SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK PART 8 -- Pack the bags under your eyes and join us!

[RoRoMommy]

Well...I had to think of something! DH's suggestion "Eyes wide shut--the art of sleepwalking"

Ginger so sorry about your day, can you at least have a nice night in with a DVD and pizza and a glass of wine?

CM sorry for you too, that sounds like a rough night. You are doing brilliantly, hang in there

I have got the lurgy too , been feeling very sick and shivery since yesterday, though a bit better today. Still, DS surprised us by having not too awful a night -- nothing til 12 (fed) then 2.30 (screamed for half an hour so I ended up feeding again) then 6.30 and in with us til 8. Mind you, we did give Medised and Nurofen for teeth so I'm sure that had something to do with it. Night weaning is a far-off dream for us atm although I recall Amber posting a link from Moxie saying that 9 months is a bad time to try night weaning, so that's my excuse for now

Amber, bet you're excited about your trip! If I don't 'speak' to you before you go, have a fab time, we'll miss you

Yay, I'm excited. Have done pretty well at packing now despite sitting in the playground drinking coffee all afternoon with a friend and our LOs. now just got to do some baking for the flight so there is actually something LO will eat. going to go for grated veg rosti things with cheese. he defnintely eats that. right. get my baking hat on!

Amber, I want your recipe book. I believe it's called a cookbook? That shows you how rubbish I am in the kitchen...

i'm always making up recipes for ds. i still can't convince him to eat ginger's muesli bars though, amazing as they are, but i don't mind as i eat them instead

am really annoyed as we don't get a bassinet on the plane or even bulkhead seats. don't know whose fault this is, airline or travel agent, but i'm dreading 14 hours to hong kong with wiggly baby on lap. it just isn't going to work.

Oh dear, hopefully your flight won't be too full so you can find a spare seat for him?

fingers crossed.

ds did another vomit tonight - i so needed to do another load of washing!!

how are you feeling meg? i hope ds allows you some sleep tonight.

I am still a bit lurgified but not too bad, managed to eat a bit of tea tonight (having not eaten all day yesterday). DS has woken twice so far tonight but nothing too major, we have nicked Beal's idea of putting Bonjela on the dummy and seems to keep him quiet...

lol, bonjela on the dummy is a great trick!

morning. where are all you sleepy heads?

csb hope you have a good weekend.

charlie for the regression after the good stage. he can do it, and he will do it again. sending you lots of positive vibes for a sleepy ds2! smile]

ginger that you missed your special day. its a real let down when your plans get knackered. hope you can make up for it soon lovely. smile]

meg youve got the lurgy. hope you feel brighter soon

hey amber, will you send one of your grated veg rosti's with cheese please? sound yum. i hope you have a great flight and a fabbo time. we'll miss you darling (((hugs)))

roro hope you have a great weekend

well, we've had 2 sleep thrus and a lie in til 7.20am this morning. yay dd!!!
having a lazy day today, dp working
hope everyone else got something nice planned

Morning all.

Amber hope your flight goes smoothly and have a wonderful trip

Tibsy can you remind me what age you night-weaned DD again? and how you did it?

We had another dreadful night, it's got to the point where DH wants to do CC, I really don't but feel like we are running out of options. Wondered if another attempt at night-weaning might help a bit. Or if we should just accept that 9 months is a crappy time for sleep and hope it'll get better by itself soon...

hello girls!

ginger for your plans going t**ts up. very frustrating. Hope dh and dd are feeling bit better. make sure you reschedule your day with dh and re-book your mum asap

tibs Yay for dd and 2 sleep throughs. enjoy your lazy day at home

amber when do you go?

meg you're ill your poor family have been really hit hard with the winter bugs

EP for your unsettled for no god reason phase. just remember even if you do nothing it WILL pass. I'm perfect example of it!

hello to roro, CM, CBS, beal. hope i haven't missed anyone.

ds still co-sleeping through the night.
we had a lovely weekend in manchester last weekend and ds was an angel (don't know what came over him )

meg 9 months is classic regression stage and it will pass on it's own if you can ride it out. I know it's hard and it feels like it will never end but he was doing so well before he got sick. night weaning seemed liked it helped him stretch out his sleep before iirc?
thing about cc is there's no guarantee it will work anyway

Meg, it will get better...it has to! My DS is only 8 mo...and if things get worse, then they must get better. They just must! Try to hold DH off of CC for a little while, if you can. I got DH to delay DS sleeping in his own cot for a week, and as if DS knew what was happening, he had a really good week sleep-wise. Hang in there!

Tibs, for DP working today. I hope you have fun with your LOs!

Beal I hope your DF is feeling better, and that you're getting more rest.

Amber, are you almost gone?? I hope you have a fab time. We will miss you! But, they do have the internet in Australia...so maybe you'll pop in from time to time?

Tam, you're still here! Hooray!

Ginger, did you get to have any special cuddle time with DH?

Okay, my DH cannot take it anymore, I must help him clean to prepare for the arrival of my mum!

(((hugs)))

we are off tonight. think we've almost finished packing.

meg - 9 months is horrid, trust me. it will get better. you might find night weaning is easier once this stupid stage passes. xx

Hope I haven't missed you Amber. Have a great time - hope you get lots of babysitting and time to yourself! Best of luck with the flight too. We'll have to arrange a meet up in the New Year so we can regale you with stories of our wet and cold Christmases

Meg: Dh is the one with Ideas on how and where DS should be sleeping as well - thing is, I'm the one getting him to sleep and dealing with him when he wakes up, so I reckon I get the casting vote!

RoRo: any news on the job?

CM: sorry it's so tough at the moment. It's esp hard dealing with the expectation that your LO should be sleeping/settling/whatever. Did you say he was more settled during the day? DS seems to change step-wise: his days improve first, then his nights. Hope that's the case for you as well.

Hello Tam! Glad you had a good weekend.

Ginger: for your plans being spoiled. I hope you had a nice evening anyway. Would it be bad to go out with friends and leave your DH recovering in bed? Perhaps it would (but I'd be v v tempted).

Hope you had a nice day Tibs - at your sleep-ins.

Another unsettled night for us last night, but I did manage to get DS to bed by 8pm - a bit of a record for us at it's been closer to 10pm the last few nights! I'm starting a proper routine again - bath, story, feed, sleep. He had a mega nap today, 2 hours and I had to wake him up . We had a nice day as well, went to the park and the swings. DS tried the slide for the first time (the babby one) and he loved it

Would love to meet up in the New Year too (hopefully our 9-month sticky patch will have passed then!).

DH and I have come up with a plan we're both happy with. We will ride out this month by whatever means necessary (dummy, co-sleeping, boob, Medised ) then if things haven't improved by the new year, we'll give the night weaning a proper crack. If that has no success then I think we'll feel justified in having tried all the gentle routes.

Tam lovely to see you and hooray for continued sleeping success! I think if I could co-sleep full time I would fret a lot less, but our bed's just not big enough and no room for a bigger one

Amber have a lovely time if you're still here

Here's to restful nights for all of us...

Aargh... awful, awful, awful night here

Hope you are all more rested!

Poor you Meg. 9 months of sleep deprivation is hard. My friend night weaned at 9 months by patting and shushing etc instead of feeding. It worked for her. I have tried with DS2, but he cries unless I allow him to feed. I am thinking of trying him with water at night (with a bit of sugar or gripe water? ) Have you tried this?

Have tried patting, shushing, dummy, water... he spits out the dummy and pushes away water.

Last night he screeched for two hours even though I'd fed, cuddled, rocked etc... I gave up and took him to bed with me, thinking it must be comfort he was after... at which point he immediately stopped crying and started chatting and crawling round the bed, happy as larry! Then started screaming again when I went to put him back in his cot.

TBH, despite the 'go with the flow' decision of yesterday, I think after last night we are stuck between two options of either accepting long-term co-sleeping (with DH banished to the sofa) or getting tough and stopping the boob at night (which will involve crying for sure).

Does he ever have milk from a bottle or cup? Another friend night weaned by reducing her babies bottles by an oz each night.

really feel the need to pop in. dt's are 8mths and sleep is in the far distant past. Last night dt2 slept for 11 hours staright on, but dt2 was up most of the night.

They take it in turns being up and with dh on nights, ds1 (nearly 4) ended up in bed with me as I was too tired to settle him anywhere else.

Nice to read that there are loads with similar problems, especially teeth.

Meg this a technique developed by an Australian midwife called Rhonda Abrahams. Sorry I couldn't work out how to post a link so I copied the article!!:

Settling 6 ? 12 months

Lie your baby in the cot on their back. Ensure that their feet are at the end of the bed and tell them ?It?s time to sleep now?. Leave the room and wait for two minutes. You want to give you baby the chance to fall asleep by themselves. As soon as they realise that they?re alone it is likely that they will start to protest. If they don?t settle within 2 minutes, then go back in.
Roll them on their side, facing away from you. Put a hand on their shoulder and keep patting their bottom or upper thigh gently with the other hand. Do this for two minutes, repeating the words ?It?s time to sleep now? in a gentle and soothing voice. If the baby us still protesting after two minutes, then leave the room, and wait out side, this time for four minutes.
If they still haven?t settled, go back in and try settling them, this time for four minutes. Next time, it?ll be six minutes, then eight minutes and finally ten minutes.
In the unlikely event that after the ten minute session they still haven?t settled then pick them out of the cot, give them a cuddle, calm them (making sure you don?t rock them to sleep), and when they have settled repeat the process.

You will notice that your child?s crying will reach a peak, and then it will tail off, often very quickly, until they eventually settle themselves off to sleep.

As has been indicated throughout this article, the key to success is perseverance. If you follow this routine to the letter then within 3 ? 10 days your baby should be sleeping through the night, and be able to put themselves back to sleep, should they waken.

I used to pat DS1 to sleep. It stopped him feeding in the night, but I will warn you it caused problems with him waking expecting to be patted back to sleep. But I never used her technique for older babies as I have copied for you here. I know a lot of people don't like any sort of cc (nor do I in an ideal world) but if you are desperate and depressed this seems to be the gentlest form I could find.

Hello Jingle. I x-posted you!! I am finding it hard with 1 waking baby. You have my complete awestruck admiration coping with 2!!!! and an older child aswell. You appear to have trumped my 3 under 5.

He has lately developed a cows' milk allergy (comes up in hives whenever the stuff touches him) so formula not an option, and expressing takes me literally forever so feeding EBM is not really practical.

TBH I am pretty sure that the feeding at night is now for comfort, before he got ill I had managed to get him through to 5am without a feed, with a bit of crying but not really escalating (and I stayed with him shushing and patting) but in the last couple of weeks whenever I have tried holding off from using the boob (even fairly early in the night) he has screamed blue murder to a point where I give in. Now I think I might have to go through a few nights of not giving in at all. I will try giving water instead if I think he's thirsty but don't expect it to be well received!