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

Just had a peak at the 6 month sleep thread.
So depressing....

staines, thank you!! I'm deffo going to make the cheese straws, they look fab. I need to give DD something that'll fatten her up a bit
Right, off to introduce myself to the 6 monthers. hulla hope you get a better night tonight, fingers crossed [virtual coffee and triple choccy muffin]

In a few weeks I'll be on that 6 month thread, I don't dare look ...

Today, I was talking to two new mums (both babies 5 weeks old). "How's she doing, you getting any sleep at night?" I asked one.

"Oh no it's terrible," she said, "she wakes every three hours!"

I uttered a hollow laugh...

Bye chulita and good luck!

Bye Chulita (although I guess you've gone already), see you next Wednesday

We are in the midst of teething hell so DS is waking every two hours grizzling. Not that two hourly waking is anything new, but I can usually settle him with a shush-pat or a feed and at the moment nothing works, poor little sod. I've been up since 4am...

BUT I refuse to be miserable; the sun is shining and one of my friends has just found out she's pregnant so all is happy in the feral household!

Ooh, hadn't thought of cheese straws for BLWing DS. Please may I have the recipe too Staines?

Hulla re the nappies (although you might have sorted it by now) we use washables but have Pampers 12 hours for emergencies (on the recommendation of a friend) which have served us well when I've had to use them.

Hi everyone,
So last night was about to turn into a total nightmare with DS tossing and turning and waking up for no apparent reason every hour and a half. It was about 1am when my mother realised that I was teetering perilously close to the end of my tether and banished me to the spare room, promising to bring DS to me when he needed a feed.
He slept soundly with her for FOUR hours . I mean, the kid didn't move, which is extraordinary considering he's just started rolling over and gets stuck on his front at least a million times a night. My mother is convinced that he smells my milk which acts as a distraction for him... a bit like sleeping in a restaurant. It could be a coincidence, but I am SOLD and we are SOOOOOOO moving out of his room when we get home!
Just thought I'd share it with y'all.

Hi FG - afraid i don't have yummy cheese straw recipe, i sent chulita (or amazon did) a BLW recipe book in return for anti cat pee stuff she very kindly posted to me - i'm guessing cheese straws are in there. chulita - it looks like we won't let you go just yet, come back and tell us about cheese straws!!!

quick update, have been shovelling various incarnations of baby rice into ds (with nana, with pear, with sweet potato etc etc) and am cautiously optimistic. last night i think ds woke at 12 for a whinge and went straight back to sleep - i think - and didn't eat until 3am. unheard of from 6.30....if i'm right! something has to change soon, i think i'm cracking up!

Cheese Straws-
100g/4oz plain or wholemeal flour
50g/2oz butter
75g/3oz cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg, beaten
Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6.
Mix flour and butter til they resemble breadcrumbs. Stir in cheese and egg to form a dough. Roll out to a thickness of 1cm and cut into fingers. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10 mins.
Cool on a wire rack. (Can be frozen for up to 6mths)

Just a warning, DD liked them but DH has eaten most of them, they're quite moreish!

superd - DH took DD every now and then when she was really little and it did make a huge difference. I think as mums we're just too distracting!
Hooray for baby rice!! Hope baby staines keeps it up

Hello all. We are currently growing teeth and the wonder of Calpol has meant that I've actually had a couple of four hour stretches for the last couple of nights. I feel spoiled rotten!

Ta for the recipe Chulita I am a demon for the cheese straws so will have to get DH to hide them from me!

Morning all,

Hey FG, thanks for that tip. I am going to give those pampers a try, possibly in a bigger size. DD now only poos once every couple of days but when she does there is tonnes of the bloody stuff!

Wow, I never thought I'd look forward to teething! DD is now biting my nipples when feeding. They are so sore! I wonder if it is teething but she doesn't have many of the other symptoms (red cheeks, pain etc).

I have realised that I am now waking everytime she so much as turns her head (and then sitting up and checking on her). I can usually bounce her Amby and keep her asleep for about 3 hours (first stretch) but I am up so much bouncing her bed that I am exhausted! Aaaargh!! So I like Superd's suggestion, I think DH wakes DD with his snoring. Its no wonder I get no sleep. However, DD's room is not on the same floor as ours and I don't want to be climbing stairs 3 times a night. I don't think she'll be in her own room for months.

We don't start weaning for another 8 weeks yet but those cheese straws sounds yummy. I might make them anyway...get them perfected by the time DD is on solids!

Last night I got a five hour stretch.

Without calpol.

Clearly his new teeth are enabling him to eat more which is aiding sleep! Hurrah for teeth! Bring on the molars!

It would probably have been longer if I hadn't had boobs like boulders by 3.30am and woken DS by wriggling about trying to get comfy. It's been about a week since he's spent longer than an hour or two in bed with me and we are discussing moving him into his room in a couple of weeks (once we've cleared all the crap out of it).

For the first time in 6 months, I haven't been ready to pass out with tiredness by 3pm. It feels weeeird!

I'm whispering too - last night I got a 6 hour plus stretch!! Well actually she did wake once but really soon after she'd gone to bed so I wasn't asleep. She fed at 1.30, 4.30 and woke at 7 with NO OTHER wakings!!!!! I was so shocked by the amount of sleep that I couldn't get back to sleep at 4.30 but hey.... Now will it ever happen again??

Daytime naps are turning into a right nightmare though. one day she seems knackered after 2 hours play, the next she has a proper meltdown if I put her down at roughly the same time. Any one else....?

Oh and a random question as lots of you seem also to be approaching BLW time (DD is 23 weeks) - can your little ones sit up (supported or otherwise) yet? DD is not very keen on the idea and I'm wondering what I'm supposed to do if she's still the same at 26 weeks?

Check you two out with your long stretches of sleep!

FG - did you have another good night? Maybe you're both coming out the other side of this?

I had quite a good night, although not in comparison to you two.

After superd talking about moving ds into his own room I decided the best I could do was to try and minimise dd waking us and us waking dd. So, my lovely (but ruffly-noisy) feather duvet has been replaced with a normal one. So thats the memory foam mattress and the comfy duvet both in the spare room [heartbroken emoticon]. I also moved the Amby next to my feet rather than next to my head.

So my night went like this: 8.30pm finally asleep for the night, feeds at 12.40am, 2.20am & 3.20am (still seemed hungry), 5.15 and then up for the day (with DH) at 6am. I know that doesn't sound great but I wasn't awake inbetween bouncing the everytime she sighed. She does make noise in her sleep and I think having her right next to me made me wake everytime and panic that she was waking so I'd bounce her when she didn't need it. I seem to remember her waking once, whimpering a bit and then going back to sleep. If she'd been next to me I'd have been bouncing the Amby and waking us all up.

So today I feel rested.

Naptimes are a nightmare Kiwi. I tend to cheat and when DD starts yawning I offer her the boob. More often than not she takes it and goes to sleep. If she's in the sling she just dozes off when she's tired but I'd say 9 times out of 10 (including when she'll suckle to sleep) she cries before napping. Its getting better and she's napping on the sofa next to me now - a few weeks ago she'd have cried for an hour, fallen asleep suckling and then woken up if I'd tried to move her off my knee. Its small progress. She only cries for a few minutes now and I can lie her on the sofa and occassionally get her back in the Amby.

I am waiting for her highchair to be delivered today in readiness for BLW at 26 weeks! DD has a strong neck but is far from sitting up unaided (18 weeks) so I'm not much help I'm afraid. I'd be interested to hear what others have to say though.

Enjoy the lovely sunny weather ladies!

Hello can I join you fellow nocturnal sufferers for a good old moan?
I have been in denial for some time but it's time to face it I have another crap sleeper..(ds1, now nearly 5, was/is also crap)

Ds2 is 23 weeks and like some others on this thread doesn't have much to regress from. He has only slept for 5 hour stetches on 2 seperate occaisions and that was a long time ago...a good night is 4 wakes but this is rare too it's been more like 6 or more wakes a night for a few weeks now. Unfortunately he has had cold after cold and chicken pox (curtesy of ds1 who started school this year) and eczema on his head, which I don't think has helped his sleep at all..at the moment he looks like he has got teeth coming but they are taking their to pop out..aaah

I don't think it's hunger waking him as he often refuses the breast if I offer it too much (which is a shock as ds1 never turned it down!!). Sometimes I think it's wind as when I push his legs up big farts come out!But I really thought he would have grown out of this by now..?

I am gutted as I am so tired it's difficult to be positive and as I said I already had a crap sleeper for years so was hoping I would get more of a break this time....!Sorry for moaning but none of my friends have sleepers as bad as mine so don't really understand how hideous it is.....

Anyway it sadly comforting to know I am not the only one out there going through this...

hello again! Sorry for my fleeting appearance then disappearance...the day after I posted our phone line and internet packed up and I have only just got reconnected!
dd2 did her best ever night last night - went down at 7pm and only woke at 12.45 and 3.45 then up at 6.30 for the day! I couldn't believe it! This is unheard of! I will of course expect that every night now!!
kiwi my dd2 is 24 weeks and not sitting unaided. I have started giving her a few mouthfuls of puree over the last week and have sat her in a bumbo to do this. I get the impression if I waited until she sat alone and could swallow lumps we would wait until Christmas! She loves the pureed veg - but I'm assuming that her night last night is entirely unrelated to a few blobs of veg going in!
She's just having a nap now so I'd better grab some lunch...
bye for now

quick post - as we are on holiday in st ives and i'm sad enough to still indulge my mn addiction - ds has been in his high chair but still can't sit unaided and it works a treat. kind of sad in a way, he looks so much more grown up. but he definitely likes it.

Oh my highchair arrived too. Its a Chicco Polly Magic so can be used from newborn. 18 week old DD is doing fine in it (for short periods anyway). I am hoping she will sit in it at the table while we eat.

I am also going to the library to order "The Wonder Weeks: Your Baby's Eight Great Fussy Phases.

Someone photocopied me the chart and apparently 14 ish weeks to 19 ish weeks is a big fussy phase. As is 22.5 weeks - 26.5 weeks. Something to do with developmental leaps. Has anyone else read it?

Enjoy your hols staines - gorgeous weather!!

p.s. Hi traceface - glad you had a good night.

Welcome bluebunny! Don't apologise for moaning - I think its why the thread was started!

p.s. Hi traceface - glad you had a good night.

Welcome bluebunny! Don't apologise for moaning - I think its why the thread was started!

oh bugger

hullabalulu I don't have that book but I do have the "chart" from it photocopied. 14.5 to 19.5 weeks is indeed supposed to be a fussy phase (roughly of course, not exactly and of course not all babies.. though DD has followed the pattern exactly so far!)

Then you get sunshine to 22.5 weeks and another storm. Oh dear, that's where we are!

But did you get the sunshine? I need hope because DD is being such a miserable baby at the moment. She has slept and fed today with a couple of hours of whinging playing. I am hoping the book tells you how to handle the storms!

Ooh, Staines I live just up the road from where you're holidaying. Gooorrrgeous weather we're having eh?

DS was throughly crap last night so obviously I didn't whisper quietly enough. He did a 4.5hr stretch from 7.30-12.00 which was bugger all use as I went to bed at 11.00pm anyway. He then woke up every 2 hours becasue he was thirsty (v hot here in Cornwall!) and to crown it all, did a MONSTER poo at 5.30am. So the first thing I did this morning was sit him in the kitchen sink to clean him off. Lovely way to start the day.

Kiwi, DS only started sitting up by himself in the last week or so (he's 26 weeks on Weds); it was a fairly sudden thing (or I just didn't notice before). And he only does a few minutes before wobbling over. He's fine in our high chair which is horrible tat that was offloaded onto given to us. It swamps him but he soldiers on, the little trooper.

We have been using the bumbo but it's getting to the point where I have to squish his legs into the holes so we did our first sitting-at-the-table-meal-as-a-family tonight (which DH spoilt by whinging about the heat and saying he felt ill )

Hello bluebunny. Moan as much as you like; noone in RL understands, listens, cares or offers useful advice IME. At least you'll get sympathy from MN!

Morning ladies..

Thanks Hullabalulu and feralgirl for being sympathetic to my moaning!

I actually felt a bit brighter this morn purely because I got a 2 1/2 hour stretch followed by a 2 hour stretch in the middle of the night..I know this is pretty poor by most peoples standards but is better than it has been round these parts for a while! Plus it is a beautiful day here and the sea is v blue and sparkling which helps..

Kiwi, just realised my ds is same age as yr dd (his birthday is 20th dec)..my ds can only sit up supported on my lap or in his chair..(his legs also too fat for a bumbo!)..I am going to start fingerfoods and some baby rice in a couple of weeks..although I am a bit worried that solids may make him even windier..oh well we can but try..!