Support thread for those who were under the misguided illusion that their DC would sleep through by six mo - come and join!

[arthymum]

Did you assume that your DC would be sleeping through by the time they were 6 mo - and now you've hit the milestone you realise you were wrong, wrong, wrong as you stagger out of bed 1, 2, 3 times a night?

Do you sometimes can't help but wonder if you'd done things differently (BF/FF/stuck with the dreamfeed/co-slept/put them in their own cot/followed a GF routine/listened to your MIL ) you'd be getting more sleep?

Do you sometimes dread meeting up with other mums with perfect sleepers (especially when said babies are way younger and tinier than yours)?

Are you in a permanent state of confusion and doubt about whether to 'try' something or not (CC, ssh-patt, PUPD, NCSS etc.) but feel it's never the right time (teething, cold, too young) and not sure anyway whether you have the bottle/energy to see it through?

Do you hold out faint hopes that they'll sleep better when they're on solids/when the teeth come through/when they're another pound heavier/when they're in the new gro-bag/when they're on more solids - and each time - wrong again?

Do you mostly cope okay but every now and then feel tired and miserable and sorry for yourself and burst into tears at the postman or get into a petulant fight in Sainsbury's?

Do you secretly fear that you'll be on here in 3 years time, posting about the fact that you haven't slept for nearly 4 years?

Then come and join me! I've seen you lurking on other threads but feel that we need a place to congregate. Share your tears, tantrums, triumphs and tips - and hopefully one by one, we can all eventually disappear off the thread and into the land of nod....

Isitmeor, I was still on mat leave so I'd just feed him lying down in my bed and we'd curl up and have a lovely kip together for a couple of hours. If he woke up then I'd just feed him back to sleep again.

Now that I'm back at work if his naps have gone a bit haywire during the week then I do the same at the weekend and he's fine by Monday. I'm usually ready to do some good daytime sleeping by the end of a busy week teaching!

JGM, DS used to do 3 x 2 hour naps a day until we realised that he was thinking that his 3rd nap was bedtime and we were having to wake up a very grumpy baby to get him fed and bathed and back to bed. We moved his bedtime forward from about 8pmish to 6.30ish and he cut his third nap out no trouble.

Oh, superd, I didn't see your post. Sorry you're having such a hideous time.

This might not be what you want to hear but it took DS at least a couple of months to get from being able to self-settle for his naps to being able to do it at night. He can do it now though. It'll happen, promise!

JGM DD goes to bed at 5:30pm, sounds early but it works for her. She's 11mths and has 2 naps. Someone in the dim and distant past told me that it's best not to let them nap after about 4pm because it throws them off bedtime. Often DD is extremely hard work between 2pm and bedtime but she does go to sleep pretty quickly at bedtime. Maybe you could try dropping the last nap and bringing bedtime forward like feral suggested?
superd I really hope things get better for you, sounds awful!

oh and no, DD isn't back on BM - that was an act of desperation on my part to try and get her to sleep. It's the first "feed" she'd had in about a week - I've resigned myself to the fact that she's self-weaned, grr! [bottle-hating emoticon]
disclaimer: I have no problem with bottles/formula, I just hate the faff of cleaning/sterilising/boiling water/letting it cool/mixing/shaking/swapping lids/cooling again/feeding/rinsing and repeat...argh!

I feel your pain superdanovi. I was sobbing the other day when I accidentally woke ds up part way into his afternoon nap.

Thanks feralgirl - sleeping lying down hasn't seemed to be working its old magic when I tried it a week or so ago. We had a nice cuddle one day, but no sign of sleep. Thought it was worth an ask in case I was missing something.

Can't decide whether most recent sleep/nap upsets are due to a) teething, b)constipation, c) cold or d) all of the above. Or e) nothing in particular.

Well well last night DD slept from 9.45 til 6.15 this morning! I dropped the last nap and got her into bed by 6.15. Have done similar tonight so we'll see what happens. Thanks for advice ladies. Am hoping that we are getting back into a routine since our holiday and now the cold has gone we're just gonna have to deal with teething. Hope you all have reasonable nights.

our thread is nearly done! i had a moment of panic when i couldn't find it and thought everyone had gone off and left me.
things are temporarily improved in the staines massif - don't let ds hear me saying that.
he slept in his own room last night from 7 to 6.30. ohhhhh happy day. of course, he woke at 3.30 for a feed and i couldn't go back to sleep, but i am starting to believe that it just might happen for us. i am sorry, i don't wish to be one of the smugs that i've been hating for the last 10 months. and i reserve the right to reappear sporadically to moan about sensory hallucination, and hating my dh as soon as the next load of teeth appear, but what a relief to find out that my ds can sleep for longer than 3 hours in a row. and thanks to this support thread for helping me feel that i'm not alone, and i don't have to leave him to cry if i don't want to.

i've had two glasses of wine btw, so am a bit gushy. mwah.

JGM and staines obviously really pleased for you both but very very jealous . Hope it lasts for you both.

Just realised staines still had to do 3.30 feed. But still, not bad, not bad at all.

Ahh, it's great to hear some people having good night's kip.

I'm not so lucky so I'm not going anywhere for a bit; DS woke at 3.30 last night and screamed bloody murder for two whole hours until I took him into bed with me and fed him back to sleep.

He's being a right little bugger about sleep of any description at the moment - presumably cutting teeth - but it's tres wearing, especially when I've dosed him to stop the pain but he carries on crying nonetheless.

It's all a phase, these things shall pass.

I took the liberty of starting a new thread as this one is almost full.

Too bad we still need this support group!

Here is the new thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/851829-Misguided-Illusion-Part-II-Baby-still-not-sleeping-through-by?rnd= 1256828408450

Ooh, am I the last one then?

Oh you've just encapulated how I feel (if I've spelt that right as I can hardly remember how to speak let alone write!). We've just gone through the 7 and a half month marker and still no sign of a good nights sleep. I had to spend the weekend listerning to a friends 'oh he goes down at 7 and sleeps right through every night...' I wanted to put her in a head lock!