The no sleep club - young babies

[Cindy1802]

Anyone want to join? For those with young babies who are struggling with sleep! Share tips, what's worked for you, and just generally a place to vent!

My LB is 11 weeks and we are lucky to get 2 hour stretches at night. He does one longer 2 hour stretch when he first goes down, but after that he is up every 45-90 mins.

He is EBF, and completely refuses bottles. HV has always said to feed on demand and follow babies cues, but I am wondering if he is just snacking all day and therefore needs/wants so much milk at night. So today I am trying to hold off feeding until at least 2.5 hours before feeding to see if that makes a difference!

(He does actually have suspected CMPA and silent reflux which could be the cause and I'm also working through helping him with those symptoms, but I'm desperate for sleep that I'm willing to try anything else to help get longer stretches!)

I'm sure you guys have already tried this but my midwife recommended when breastfeeding at night. Offer the first side, make sure baby drains it and then change their nappy so that they are more awake for the other side. Then make sure you offer and drain the other side too, this 'should' hopefully ensure baby has a fuller tummy and will go for a longer stretch.

Issue is, he doesn't even do a long stretch at beginning of the night 🤣 other day I fed him at 5, DH gave him a 5oz bottle of expressed milk at 7pm, 8:30 he had 2oz expressed milk and breastfeed from both sides and he was still awake by 11pm after going down at 9 😅 if i woke him up more in night I'd have a grumpy baby and I'd also wake myself up so worried I'd not get back to sleep myself

Mine is in a vest, sleepsuit/babygrow, 2.5tog and the thermostat is 18.5 degrees. When I turned it down gradually to 17 and the room definitely felt cool, baby hands were like icicles, and night wakings increased. I'd try it and see!

Interesting, unfortunately style of house makes maintaining that high at night undoable. Not sure how to make him any warmer. His hands are always icicles as they're always covered in his saliva as they're always in his mouth being chewed 😅

Could you try and isolate just the one room to warm up? We have a very old drafty 1890s house, it's literally just our bedroom that is heated at night. My 3yo is a hot bod sleeps better in their room if it's cool! Draft excluders and thick thermal curtains in the rest of the house!

If not there are some 3.5 tog sleeping bags on the market, might be some on Vinted?

@TulipVictory hmm interesting point. I have actually been aiming for the opposite - thinking the smaller the feed, the less he will be reliant on it and his body will get used to less milk and hopefully the feed will eventually get pushed back. A little like how you would night wean an older baby - with my first we gradually reduced his feed by an oz every few nights until he stopped waking up for it. But totally see your argument for making it a bigger feed. Might try it!

@FlyingHighFlyingLow very much a mixed bag over here. Gaviscon is defo helping. We had our best ever night 2 nights ago, he did a 4 hour, then a 3 hour, then a 2 hour - and he was still in his own bed by 7am which was literally a first. But last night was awful again, we were up before midnight again and never managed a 2 hour stretch the whole night - he was up at 530 for one feed and my 3YO got up at 6 while I was still awake with baby, so my day started then - so I'm feeling like a zombie again today. But I'm feeling more positive about everything that we at least have some good nights, which didn't exist only a week ago.

Did you get anywhere with your HV/GP for the silent reflux?

Definitely try it @Cindy1802. The fuller their tummy, the less likely they are going to wake up hungry. I can see your previous rationale but they need the milk at night at this stage. Let me know how you get on ☺️

Can I join my 13 month old still doesn't sleep 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

How's everyone getting on?

After HV realised he'd dropped from 75th to 25th centile for weight, we got urgent appointment. Infant gaviscon and me going dairy free. First dose of gaviscon and he conked out for 3 hours, got very mad if tried to wake him. Day 3 he slept so soundly we both were checking on him, and he went from waking 7 times a night to only 3! Last night cosleeping I woke up at one point because I felt pulling to find he'd latched himself in his sleep 😂 Only been a few days but he's been a much happier baby for past two days. Hopefully it continues and isn't just a fluke! 15 weeks so maybe stabilise right in time for 4 month regression 😂

@FlyingHighFlyingLow Goong from 7 wake ups to 3 is amazing!
I’ve had a similar experience here, as DD also dropped from 75th to 25th centile due to reflux vomiting. She is now on Gaviscon instant, alongside continuing to keep her upright after feeds. She seems to be settling a lot more now and she did a 4 hour stretch last night! She’s also started to put more weight on, and was originally only gaining around 2/3oz a week but this week gained 7 which I’m so pleased about.

Glad the gaviscon is working @FlyingHighFlyingLow , long may it continue 🤞

This kid is going to break me. Things got better for a while, we even had our best ever nights at the beginning of this week (a 5 hour stretch then a 3 hour), so I was feeling very optimistic. We're now back to square bloody 1. Things went downhill after his best ever night, tonight being the worse. His longest stretch was 2 hour and then we've seen every hour since then. I've not fed him every time, I've got up to resettle him but I'm still awake just as much 😭😭 he's only turned 3 months less than a week ago, so can't be the regression already surely?!

Welcome to the '3-4 month shit show'. It may settle just in time for the 4 month regression 😂 mine went into in just before 11 weeks. Was sleeping 3 hour stretches, went to 45 mins at a time for 2 weeks then we got some 90 min stretches mixed in!

How's everyone doing? Things are no better over here, they improved marginally when we first got gaviscon but he's back to only sleeping 1 hour at a time. I've actually bought a sleep course (non CIO) which I'm hoping to watch this weekend while I have another pair of hands at home to help entertain the 3YO!

It got better after gaviscon, down to 3 wakes a night. Then hit 4 months and all went to hell. Back to every 2 hours but still a much happier baby. How is sleep course going?

The 4 month sleep regression has hit us hard, it’s all gone completely down hill! DD was doing so well and starting to sleep longer stretches, then a few days before she turned 4 months she was walking up very upset every 45 minutes. She now won’t let us put her down at all , every time we do she immediately wakes up and all hell breaks loose 😩

All the advice suggests putting them down drowsy but awake (absolutely hate that phrase!) but that simply doesn’t work - she just gets so upset and starts sobbing and wailing. I always thought my toddler was a bad sleeper, but the 4 month sleep regression didn’t hit her this bad, and I could always put her down in the cot no matter how many times she woke in the night. Getting baby to sleep is also taking ridiculously long these days, where it used to only take a few minutes. Anyone else having similar issues? Any tips?

I hope I'm not jinxing things by saying this, but the sleep course is going well, we've seen some clear improvements. We're down to 2 feeds a night, and he's allowing me to settle him outside of those 2 feeds. His first stretch of sleep is starting to get longer too, he did his first 6 hour stretch this week 🤯🤯 (mind you he hasn't done it again, but celebrate the small wins and all that 🤣)

Oh my god what sleep course is this?!?!

The CALM approach by Hannah Love. I think she has some free resources but i jumped in with both feet and bought the full sleep course at 4am on a particularly bad night 🤣🤣 Its non CIO, we don't leave his side but teach him to let us settle him in other ways than feeding, then gradually teach him to settle himself (we've not got that far yet so who knows how that will go). A big game changer for us was moving from feeding on demand to a 3 hour schedule, which has given me the confidence that I can resettle him at night if it's less than 3 hours and that I'm not starving him, considering he is absolutely fine on going without feeds for that long during the day.