At the end of my tether and SO tired!!

[vickie]

Hi everyone...Im new to the discussion and am desperate for some advice. Emily is 7 and a half weeks old...she's always slept from 7pm to 7am but recently has had a cold and then a stomach bug and then another cold and then cut a tooth!! While ill she was waking in the night and I would give her water or rarely a milk feed (she's BF) but I didnt want to make a habit of that but she wasnt eating her solids at all so I was worried she was hungry.
Now she's cutthe tooth but still isnt eating properly (still enjoys milk) but is getting up at 4.30am on the dot every morning and then will cry on and off for up to an hour before finally wanting feeding at 6-.30am. She;s then shattered and back in bed at 9-10.30am and then again at 1-2.30 and again at 3-4ish. She only ever used to have one good sleep in the day at lunchtime but I feel all routines are now out of the window...Im exhausted and feel we're going backwards not forwards!!!

Can anyone help at all???

Love Vickie

You can tell how tired I am!!! Emily is 7 and a half months...not weeks...dur!!

Vickie
xx

Hi Vickie, My dd is nearly 9 months and had the same problem at the same time as your dd, she got right out of her routine!

I had always sworn that I wouldn't buy a blackout blind as I thought that she would then not sleep when we were away and there wasn't one, but I was so desp for sleep that I made one and put it up at the window.

I also used a bit of controlled crying in the morning, ie when she woke up at 5am I would just ignore her and not even go in. The first morning (after the blind was up) she cried for 10 mins and then went back to sleep until 7.30! Since then she has been getting better and better, last week slept from 7.30 or 8pm to 8.30 or 9 (9.30 on sunday hurrah!!)

Hope you get sorted soon

Hi Vickie welcome to Mumsnet. Sorry to hear you're having a tough time. Luc has posted on another thread with a very similar problem with her dd. Could you maybe alter her naps during the day as this could well be why she is not sleeping so well at night. I know it's hard, but maybe try and let her have an hour between 9 am - 10 am and then put her for her lunchtime sleep at say 12.30 and let her have two hours, how would that fit in with your routine? If she had a longer sleep at lunchtime she wouldn't need a sleep between 3 - 4pm which I suspect is why she is waking early in the morning. Just a suggestion, I'm no expert but it might be worth a try. Agree with SamboM about the blackout blinds.
Good luck and hope you manage to sort things out. I'm sure you'll get lots more excellent advice from others here on the site.
Please let us know how you get on.

Hi there, succumbed to buying black out blind today, our windows are huge cost 200 euro, so it had better help. I'm gonna GF dd all over again as admittedly the routines had slipped,i m working f/t and sometimes, well alot of the time he will not sleep for more than 40 mins at lunchtime. Anyway, have to persevere..only a phase....

You poor old tired thing. It's so horrible. Ive no solutions, just wanted you to know I'm thinking of you having been there too.

thank you all so much for the advice. I have tried to get DD to sleep for 2 hours at lunch but she's crying after about 3/4s of hour. Should I get her up or should I leave her?

Babies naturally come into a light sleep after 45mins to 1 hour of sleep & she has to learn to go back to sleep again by herself. I personally would use controlled crying & leave her to go back to sleep for the full 2 hours, but then I'm a GF Mum! but.. I know this routine works best for my baby.
My DD is 8months & has 30-45mins in the mroning & 2 hours at lunchtime & thats enough sleep for her to sleep 7-7 99% of the time.
You do have to make allowances when they're ill or teething but me being a double hard GF mother I try my hardest to stick to that routine as much as I can! (with a huge amoutn of love thrown in!)
I agree with Melly it's most likely the late afternoon nap that's making her wake early.

sorry about the sleep but I was just about to get really argy at you Moaning about your"7 weeker" not sleeping through!!

LOL

I wish my 10 weeker would!

vickie
my dd is the same age and exactly the same as your dd. except 5.30 am is her wake up, and its exhausting trying to lull her back to sleep without the temptation of feeding her a bit.

today for her morn snooze (9-10am) we happened to be out walking, normally shes in her cot for it, and she only slept 20/30 mins max, and her lunchtime sleep was longer than normal, an hour! usually 40mins (forty winks is her nic name!)
and she always snoozes around 4/5 but i wake her so as she'll go down at 7/8pm.

so i have no answer but i'll be watching this thread, and if you have a remedy please post it!

i do try to follow Gf routines but something always crops up or i cant do the c/c because i am afraid its her teeth, shes got 2 now in the past two wks. its terribly hard sometimes.

hermykyne our situation sounds really similar. DD has just cut 2 teeth as well and it is hard to know if they're really crying or just playing up. She didnt go to bed unti 8 tonight as she'd had a late snooze but tomorrow I will try the extended lunch time nap. Will keep you all posted;

hi vickie
my dd didnt have a late afternoon sleep today, a morn and lunch time snooze only, and as her dad was due home at her usual snooze time she didnt get to sleep but 8pm was still her put down time and as i write this shes just awoken!!!!

shes half hearted crying.

anyway this morn at 5am i ignored her and she eventually went back to sleep at 6am only to wake bang on 6.45 bright eyed for her bottle and up!
keep me posted, i am delighted to know i am not the only one. mind you, a friend has a little girl a little older and its either 11pm or 2 pm when she settles at night.