleep til i get him in the car or in a bed. he's at the stage where he's growing out of naps a little bit and the other i put him in the car, he fell asleep for the 10min drive home and then wouldn't go back off....grrrr

sorry long post, too much to say sorry

Beal, that's incredible. You must be one fertile woman! Funny, I think bf is an incredibly effective method, not the least of which is because it makes me almost entirely uninterested in sex for DH!

I am sticking to the UK eps of ANTM and imposing radio silence with regard to any outcome announced in the US of A, otherwise it's no fun! Once I was watching E! and accidentially saw who won the last series (that chick that was like, did you take that stick out of your arse from the last panel to "noted photographer" nigel barker, how funny that she still won!). Anyway, that sucked.

[looks quite concerned and interested as boss passes by office so he won't suspect am currently typing to mn buddies]

Thanks for the morale booster, AmberJee! The countdown is on...

what time is it over there RoRo?

you know you wana be in uk really if you;re even keeping up with us and our American imports! do you have any uk shows over there?

roro - i have this image of you (despite not knowing what you look like!) of you gazing into the computer screen with a faux, but very serious expression on your face

Tibs, you got it! Furrowed brow and all.

Beal! I am HERE! In LONDON! And I am not afraid to say that I want to host a SIFTW meet-up in Bethnal Green SOOOOON!

So there.

i'm up for it RoRo. what's to do in Bethnal green? only been there once...

Well, there's the flower market on Sundays, Broadway Market on Saturdays, a lovely park (small) across from my house, and another park (bigger with swings/playground) a short walk away...