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

1000 replies

MegBusset · 21/10/2007 09:18

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

OP posts:
MegBusset · 07/11/2007 09:43

Morning all, just a quickie before LO goes for his nap.

Regression continues for us . Awake Asleep 7.30, awake 12, 3, 5 and in with us til 8. Wouldn't settle without boob and I wasn't feeling brave enough to try to settle him without it for very long, especially as he was coughing quite a bit.

Think the Medised will be coming out again tonight

Anyway for Roro's night but sounds like everyone else's was OK?

OP posts:
Amberjee · 07/11/2007 09:48

RoRo, sorry for you being soooo tired. and it really doesn't help when breastfeeding adds in some complications. don't worry about expressing different amounts from left and right, that's really normal. sometimes we have one boob that is a better producer, or has a let down more easily, or LO just prefers that one for god knows what reason... as long as youre pumping so they are comfortable, shouldn't be a problem.

about not getting a let down though... that seems tough. are you able to express a little bit by hand so that Lo doesn't have to work so hard for let down? sorry, if that's a useless suggesion, you might have tried it already.

RoRoMommy · 07/11/2007 09:51

Hey Meg! Yeah, that's the look of it...sorry to hear about your night. Poor DS. I hope tonight is better.

Tam, that's hilarious re DS. We just got a king size bed thinking it would solve all of our problems, but it's just given DS more room to sprawl! He isn't crawling yet, but he's close.

If DS is still sleeping with us at 21 months DH will probably divorce me. We've been a bit at odds over the sleep issue for some time. I posted on that once and most of the responses were like, Well he should divorce you, you vile selfish cow.

Amberjee · 07/11/2007 09:51

booh for your night too meg, i guess it's just a matter of going with it and feeding until ds is in full health again. like i said, 2 steps forward, 1 step back. sometimes i feel as if it's 1 step forward, .999999 steps back.

but anyway, i can report a 8-7 night!! a brief whimper at 5am, but then nothing until 6.55am. angel!

yay for tam, tibs and chibi. good breakthrough for you chibi.

beal, wonder what's up with ds1?

tibsy · 07/11/2007 09:55

ooh and roro, we have a bedside cot that works really well. it means we are cosleeping which i love, but you have a extra space

amber, your suggestions are never useless love

meggy for regression, but i bet you'll be back on it once lo 100%

tam - it was short!!!!

tibsy · 07/11/2007 09:57

roro for you my love

amber for your night!!!!!

ds has learnt a new phrase 'jog on' .... i think its hilarious, this teen lingo

Amberjee · 07/11/2007 09:59

RoRo, I can't believe those are hte response you got

i think tibs suggestion of a bedside cot is great. so you can use it next to the bed, and then if you want to transition away from bed or to another room at any point, it functions as a normal cot too. at least you could create the illusion to dh that you intend one day to move LO out of the bed

Amberjee · 07/11/2007 10:00

what the F does 'jog on' mean? i can't believe i'm old already and don't understand this talk.

MegBusset · 07/11/2007 10:04

Amber and Tamdin for sleep-throughs! You both deserve all your success.

My one consolation for us is that where once 3 wakings would have been a good night, now it's a bad night. Also we are coming up to the dreaded 9-month sleep regression time so have steeled myself for some trouble ahead.

Plus, has anyone else experienced a growth spurt around 8-9 months? LO seems to have shot up overnight. Must be all that extra milk in the night

OP posts:
RoRoMommy · 07/11/2007 10:10

Amber, thanks for that suggestion, it's a good one. I'll try it if the same thing happens tonight(hopefully not).

Tibs, that's hilarious, what in the world does it mean?!? Oh, and we had a co-sleeper cot, but I could never get myself to try to put DS in it because I was afraid he would wake up. SO, we got a bigger bed instead thinking that would work, but doesn't seem to be. DH was like, I am sleeping in the spare room tomorrow.

He has a sleep disordercannot function in the nightso I am forever doing the nights on my own, otherwise I would fear that he'd drop DS or something horrid like that.

bealcain · 07/11/2007 10:22

Amber - depends in what conrext, being the young, hip mum that i am i know all the lingo lol

dont know what's up wit ds1.....it's all so confusing!

thinking of getting him a dolly for xmas...is that a really bsd idea? think i'll start a thread!

chibi - glad you're night was good!

RoRo - a friend of mine has a super king as her dp is 7ft! it;s huuuuuuge! and my other friends mum had an 8ft one made. she has 5dc...oldest now 30, youngest 7 . she cs with eldest 3 till they were 11,12 and 14 and the youngest 2 are still in there!

DF and i had many a word over c/s too. he won unfortunately! blardy men!

gingerninja · 07/11/2007 10:50

Hello all, just a quickie cos should be working, 'fraid I can't mention everyone cos can't remember what's happening.

Amber and Tam great nights. Amber I can't believe the difference in your DS.

RRM, can't believe you got such terrible responses from your thread. how awful. This place can set the place on fire with the fumes that rise on some threads. Totally bizare, don't take it personally. What is it that your DH doesn't like about co-sleeping? My DH was nervous of rolling on my DD so while we sorted that out we got a bed rail so we could sleep, her on the outside, me then DH. When she started moving we progressed to a matress on the floor in her room and now we take it in turns to sleep with her (i don't bf anymore so it's just sips of water if anything) When DD was little DH wanted to leave her to cry but as she's got older (and a real daddy's girl) he wouldn't and so is more than happy to co-sleep. I find other people more bothered about it than we are and I'm sure most of it comes down to an intimacy thing. They seem to think that you can't have a normal adult relationship if you sleep with a child. Well, I don't know about you but I go to bed to sleep. Sex is for that time between washing up and sitting down to watch the telly . Sounds to me like you've got a lot on your plate. Stressful and tough job which it sounds like you'd rather not do, young baby who it sounds like you want to spend more time with and a DH who isn't being particularly sensitive at the moment. What was the deal with the nanny? Sounds like you need some time out.

Amberjee · 07/11/2007 11:00

meg, my inlaws say that every time a baby gets sick, they get a lot taller

tibsy · 07/11/2007 11:35

amber and roro - think it means 'yeah right, not a hope in hell' 'get lost' 'you must be joking old bean' etc etc. street jive man!!
am getting into the teenage stage, apart from the moodies and the surge of testosterone which is leading to some serious butting of heads between ds and dp ds is hilarious

beal - i think a doll for ds is a lovely idea for christmas. my friends ds has a dolly and pushchair, he loves it

ginger - youre back!!!!

gingerninja · 07/11/2007 11:43

Hi Tibsy, yes, DD was brilliant at my ma's and toddled around everywhere with mums little dog toddling behind her which she thought was hilarious. She had another unexplained screamathon at about 11 which lasted about 45 minutes but then calmed down and slept with me in a single bed not comfy. DH had her last night and she was pretty good. I bought her this fluffy suit thing to wear over her pjs instead of a blanket because she keeps kicking blankets off so maybe she was a bit warmer.

tibsy · 07/11/2007 11:51

ginger - ahhh, what a sweetie. she'll be asking for a puppy next glad you had a good time but for the screamathon. could do with a fluffy suit for dd, she refuses to have covers over her and kicks them off. where did you get yours from?

roro for dh's sleep disorder and lack of help at night. thats hard. my sleep disorder is dd!!!

gingerninja · 07/11/2007 12:01

Tibs, it's a proper el cheapo from Matalan. £4. They only had baby blue or marshmallow pink but it looks cozy. Good for pottering around these cold mornings if nothing else.

RoRoMommy · 07/11/2007 12:05

Thanks, Ginger! Just peeked at your photos, DD is so adorable. How old is she now?

The nanny...god, I could go on and on. I think, as we explored the other day and Amber made me admit, that the bottom line is that she gets to spend time with my DD and I am resentful + too exhausted in the morning for pleasantries, and this is the only time I see her + don't want to do her job for her when I get home (she also helps around the house) because I am tired and happily playing with DD = DH thinks I am not good at managing people (he's a manager at work) and am not "fair" to nanny and should pick up around the house more. I say, bugger off!

Functioning on about 3 hours of sleep per night for the last 4 nights and I can't be bothered to feel bad for nanny, who plays with DS all day then gets to go home to hot boyfriend (with whom I imagine she actually wants to have sex), warm bed (that she actually gets to sleep in), and no DS/DH/CH issues.

So yeah, I hate her, but can you blame me?

DH is anti-co-sleeping when it's not going well, apparently he thinks that there is some other alternate universe of sleep techniques that will sort DS right out that I am hiding from him.

RoRoMommy · 07/11/2007 12:06

Er, meant "happily playing with DS"

no. more. brain. cells.

RoRoMommy · 07/11/2007 12:07

DAMMIT, meant CM issues.

tibsy · 07/11/2007 12:38

ginger - its el cheapo all the way for me!!! alas, no matalan near us, but we do have primark and poundstretcher, so can check them out

roro - i hate her too i want her life!!

tibsy · 07/11/2007 12:41

re. the anti co sleeping, i must say, that dp has been pro co sleeping, so i'm lucky in that way. i think i'd probably get him to sleep elsewhere for a bit tho if he wouldnt/couldnt share the load at night or was completely anti CS
that sounds harsh, dont mean it to be, just mean that you need your sleep my darling

Amberjee · 07/11/2007 12:47

tibs, lol, i might start using it. i think in my day we said 'get real'. it's all in the tone of voice i think

gingerninja · 07/11/2007 12:52

LOL RRM love the description, I'd hate her too .

My DD is 14 months and I found the first year tough [hopeful that it gets better emoticon]. Not only are you dealing with sleep deprivation on a scale you didn't know existed but everything you have worked towards in terms of your own personal happiness and comfortablness within your own skin is completely shot to pieces when you have a baby, Everything you were is gone and the feeling of 'being out of control' was, in my experience, the biggest, most brutal and life altering part of my struggle to cope certainly in the early days although on occasions I still get it today.

(IME) Not only do you look and feel different (and you don't like it) but you're totally knackered so can't be bothered to do anything about it. Sleep deprivation means you have no patience and can't be bothered with whether you'll upset someone so abandon the usual social niceties. There were times when I didn't have the energy to a) repeat myself b)use more words than were absolutely essential to get my point accross so was bloody rude especially to DH. In a nutshell you just shut down and try and stay alive.

If you're looking for some advice read on, if not feel free to ignore. I don't want to poke my nose in and I'm really sorry if it's way off the mark, it's hard to tell with what I 'know' of you.

I think, reading between the lines, there are a couple things you need sort out. Firstly, your DH. Is there a chance that your DH may be getting frustrated because he can see what the sleep deprivation is doing to you? My DH was always suggesting leaving DD to cry but ultimately it was about me, not coping and him clutching at not very imaginative straws. Could you express and have the weekends off or something? or do alternate nights? even if just for a week. If one of you is chronically sleep deprived and the other having lots of lovely sleep then there is a lot of resentment (well ime!) once DH took over some of the night times our relationship improved partly because I wasn't so tired, partly because he was taking more responsibility and partly because he could see where I was coming from. You may be reluctant to let go if you're the sort of person that likes to be in control, I know I was but honestly it will help.

Secondly, with the nanny. personally I think you need to sit down and have a chat with her when there are no others around and just be honest, tell her you feel crappy, knackered, jealous etc. If you tell her she may understand and even if she doesn't she might be able to sympathise. I'm a lay myself bare kind of person ()in the sense that if you tell someone what's going on then they are given some opportunity to redress the balance.

I think the three of you need to come to an arrangement about 'managing' her work. It shouldn't just be left to you. If your DH is a people manager then maybe you should trust him to manage the relationship and you decide her tasks together and if she doesn't perfom you decide how to deal with that together. She isn't just working for you and it's unfair of your DH to not take some responsibility for the realtionship.

Obviously you've got other issues with work and stuff but in the short term you need to do something now to get some sanity back in your life. I hope that is helpful and not patronising. Obviously it won't make you DS sleep any better but maybe if you were all more relaxed it would help him too!!

Amberjee · 07/11/2007 12:59

so hard with the childminding issues. i really want to put ds in nursery next year ideally 2 mornings a week. but the minimum is apparently 3 mornings a week and when i think about it, it is too much for me, firstly because i really want to spend time with ds, and secondly because i'm not going to work in that time, it almost feels TOO indulgent. god, we give ourselves a hard time!

RoRo, the way I see it, you are paying the nanny so doesn't matter if you're a total slob really, if it's part of her job to pick up things. if dh isn't happy with it, tell him to pick up stuff more.

i'm just thinking would it hlep if you briefly explained to the nanny that you're not getting a lot of sleep at night and are working hard during the day so 'excuse me if i'm not more chatty when i get home' kind of thing. maybe if she understood that, it would kind of be okay. she would realise that it's not personal (even if it is!) and you could have your excuse to retreat and spend time with dd.

anyway, sorry for rambling. it's totally hard. and yeah i hate her for her child free life too. but then who would be without our gorgeous LO's in teh long run.

i just posted a new autumn photo of ds i took the other day

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