Misguided Illusion Part II - Baby still not sleeping through by six months? Come and join us!

[MomOrMum]

Thought I would start a fresh thread as, sadly, we have almost filled the first one.

Feral, Kiwi, Chulita, et al...shouldn't we have graduated from this thread by now?!

Now welcoming a new crop of 6 months+ babies determined to help us reach new heights/depths of sleep deprivation.

Here is the original thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/713951-Support-thread-for-those-who-were-under-the-misguided-illusion

Thanks isitme ds has a good bedtime routine and goes down to sleep normally ok but can't stay asleep! he is breastfed and that is the only thing that will settle him back to sleep in the night, or the odd time if that doesn't work xomng in to our bed. Bought the no cry sleep solution few weeks ago and have introduced a comforter and a cd which I give/play when he is falling asleep and always try that first in the night but to no avail. Nice to know other people are going through it too, my real life friends babies were all sleeping through from ridiculously early and my dd was def going by now. Will ty and catch up with the rest of the thread and read where you are all at

Thanks Galena - that sounds pretty similar to what we were doing last time, so ho hum. We've gone for PUPD for now in the mornings, although not quite sure what happened this morning, as I fell asleep, effectively leaving DH to it .

cordelia - Bicnod's had good results with NCSS, so you need to stalk her .

Do you have a DP who could help you try to get DS to sleep without BFing every time? That worked for us in reducing the number of nightfeeds from 3 to 2 - we basically stretched the gaps between feeds, and DH rocked/cuddled/sang to DS if he woke "too early" for a feed. Then I fed him at the appointed time. If you extend the gaps between feeds by 30mins at a time, you'll quite quickly get from 4 to 3 or 3 to 2 feeds a night.

We had to use controlled crying in the end as well to stop the random wakes that weren't for feeding. That worked, but only until DS was ill/teething when it all went to pot again.

Galena so sorry to hear that Skye has been so poorly again. The babes just seem to be picking up one bug after another at a mo with no time to recover properly.

Hope you all manage to get some more sleep soon, and Skye is able to give your nerves a break - you must be feeling physically and emotionally exhausted about now. Not sure it will help my saying that though - sorry!

Galena poor, poor all of Galena family. Your luck HAS to be in now!

IsItMe- I think our 'plan' has always tended towards CC. Though I have to admit it was never very structured (as in timings), I could barely tell you at what time R wakes, let alone how long the intervals are between going in to him [slack mum emoticon]. We rarely pick R up (lots of tummy/bottom patting), just because he mostly low grade whinges rather than full on meltdowns. If he is screaming there is generally something wrong.

Hi there cordelia. I rarely b/f at night now (except for with colds/teething etc). DS was always easily placated with a breast a night, but now that I rarely give it, it no longer works. I feel like I have had a crucial parenting, sleep inducing tool stolen from me . How was your night last night.

We had a sleep through last night. I offered him a feed at 10 but he was out for the count so he didn't take it. Woke at 5:30 (CAT), came in with me at 6:00, back to sleep at 6:30 until 8:30. My goodness I feel rested and a bit guilty that DP didn't get a lie in too.

Anyone got nice plans for mother's day? I don't want to appear greedy but another full nights sleep would do for me for please.

May not be about much... Skye spent yesterday throwing up and has now got a temperature. Doc says hopefully it's not something new brewing but to dose her alternately with calpol and nurofen overnight and go back in the morning. 'At the moment a hospital admission wouldn't be helpful' was his phrase.

I've had about as much as I can take.

I'm tired. Dog tired. I can't cope with much more. She's been poorly for 4 weeks now and I've had enough.

Sorry not to be being supportive at the moment - I'm struggling not to sit and cry right now.

Just popping in to say I'm thinking about you all, but I'm too tired to MN most days DT1 is still feeding at 11.30ish and then sometimes going to 5.30/6 but more often these days feeding again at 4ish. DT2 is back to 1 and 2 hour waking but I think it's (finally) teeth and calpol is my new best friend. My mum is staying next week (she of the lovely getting up in the night for me behaviour) and I'm planning to get her to get up for DT1 and settle her without feeds - to night wean her and get her sleeping through so that I then have only DT2 to work on! I will try to update you and I'm sorry that I've not been here to join in, perhaps it will get better soon... Wishing you all good sleeps X

Oh Galena, you are so due a break. Sorry I'm not closer and can't even offer to give you at least some company during the day.

Is there anything at all we can do to help you? You really sound like you need a hug, cup of tea, some of this and somebody to look after Skye while you get some sleep.

If you email me your address (isitmeor49 @ googlemail . com) I will send the linked item asap. Can't think of anything else that I can do from here .

Have you asked anybody/everybody you could do in RL to come and help out? I know I'm the worst person at asking for help, and it sounds as if you are reaching the end of your tether.

Thanks, IsItMe - have sent a long and rambling email. I'm feeling a little better this morning as Skye slept from about 8 till 2:45 then till 5, then self settled at 6 and slept till nearly 8. However, because she had such a long stretch of sleep at the start of the night, we didn't give her calpol/nurofen (I don't believe in waking a sleeping baby) so at 2:45 she had a temp of 39.8! It quickly came down again with nurofen though, and then, with Calpol at 5, was normal this morning.

Got to take her back to doc this morning though, for a review (I think he just wants me to feel supported).

Thanks for the email Galena - cake is being "processed" whatever that means as we speak . May not arrive to middle of next week though - think they have a lot on with Mother's Day.

Will respond in more detail on email, but that is still a pretty scary temp for such a little person, so glad it came down quickly with the magic drugs. Good on your GP as well, as you need all the support there is at the mo.

Sleep is all a bit secondary right now, isn't it? Except we still all feel knackered!

Alex had three wakes last night, but apart from the one at 10.30ish settled for DH pretty quickly. So a couple more wakes at midnight and 2ish, then he slept until 7am . I didn't actually feed him at all, as it's been more upsetting than settling for him while he's got his bunged up nose.

What a strange parallel world we live in, where a night where the one-year-old baby only wakes three times is a good one!

IsItMe - thankyou. You are wonderful!

Apparently Skye simply has a cold. She seems happier in herself today and her temp is stable with magic drugs. Hopefully she'll fight it off without it developing further.

Phew finally managed to catch up on this thread.
So we've moved house, J is officially old enough to be on this thread and I'm back, since Jacob has not magically transformed into the incredible sleeping baby! I'd best go to bed myself and have a proper catch up tomorrow. Until then chin up Galena, you poor, poor thing, and the lovely lady with twins and everyone else not having the best of times and I wish you all lots of lovely sleep and a run of luck for once.

profers cake

Hey all.

Galena, Galena, Galena I am so sorry you have been having such an awful time. That fatigue is unbearable and to have an ill baby to worry about too means you never have any downtime. How are tricks now?

1stMrs Did saintly mother offer some respite? I am building up a fantasy family in my head. Your mum and IsItMe's dream hubbie are on my shortlist.

Welcome back Poppet. How was the move? What's Jacob up to? What kind of cake??

We have had three good nights...but I have said that before...

Hello all - sorry I've been out of touch. DS has been poorly, just with a cold, but it has really affected his sleep for the worse. And just as he seemed to be getting a bit better yesterday, he had a temp today of over 39. Came down with calpol okay, but have no idea what is going on, and just hoping for some respite from this perma-cold that seems to have settled in since Christmas. Moan, moan, moan .

Sorry!

Mmmm, cake. Did I mention we have 2.5kg of chocolate ready to be let loose in our chocolate fountain for DS's naming day? Ostensibly for the nieces and nephews, but I'm sure there will be at least a good kilo of choc left over for us to "eat up". I do quite fancy the idea of dunking the baby in the fountain as part of the ceremony, but that's before lunch and I'm not sure anybody would fancy it after he'd been in.

Ooooh the only thing more delicious than the smell of baby hair would be the smell of chocolatey baby hair!

at BB. You're not wrong there!

Hello all. Well, things seem to be settling slightly in Galena Towers. Skye's cold didn't come to much over the weekend and things seem to be improving. However, I think her teeth are now ramping up (One day she'll get a tooth! Until then I'll keep blaming everything on teething!).

IsItMeOr, sorry to hear Alex is still poorly. I know what you mean about permacolds though - That's what Skye's had. I think you should dunk him in the chocolate fountain - if no-one else would fancy the chocolate, that means there's more for you!

Poppet, well done on the house move and I hope Jacob starts to transform soon into Sleepybabe extraordinaire!

1stMrsF, I sincerely hope things are beginning to settle for you. I admire anybody with twins! I can't imagine how hard it is, as I know I'm only just clinging onto sanity with just one little one!

Just a bit of a chuckle for you all - Skye has had a dummy in daytime only for months, and hasn't needed it at night - this was because she was causing trouble overnight by pulling it out and being unable to replace it so she would scream. However, since the first hospital stay she's had it at night too. She is now able to put it back in, but does have a tendency to throw it out of the cot at times. So... we bought her one of these Sleepytot rabbits. 3 nights ago we attached a dummy to his paw, not expecting her to find it. About 20 mins after putting her down for bed I heard frantic crying so went up to check on her. Her dummy was on the floor, the spare dummy was in her mouth and the bunny was on her face, staring into her eyes! She was trying to back away, but of course, lying on her back had nowhere to go! Poor thing - it did make me chuckle though... She has now got the hang of it though and today when I went up, bunny was on her chest and dummy was in mouth. Bless!

Oh I shouldn't laugh but I just giggled hysterically to myself... the cat is looking at me very oddly from the sofa. Sorry Skye!

Glad we could provide some hilarity!

I need to whisper this... "Skye slept from 8:30 last night until 6:45 this morning!" Put her down at 7 last night and when she woke at 8:15 I thought we were in for night from hell. She murmured at 5:15 and I thought that was my night finished, but it was only a murmur and next thing I knew it was 6:30 and she was babbling to herself. The problem is that having had so many poor nights recently, I now feel absolutely shattered having had sleep! Never mind, I'm sure it's good tired!

Fingers crossed you all had better nights too.

(whispers) woo hoo (!) for Skye.

I can't see that I'm going to be satisfied by anything less than a month of nights when I get at least 7 hours sleep on the trot now, so I think that sounds fair.

That Sleepytot rabbit sounds scary, getting all in yer face like that . They don't mention that on the website.

Just one wake with DS last night, but that was an hour as we had to get his temp down from 39+ again. Just got back form the GP and there's nothing serious wrong, so hopefully we'll be back to normal in a couple of days. GP did say something ominous about teething that I didn't like the sound of though. Six teeth is quite enough, no?

Good girl Skye. I have a very sinister image of a Donnie Darko rabbit, no wonder she was scared!

Poppet-Don't mention cats. Ours is till being an SH1T! She was my baby but I found myself shouting all sorts of curses at her last night as she mewled away. Poor old girl.

IsItMe- We have been so lucky with no scary temps so far. I dread the day. I was sooo keen to see R's first teeth, I am now soooo over the whole affair.

Well we had five nights of sleeping through (with 5:30-5:45 permanent wakes ). I thought we might be home and dry, but nooooo. Two wakes last night. The first he self settled, then at 3ish he woke and I had to go in and tummy pat. It didn't work and my arm was dead from holding it over the cot. So he had a cuddle-oh so warm and snuggly. I don't know what the problem was as after 5 mins of cuddles he went back to bed with no probs.

Evening ladies O and I are back from hols and he is sleeping pretty badly again

Poor little monkey has still got a dodgy tum - I took him to the doc on Wednesday and will hopefully find out results of stool sample tomorrow. Hope it's nothing too sinister. He keeps waking up at 4am to do an enormous poo and then screams and screams and takes hours to get back to sleep (if at all).

We're still doing the plan - he doesn't need picking up every time he wakes and he goes to sleep on his own really well now (in fact last night he was pushing away from me to get to his cot!), but don't think he'll do anymore sleeping through until his tummy trouble clears up.

No time to catch up properly so sorry for me me me post - will try later x x

Awww, Bicnod, sorry to hear that sleep's not for you at the moment. Glad to hear the getting to sleep's going well though. Well done on that!

We've got a really clingy limpet at the moment - if I dare so much as to walk to the other end of the room without Skye we get screams. She's ok at night still (touch wood), but I think separation anxiety has hit big-style! Unfortunately she even screams if DH holds her and I walk out of the room. Advice? He's getting really cross about it!

Oh Bicnod - poor baby O, that sounds really sad for you all. Hope the results are nothing too bad, but something that can be fixed readily.

Galena - I think of A as a koala baby sometimes, the way he clings on. That must be pretty upsetting for your DH, we've been quite lucky so far that A's never been that forcefully wanting just me. The only things I've heard about that might help with separation anxiety is playing goodbye/hello type games, where you go away and then come back again very quickly. Also, I read that you should always tell them when you're leaving them and that you'll be coming back, rather than trying to sneak off without their noticing. I gather it can take a little while to settle (sorry!).

Bicnod I hope O's stool result was ok?

Galena No advice on separation anxiety. R is the polar opposite. I took him to a creche the other day, he didn't care when I left and then when I went to pick him up he clung to the carer .

We had a wake at about four last night. DP said he would deal with it and he went and bloomin brought him to bed with us!!! Hardly dealing with it! This meant I had to feed R. Then I left the boys to it and went to sleep on the sofa. Why is he waking-suggestions please?? I know he can get himself back to sleep.

BB - sorry, but I did have a little smile at your DP's idea of dealing with it . What happened after you fed him, do you know? We've had so many bugs and still teeth coming (of course), that I always put wakes down to that at the mo. If in doubt, calpol, is becoming our family motto!