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

A little reassurance for you all. Skye has slept through for 3 of the last 4 nights. Was waking 2-3 times a night before that (and on the one night she did wake up). Each day before a good night has been different nap-wise and activity-wise! We're lucky in that she's always accepted water and that she won't co-sleep (Not so good when you just want to go to sleep and she's awake, but great that it's not a habit we have to break).

Hopefully this 'phase' will be a LONG one and she'll have rediscovered sleeping.

Fingers crossed for you all.

Hello lovely ladies

Fantastic news Galena fingers crossed Skye-baby keeps up the good work. You are giving me hope that O will one day learn to sleep through again...

He's currently teething like mad and waking up to 8 times a night. I don't know how I'm managing work at the moment - I went in on Monday with 4 hours of broken sleep... it's actually worse than having a newborn at the moment. Oh well, presumably this phase can't last forever.

MrsMc sorry you're still here too - the heat is a killer even in London so must be a nightmare where you are. It was 28 degrees in O's room all night when it was really hot here - poor little mite was waking every couple of hours desperate for a drink of water.

Carve - yep, it definitely feels like it will never end.

I don't know anyone in RL whose child sleeps as badly as mine. When I tell anyone with a baby around the same age they look at me like this . I really don't know what I've done wrong

DH and I have been TTC baby number 2 and are on cycle 8 - I'm wondering if lack of sleep is contributing to lack of BFP.

Anyway - better get back to the grind (working from home today so far too easy to get sidetracked).

at 8 times Bicnod, you poor thing. And with work too - am going to see if I can wangle my office to myself when I go back so I can power nap! Does co-sleeping help at all? I know its not for everyone, but we definitely find it useful when DS is refusing to settle. Guess that wouldn't exactly help TTC though . I do hope its just down to the teething as at least that HAS to end at some point . I know my DS is younger than O but I totally get how maddening it is when other people give you that look. I also completely interpret it as them thinking that it MUST be something I'm doing wrong (which is probably my own stuff) and I want to scream. I then rant at DH later and he tells me he's very bored of hearing the same conversation again . Hope you get your BFP for number 2 soon (and that said number 2 is a sleeper)!
Great news Galena - well done Skye. I have now given up being too obsessive about naps as it was leaving me really stressed, so what you say about the days being different is reassuring. Oh and how is the baby jogger?
Hoping for a better night as DS was in a better mood at bed time. And if not...this will pass

Ooooh, carve, the baby jogger is GORGEOUS! Handle is a bit higher than I'm used to and not adjustable (but neither was the other) but not uncomfortable and I'm getting used to it. REALLY light and easy to push - even loaded with shopping and holding a hot coffee in the other hand (Not that I tried that today, honest!). And the folding... Oh, the folding! Love it!

(Oh, and Skye's already woken once tonight for a drink... Hopefully not the sign of things to come!)

Glad to hear it Galena, will google (more side track - also looking at the out n about nipper).
Turns out my hope was in vain - little man waking about every 2-2.5 hours and really quite upset. Am hoping that once antibiotics finished and we've stopped communting (back in Devon full time tomorrow - ) the nights will improve.... ...

She woke once more last night, and has had really dodgy nappies all day. Hopefully it'll settle overnight.

Sorry to hear minicarve was wakeful. Hopefully he'll settle once you're home. Earache can be horrible, so he has all my sympathy (except for the bit you can have!)

Blimey. O slept through last night for the first time in months

He went to bed later than usual as we'd been out for the day. He was totally and utterly worn out (had been running around a farm park all afternoon) and still a bit under the weather.

So the answer seems to be don't stick to his usual daytime routine, let him have three mini naps instead of one long one - the latest one being where he wakes at 18.10, and make sure her runs around like a crazy boy for the entire day. Oh, and give him his first mini-milk

Galena - glad Skye-baby is still doing well.

Carve - how was last night?

Annoyingly DH has man-flu (he even took his temperature last night - it was normal of course LOL ) so he was keeping me awake last night instead of O. Grrr.

Great news Bicnod!

Unfortunately we're having really rubbish sleep at the moment - we had one night of about 10 wakes!! Still got very dodgy nappies and now a runny nose and cough too. Hoping it's teeth and also hoping it'll settle soon as she's suffering from very sore bottom and nose.

I'm really depressed !!!

Have just scanned through a few posts on this thread, hoping for hope, but have found none !!

DD4 is 4.5mths, and feeds at 7-10-2-5-7.
Other DDs were the sort to do 12hrs at 3mths, so this is a little unusual for me !!!

Came on here to hear other stories and actually find out that her feeding is quite normal !!

Am tired. You only have to add in one other night visit from an older daughter and suddenly the nights feel vey scrappy indeed. But she does feed quickly and settles well, and sometimes is stretched out by a dummy, so they're not traumatic.

I guess anyone who has had success is no longer lingering on this thread.

But just to say hello to you all !!

Hi Fourlittleducks, It will improve! We're generally really improved, but Skye's poorly at the moment. As soon as she is unwell, sleep is the first thing that suffers, it seems!

At 4.5 months I think she was still waking loads. Usually now it's 0-1 wake per night.

Don't lose heart!

Fab news Bicnod - yet again evidence that getting too het up about nap routines is probably not worth it! Hope it continues...

Fourlittleducks - totally agree with Galena, it does get better but like Skye, my DS's sleep seems to be very sensitive to any sort of disruption. And if it doesn't feel like its getting better, you do get better at coping on less sleep (although I say this as the mother of 1, not of 4 - you deserve a medal!). I remember feeling destroyed at 4.5 months, it was a very bad patch for us, as he had been sleeping ok up to then. To give you some hope - a lot of the babies in my antenatal group were very wakeful at 4-5 months, but most settled after 6 months...expect my DS of course!

DS still a bit snotty but seems to have got over the bulk of the cold/ear infection. He has done some long stretchs of sleep the past couple of nights, and has been easy to settle when he does wake...until it gets to 3am. Its then a real struggle to put him down and if he does go down he wakes up less than an hour later. I keep having to tell myself that things are SO much better than they were. He didn't wake up until 1am last night and that was unheard of a few weeks ago but the early morning stuff is quite wearing. I'm trying to keep him in his cot as long as possible before I give up and bring him to bed. Gave up at about 4.30 this morning. I am going to be on survival mode the next week though as DH will be away working nights...
Hope nights stay better/get better for everyone

book mark - will be back tomorrow

She slept through! The little monkey aced her developmental checkup at the hospital (did all sorts of things I'd have said she couldn't do) and then slept through!

She is on maximum inhalers at the moment because her snottiness has gone to her chest, but at least we've avoided hospital so far. She'd better stay well though cos we're going away on Friday!

Carve, glad to hear minicarve is improving. I know what you mean about occasionally needing a bit of a reality check and looking back to see what an improvement you've seen. We've been really lucky in that Skye's never really woken early and if she has I've always been able, eventually, to get her back to sleep until a reasonable hour. Also, because she wouldn't co-sleep, I don't have to break that habit. I cursed her at the time, but now I'm grateful. However, we will need to tackle the demon dummy one day. Not till she's older though!

Glad to hear that there's been lots of sleeping- sorry carve that you have still been having a rough time.

Some progress here. Mainly because we did CC weekend before last. Good and bad result - only one night and he slept till 5.30 on night 2! Week and a half later we've settled into sleeping till about 4 and then needing a feed to go back to sleep till 6.30. He won't go back to sleep without the feed - just grumbles and is then out of sorts all morning as so knackered from early waking (me too). So pretty good really espec as Sunday night he slept through the whole lot till 6.45!

Not sure if/when we'll get a repeat of that but still much much better than the 4 wakes a night we were having. God knows how you are coping with 8 wakes bicnod.

Sorry - no bold as too many clicks on the ipad to find the asterix.

ipad, NoSleepTillWeaning
The sleeping sounds pretty good too
I didn't want to post last week as we were actually having a good week (for DS) and I was on my own so fearful of the jinx gremlin. Anyway, I needn't have bothered, because after 4 much better nights, we've had 3 very dodgy ones. I think there was something bothering DS on one of them as he seemed to have a bit of a temperature the next day and I had a bit of tummyache myself. Then last night he got himself worked up into complete hysteria over god knows what. Really horrible, just had no idea what was wrong. Thankfully DH was home for the night (he's gone back to work now) so I wasn't on my own. DH said that he used to have nightmares & night terrors when he was little and he can actually remember being scared to go to sleep when he was about 3ish. I don't think it was a night terror as DS didn't wake up suddenly or anything , but he certainly seemed frightened about something. Poor lamb. Hope he gets back on track now though. Could do with a better night.
Oh, Galena, great news on the developmental check. Its cool when they do things you had no idea they could do isn't it?

Galena yay for Skye sleeping and being a superbaby How's her poorliness? Hope she's on the mend and you've managed to avoid hospital.

Carve - poor mini-Carve it's so frustrating when they have a run of good nights and then it all goes pete tong again - every time O has a run of good nights I hope that this is 'it'. It never is of course, but every single bloody time I hope and am then disappointed. Will I learn? Will I heck.

NoSleep - 8 wakes was the worst of it but I'm pretty sure that was down to teething as...

...drum roll...

...he has slept through the last 2 nights!!

Maybe this is it

Bicnod, YAY! Fingers crossed.
Carve, Sorry it's been a bit dodgy, hopefully back to good sleep again tonight.
NoSleep, hope everything's staying good and improving.

We've had some ropy nights and some good nights. We've come away to mum and dad's and she's slept through twice since we've been here, and we've also had 2 nights where she woke, I managed to get her back to sleep, and just as I got comfy in bed again she'd wake again - up to 4 times in an hour! However, after finally settling at around 12-12:30 she'd then sleep till morning. The snottiness and chestiness have passed and we avoided hospital - HOORAY! However, I'm not holding my breath for tonight as I'm pretty sure there's another tooth on the way. Her nappies are also settling, although still a little... explosive at times.

hello again everyone, sorry to have been away and come back to find some of you are still here . Alas, my disappearance has not been down to sleeping children. we currently have the scenario of one or both waking in the night, then DD2 waking for the day at about 5.30 I am as exhausted as ever, although DH has been off for a couple of weeks so we've been taking it in turns to get up with them. DD2 usualy ends up waking DD1.

so. we're just accepting the fact and praying things are better once DD starts school and DD2 grows up! my friends look at me incredualously when i say i have 4 yo who still wakes

sorry, 'incredulously'

DS2 has been doing really well lately but now he's teething again. :(

Been up since 4 this morning - gave up trying to settle him at 5, got him back to sleep eventually at 7 and then DS1 woke him 30 mins later. Grr!

Need to go to bed now.

Hello again and commiserations Olivo & Blue. I was indulging in some hopeful fantasy that everyone who hadn't posted in a while was enjoying their sleep but perhaps not....

Bit up and down here. Some not so bad nights and then some very difficult ones. Ended up BF at 2.30am again last night as he was just impossible to put down (been ages since I've fed before about 4.30) but he did then sleep until 5.30 which he hasn't done in ages. So possibly he was hungry (although he's almost 12 months and eats tons ). DH's temporary contract has now ended so he's back with us at home. Its been largely just me and DS for the past couple of weeks so I did wonder if the reappearance of Daddy has thrown him (again). Not feeling too optimistic about our chances when we disrupt his world even more in a few weeks by introducing him to childcare and mummy going back to work .

But it IS better than it used to be.....

Hi, I'm new to this thread - DS is 6 months on Sunday. Still exclusively BFed, starting traditional weaning with baby rice next week.

I don't actually think he's not sleeping because he is hungry. I have a theory that he finds the world so exciting during daytime he doesn't want to waste time feeding so saves up his hunger for night time. He's refusing to feed more than every 3-4 hours in the day (and often only for a v. short time) then he wakes hourly on a bad night - three or four times on a 'good' night and very rarely twice. I haven't slept for more than 3 hours on the trot for 6 months.

He slept better before the 4 month sleep regression thingy but it has been the same since then.

I co-sleep but I'm ready for him to go into his own bed/room now.

DH and I have been doing shifts - I do the first half of the night until about 3 or 4 and he does until 7.

I'm getting a bit depressed.

Baby naps pretty well. Did an hour and half in bed yesterday morning and slept loads in the pram.

I can't find a way to get him to sleep without either feeding him to sleep or him being in the pram.

I tried CC this week. It made him furious. He got more and more upset every time I went in and didn't pick him up and feed him. After half an hour I couldn't carry on - fed him - he went straight to sleep but woke an hour later.

Sorry to go on. I haven't read the whole thread but will try to read back. Am away for the next few days so sorry if I don't reply.

Hi bearcrumble, your bub sounds a lot like mine in some ways..ie in terms of being exclusively breastfed up to 6 months and mine wakes like yours on the bad, good and rare nights. He will be 9 months old in 8 days and I too am very lucky to get more than 3 hours sleep in a row. I am doing a combo of breast feeding and BLW. I'm not doing BLW because it's less work (tho that's a huge plus!) but because I'm totally on board with him eating with us and the same foods as us. In the last few weeks he has actually been eating the food so I had hoped that he would now stop dropping night feeds but he hasn't. He is going a bit longer some nights (for example, last night he woke at 10ish and then next at 3ish which is pretty good for him, trouble is, I didn't get to bed til midnight so wasted an opportunity for more sleep). I think you could be spot on with your theory, as he doesn't feed long in the days at all either, and hasn't done since he was very young. He also used to have great naps, now he naps for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon but they can be up to 2 hours on occasion.

From the start, I tried to follow the Baby Whisperer's EASY routine so I would try to feed him after he woke but I still had problems putting him down to sleep for naps and at night without rocking him. At 3 months, I decided he was getting too heavy to rock and bed times were too full on...it would sometimes take my hubby an hour to rock him to sleep and then he would cry if he was put into his cot. I couldn't/wouldn't leave him to cry it out as I was worried he would feel abandoned. So I just tried the pick up, put down method. Basically, if he cried I would pick him up, he would immediately stop crying, so I'd put him down, then he'd really cry, so I'd pick him up again until he stopped etc etc but I'd always put him back awake (even though he'd often start to fall asleep on my shoulder during the process). In some cases, he was so exhausted with the rigamarole, he'd just finally give in and sleep in his cot. Bed times were also tough, we did the bedtime routine...a feed, bath, bed and a song/book but it was still a trial until we used a book with a squeaker in it, just by accident. The second he heard the squeaker he got all excited and happy and stopped crying. We have saved that book only for bedtimes and have read it to him just about every night since. He started going to sleep by himself after the book and a kiss goodnight without a peep on many occasions, until the heat wave and then I think he was a bit hot and didn't go off to sleep so easily. He now makes a bit of noise after I leave the room but if it is not a cry I don't go back and he will fall asleep. If it is a cry, I leave it for a minute and if he keeps crying I go back in and now sing a soothing song to comfort him (rather than picking him up) and then leave again. If need be, I return and sing the same song again (a song I now only sing when it's time to sleep) and then leave. It doesn't go on for too long and he's asleep without rocking, feeding or picking up. One thing I've read lots and have found is that you need to be consistent, so if you can't follow an idea through, then best to wait until you can or try something else. That's my experience and every bub is different so I know it won't necessarily work for you, but perhaps the pick up, put down method might be an alternative option for you to try out anyway. Sorry for such a long-winded post!

Sorry, not posted for awhile as we're on holiday. (not just hanging out for 1000th post honest!). Still pootleing along at one wake per night, time completely random. Last night it was 2am, both nights before it was 5 or 5.30. And he does then go back to sleep until 7, although it can take abit of time if he wakes at 5. Still soooooo much better than a month ago before the cc.

Welcome to bear crumble and macattack, sorry you are here tho.

I assume one of the longer term owners of the thread will start a new one? I don't think I have enough seniority. See you all there?

Done!