4-5 month olds sleep club, - come and join..........

[SnowlightMcKenzie]

Hiya,

There have been so many threads lately about babies who were beginning to sleep better, but suddenly hitting this regression to newborn hell.

So I thought I would start a support thread for us all to compete whinge about how little sleep we are all getting, and tips on how to cope.

Baby Starlight was up just twice last night, but the previous night it was 6 times, and because of that I kept putting off going to bed at all last night, so even though it wasn't too bad, I still had hardly any sleep

smurfette - we'll all join you on that one! I'd kill for more than an hour's sleep in a row...

dd did her farting thing again only at 11, wouldn't settle until 12, then woke again at 2. Then at 4 nneding a change, peed over the mat and her clothes so by the time she'd been re-changed and dressed, was all playful but wouldn't go back to sleep, turned into crying and I took her downstairs* and eventually got her off at 6am. Then she woke again at 7

• spare bed has been covered in stuff dh is meant to be tidying away for, ooh about 2 months now. He's got to sleep for work, so I have to take dd out of the bedroom...

Are we allowed to have a negative whinge on this thread? cos dd was in bed at 6, fed again at 8 then slept til 2 and didn't wake up again til half 6 She never got the whole 4-5 month regression, until 19 wks she'd NEVER slept longer than 3 hours at a time and that was once in a blue moon. Since about 19 weeks she has a couple of good nights a week and even her bad nights are only maybe 3 wake up sessions...shouldn't have written that, I'll have the night from hell tonight!!

Hi Superdanovi and Hanaflower (sorry hana, missed your post yesterday, wasn't ignoring you deliberately) and hello everyone else too.

Chulita, I'm saying nothing to your post re last night other than

Jumpjockey, that sounds hideous. One of those nights where you're tempted to just get in the car by yourself, drive as far away from the house as possible and sleep in a layby somewhere, no?

Well, so much for my one lovely sleep on Monday night; last night was HELL! Up for a feed every two hours until 4.30 and then two hours of wide-awake-rolling-around-on-the-bed-laughing. One more hour of sleep then pinging awake at 7.30. Clearly we're having a growth spurt. Serves me right for dishing out advice and feeling pleased with myself.

Spent god knows how long trying to get the little sod DS to nap on his back in his crib today but it all just ended in tears (me and him).

I had a blocked milk duct today too so have been in bloody agony (although I think I've sorted it now).

Feeling v for myself!

jump jockey - can you throw tidy away your dh's stuff so at least there is another bed one of you can get away to? i find it much more stressful when dh is there and ds is fussing / laughing / kicking me repeatedly in the stomach.

I have a confession to make - after repeated suggestions by a close friend last night i gave ds 3.5 oz of formula in the hope that it would help him sleep through. it's ridiculous - i have no issue with other mums ff ing -whatever works for you etc etc, but i felt so glum at giving him formula - i am sure i'm being precious. but........after a df of half ff and half bf at 10.30 he woke at 2.30, had a feed, think he fell asleep on the boob, as did i, woke again briefly at 4.30 and woke properly at 6. and had a nap at 7.30. it sounds crap written down, but it is a vast improvement. still not sure if i will give formula again tonight.....

Hello again all. Fg, sorry to hear about how rubbish things are. We've had a completely dreadful 24 hours too - highlights of which include a 4:30am waking, massive row with DH at 5:00 and a deafening fire alarm going off in the building just as DS had settled for his morning nap. Poor thing was so scared that he didn't nap for the rest of the day. Needless to say, I have been a tearful, bathrobe-clad, unshowered, catatonic mess all day.

Here's to a better night to everyone out there!

jumpjockey that sounds awful. I go to bed every night with a sense of dread that it's going to be one of those nights.

fg it's so harsh that we get lulled into thinking we might have turned the corner and then our hopes are dashed again.

staines confession.....I have resorted to giving some formula too . He has been having a bottle of formula to settle for the last week. Seems to have helped a bit, particularly with settling for the 1st part of the night. I'm trying not to let it bother me too much (but it does a bit).

superdanovi sounds like you've had a really rough day. Hope you get some sleep tonight.

It does help knowing that I'm not the only one going through all of this. Thanks everyone.

Ahh, those horrible arguments in the miserable grey dawn light. We've had a fair few of those too. DH and I threatened each other with divorce this week which is a new all time low. I don't think we meant it though...

Superd, I'm heartened by the fact that I'm not the only one who spent the day in a dressing gown. Does yours have two day old sick stains on it too?

Staines I'm giving it until the end of this month and then DS is going to have to start having some FFs to get him used to it before I go back to work in July. I'm so despondent about the idea it makes me want to cry just thinking about it so I sort of understand how you feel. I have to say, reading what you said about last night almost tempts me to start early though. We'll see how desperate I feel after a couple more weeks of no sleep!

better night here last night, after ds rejected the formula, so am at a loss to think why....i guess we're all just in the same stage of one step forward, two steps back, and am starting to think maybe it makes no difference what we do! though ds did have more naps yesterday.....

fg - i'm supposed to be going back to work on 23rd june. am so - and it's only 3 days a week in the office! had been hoping that i could manage feeding him ebm and some solids and keep up the bfing in mornings and evenings.....how naive am i!?

superd and fg i have an upstairs and a downstairs dressing gown (get me!) - they've both got sick on, no idea how old!

Hi everyone, thanks feralgirl for the link to this thread

I started another thread on DD's sleep here

My sister lent me a copy of 'The Baby Whisperer' so we are planning on trying her pick up/put down method as it seems a good compromise. I think we may try it on Saturday night so DH can do the first night as he is less likely to give in than me

Had a bad night last night. DD went to bed at 7pm then woke at 7.30 to finish her bottle. She went straight back to sleep but woke again at 10 and we were able to settle her back down quite quickly. She then woke at 1 so I brought her into our room and she basically catnapped on and off with a period of being awake for a couple of hours. I think she had tummy ache as she kept farting. She then woke up for good at 6.30

Someone has stolen baby Chulita and replaced her with a sleeping beauty...I can't believe the way she's going at the mo, she must be building up for a growth burst or something. I got up once last night and actually got a lie-in til half 7!! Where's my child gone??
We're off for a weekend at the seaside tomorrow though so I have a feeling this is all going to pot; be ready for a good old whinge session from moi Sunday afternoon!!

Hana DH was laid on the other side of me doing it too, not sure if they were having a competition I was seriously considering sleeping on the settee Fingers crossed here for you too

DD is tucked up in bed, am hoping she stays there

Hello everyone,
Fg and Staines... am thrilled to know that my penchant for posset covered dressing gowns is shared by others. Together with my grey skin and red eyes, I am quite the oil painting these days .
Anyway, last night was a bit better, not because DS did anything differently, but because DH banished me to the spare room, bringing DS over for feeding, and dealing with everything else himself. Totally rocked my world and I woke up this morning feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed... God, I actually showered, took DS to a museum and went to visit a friend!
Phee, good luck with the pu/pd which is something we're considering as well, although I'm completely terrified. Let us know how it goes!
Hope the night is a peaceful one for us all!

superd Cottage cheese dressing gown is the latest thing in my neck of the woods.

sure i'm living in a fool's paradise, i feel optimistic for tonight. last night ds had a df at 11, fed at 3.30, went BACK IN HIS OWN COT without murmur (first time in a long time) til 6, had another feed and then we slept together til 7. i remember one night when ds was 12 weeks exactly and he slept from midnight to 7 am. i thought i'd cracked it! maybe that will happen again by the time he's 5!

at our dressing gowns.

Superd I am tres about your DH. Mine is rubbish at night. I would rather be exhausted than have to cope with his foulness when he can't settle DS within five mins. He gets so stressed and irritable that it just winds DS up and makes it worse. Then I get pissed off and we all end up getting no sleep at all!

Glad that we all seemed to have a reasonable night last night (except poor Phee ).

DS only spent an hour and a bit screaming at me for no good reason last night. I eventually hauled him in really close to me and pretty much gagged him with my boob which bought me two and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Staines I had a few of those amazing nights back in ye olden dayes when DS was five weeks. He did 10.30 - 5.30 and my god did we think we were bloody brilliant. Then he had a growth spurt and that was that.

Here's to tonight, and hoping that all of our DCs can follow baby Chulita's golden example!

i was living in a fool's paradise! first off dh woke ds at 10pm by talking to me down the stairs too loud - i was talking back, but as i hissed furiously, i was doing it in a low tone. then - get this - dh suggested i 'need to get ds into a sleep routine'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dh very unpopular this morning. apparently i should have known this was not a criticism, but the fact i was wound up shows that i am being 'precious'. hmmmmmmmm. dh to sleep in spare room for foreseeable future methinks.

an average night for ds and i. woke at 1.30 and 4.30 and wide awake by 6 and no amount of pillows over head would make him go away. hoping for a nap soon and then maybe i'll get out of my dressing gown. hope everyone else fared well!

Staines What is it with men's volume controls? My DH could wake the dead just moving around the house!

He's not as bad as my mum though, deaf old bat!

We have an en suite toilet and I told DP off one night for peeing too loud!!

you guys just made me when i really thought i was ready to pass out! going to bed now, no dream feed, just going to see what happens....good luck to everyone!

I seem to be constantly telling DP to be quiet sometimes. He always says "I forget..." and I scream say to him "Well you wouldn't if you were the one spending an hour getting DS back to sleep!!!"

Been having some luck with baby smurf (I have just really jinxed myself haven't I!). For the last 4 nights, he has had 1 feed (after a DF) at around 2-3am and that's it. He's been waking at 6.30-7am too.

I don't know if it's a coincidence but he does seem to have settled since having formula at bedtime and for the last 2 days, he's had a little baby rice at teatime too. He took that really well with very little spitting out which has made me think that although he's 22 weeks, he was ready.

The naps have gone to hell though!!! Total screamathons again!

Afteroon folks

Been at my parents' house and dd was terrible. Having thought we were gradually improving she started refusing to sleep for even a full hour at a time again She did one ok night "just" waking every 2 hours and going back to sleep again but ds timed night terrors for right in between each and every one of dd's wakings

She had been looking like she was settling better, a couple of times she stirred and resettled herself and once I managed ot put her back down awake after a feed and she stayed asleep, blinking miracle that was but the past couple of nights she has been a nightmare to settle and is getting really hard to put down for naps too. Had been giving a finger to suck rather than a dummy to do the NCSS dummy removal thing as is easier to feel when the sucking is slowing so now she won't take a dummy and insists on sucking a finger to sleep

Still, last night, first night back home she did

7 sleep
9.15 feed
11.30 feed
1 feed
2.15 feed
3.30 resettle
6.00 feed
7 up for the day

am impressed at the 2.15 to 6 without feeding

Hey guys, I've been away from this thread for a while because DD was getting a bit better but last night was a nightmare - fed at 7, woke about 4 times, fed again at 11, woke at 12, went back to sleep after some effort then woke screaming at 1 and didn't go back to sleep until 3 after 2 hours of yelling - I think with trapped wind (a reccurent problem - is there anything I can do??) and then fed again. Was ok after that - slept for a few hours but my head hurts.

I swear EVERYONE I know outside of MN-ers has babies who sleep at the very least in 4 hour stretches.

I really wouldn't mind if DD fed every 3 hours through the night if she slept in between like she used to. But now it's the endless resettling, waking with wind etc etc that's getting to me.

Incidentally I picked up the Baby Whisperer book for a read today. The sentence that depressed me most was the one about at 4 months (DD is 20 weeks) "you should be thinking of dropping the night feed".

THE night feed? Just one????

I bloody wish

Good evening Ladies,
So... The night before last was a first. DS was all sweetness and light and slept for a mammoth 7pm-4am stretch! Not even a whimper. So stupified was I at this impeccable behaviour that I was convinced that something was wrong and compulsively checked on him every 10 minutes from 1am. Complete insanity and I acutally had one of the worst nights yet. Fool.
Anyway, it all went a bit pear-shaped last night as DS developped a rather nasty cough which kept waking him (and me) up (the poor little tot hacks like a old man with a lifelong 20-a-day Woodbines habit). That's what you get for not making hay while the sun shines.
kiwi, I share your frustration. I have yet to read a book that has NOT said that babies "should" be sleeping though the night at 4 months (DS is 18 weeks). I find it infuriating! The last thing an already desperate situation needs is that kind of pressure! Having said that though, I wonder where all the posters on this thread are in real life, as I have yet to meet a mother with the same issues as I do. Seriously, if I meet one more smug mother boasting about her baby's perfect sleep habits, I swear I will spontaneously combust.
By the way, regarding your LO's wind problems, have you tried weak fennel tea? Sounds weird, and I have to say that I haven't tried it, but have heard that it is quite the miracle cure.
fg and staines... Am thrilled to report that dressing gown was actually washed today!
Sleep well everyone!

Kiwi, as Superd says, fennel is great for wind; it's what old fashioned gripe water's made from which works like a charm for DS who sometimes gets a bit trapped windy after his bath (apparently doesn't work for everyone though).

I've stopped reading baby books; they piss me off in so many ways. Even NCSS is beginning to wind me up now because I've been doing everything she says for about two months and it's made no discernible difference.

I took DS into my work this week, next time I introduce him to new people I'm just going to have a T-shirt made up in advance that says:

"NO, MY BABY DOES NOT SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT YET".

I'm soooo bored of it now. It's the first thing that people ask and I just know they're judging and thinking that I'm one of those idiots who has no bed-time routine.

After an hour and a half of screaming from 4.30-6.00 this morning I was just about to get up and add baby rice to the shopping list. Then at breakfast I let DS gum away at some of my toast with mashed banana and he threw it all straight back up again so I guess that shows me that he's not ready for weaning yet. Hey ho...