Slumber Party...The Sleep Deprivation Support Thread

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

We're all in this together... how about a bit of mutual schadenfreude/grim humour/shared agony as we blearily stumble through another day...

Oops yes sorry meant WF with the strop! Must have read it too quick while DS was badgering me...

Well we had another relatively good night last night, but still struggling lots with the naps and I think for DD hers ARE too short at the moment to prevent her getting overtired... proof of which perhaps is that she was getting very grouchy all evening (she is usually quite a happy soul), and on top of that I have just spent over an hour trying to get her to sleep for the night! Very frustrating as I have loads of jobs to do and was sitting there watching any faint hope of any "me time" whatsoever tonight ticking away! Don't want to go to bed too late in case we have another of the not-so-good nights, and I haven't even eaten yet... oh well...

Hello Yummy, that sounds rough, hope you can get some improvement soon! Have you ever tried wake-to-sleep for the 5.30 thing? It might just be worth a try...

At least the nights are getting increasingly better though, if it keeps up you might have to kick me off this thread soon

Welcome, YummyMummy!
Ugh, 05.30 shouldn't be allowed... My sister's DS didn't sleep through until he was 4 (!) and it was when she stopped giving him cheese at tea time (although even that didn't sort the problem out entirely).

It's great to hear things are improving, MNIIM! You can stay on the thread as long as you like, but here's hoping you'll "graduate" before too long!

Apart from the wake up 45mins after going to bed, DD only woke 3 more times after that until 06.30. Sadly, my cough and a touch of insomnia stopped me taking full advantage of it. Think I'm going to start trying to put her down awake (but sleepy - in theory) to see if we can encourage more self-settling)....

Hi Yummy - really hope the 5.30s stop soon! Just because it's light, it doesn't make it better.

mynameis - excellent news on progress- hope the naps start to follow. You are my PUPD guru. I may have to consult you shortly if DS' naps continue to go up the Swanee.

IC - well done your DD. I think I will have lost my mind if I am still battling sleep when DS is 4. Your sister must be made of stern stuff!

Well we only had three wakes after his drramfeed. Unfortunately one was an hour plus long settle and the other an hour, so fairly grim. As a result he started today tired and grouchy and his naps have been shocking. Ugh. I've also found him on his front twice now and he is practicing rolling so hard- so that isn't helping. I feel totally shattered.

NB My sister has 4 DCs. I asked her to tell me some details of how her babies slept and she said, "To be honest, that ten years passed in kind of a blur..."

Ten years!!!

She still has her sanity, I might add.

Hah well after saying we were getting on better we had another relatively bad night! After the several evening wakeups, she had a really long wakeup round 2am and was soooo hard to settle... In the end DH persuaded me to feed her, though I knew she wasn't really hungry, bit cross I gave in as I don't want to end up replacing the dummy with boob! Then she woke again round 5 for her normal feed too, and then had a bit of an early start as well.

I am hoping it was just because she was very overtired though, she had only had 20-min naps all day before that. Today we did a 1 3/4 hour pushchair nap in the morning so am hoping that will help, though she didn't sleep much after that as I was trying to practise crib napping with her while DS was away... so the longest she managed then was 30 mins. Ho hum...

Such things probably will get at least a bit better when the rolling is no longer so new, I hope so for your sake!

Do you think they sell something a bit more hardcore than sleepy dust? Sleepy bricks maybe..?

Has anyone heard from Pacific? Hope that her silence means she is doing well out there.

Hi all, I thought things were going so well! After 2 nights where dd slept from 11-5.30ish!!! we are back to the 4am party. On a positive note I've done all the washing up I left last night and made school pack ups - ahh it's good to be back...

8:30pm-2am with a dream feed at 10:30pm, no milk to settle, wake at 4am, then at 5:30am, then at 7am!! better.

I hope you all have had reasonable nights.

Here it was could-be-worse, could-be-better. She woke 3 times, but the first two times went back to sleep reasonably quickly with just a few "shhs" and hand on her chest, then the third time I fed her and she went down again OK. Woke up at 6.30ish. So not bad compared to some nights we've had, but I am still quite tired as on top of the 3 times she woke me, I woke up a few other times too so had quite a broken-up night. Hope she is not too bad this weekend, as we are away visiting family!

Crappy one here, too. Only partly DD's fault (one long resettle... 1.5 hours... and assorted awakenings) - the rest was a reappearance of my bloody cough, insomnia and IBS. The unholy trinity! Meh.

I'm in the could be better, could be worse. 7.30-11, 11,30-3.30, 4.15-6. Then up at six like a little sunbeam. We felt less sunny. But I also managed to wake more than DS. Perhaps it's us who need the sleep training?

I agree! I wish someone would rock/feed me to sleep sometimes!!

4 awakenings last night between 19.20 and 06.30, so not too bad. I slept better too (on the whole, couldn't get back properly after 0500, but that's three hours better than the previous night). Managed a 10-min zizz while DD was having her first nap too. THRILLS!!

oh well. I fell asleep at 8pm, after DS went to sleep. DH had gone out for the evening. and DS woke at 11pm wondering where on earth his milk was...i was still asleep and had not prepared it so i gave him boob, but, happy as he was, clearly my supply at that time has gone down to not very much. And he wanted more, I dragged my sorry backside to go get it, by which time he was asleep! But he woke half hour later, all this faffing meant midnight or maybe past then, and he had only 3oz of milk, and then woke a few times, i cant even remember any more. But, two of those times he settled himself as I just could not haul my weary backside out of bed and DH had suddenly become unaware of the world around him. I lie there trying to find the energy while he grumbled, and he went to sleep after 10 mins. So i guess, a version of controlled crying but with me going 'shh shh shh' from the bed. Made me realise his grumbling is not always something i need to deal with, he was not distressed. I shall try and have a bit more resolve to not go rushing to him tonight.

Naps though, out of the window, random like a roll of the dice.

Well my night was not TOO bad really... she woke for a feed at 4, then again at 5 thinking it was morning (and did a big poo, which naughty mummy ignored and let her fall asleep again!), then again at 6 thinking it was DEFINITELY morning and made me get up! But I have hung some sheets over the windows today, as I think it was partly all the light coming in (staying at parents' this weekend).

But we have some great news on the naps, she has now managed 2 45-minute naps in her crib, which is the first time since stopping the dummy that she has managed more than 20 minutes at once in there! Well, actually only the first one was in her crib - the second was in the cot at my parents', which is possibly more impressive as it is an unfamiliar bed! And the first time she managed it I had not even been helping her particularly - DS was having his breakfast so I had to practically dump her in bed and run (just came up once to soothe her briefly as she was crying a bit, and then she fell asleep on her own). So I am very chuffed! I hope it lasts!

WF I think you are right about not rushing in TOO quickly when they are grumbling a bit... I have sometimes found too that they need a chance to try and settle themselves before I jump in and start "doing stuff", especially if just whinging a bit rather than properly crying!

myname great news on the naps. It is such a hug releif, knowing that there is light at the end of the tunnel and to keep perservering. I hope it continues. At least you know she can do it now.

A great night (oh how I would have laughed at it being a great night when I was younger) 8pm-11pm (dream feed) 11-15pm-2:15am (dream feed) -5:30am! Then he fussed and cried and wanted to suckle til 7am, but did not want to be awake. When i fed him at 2:15 and at 5:30am he was definitely hungry, as his cry was a hungry cry and he fed a lot, after 5:30am, he just wanted comfort and it was clear what the difference was, so that will help in future, i hope.

Various lights at the ends of various tunnels, I think! Good news.

Last night wasn't great (again, as much my fault as DD's, although she was quite restless).

DD doesn't usually cry, just whimpers. However when I've tried ignoring it in the past, we get a crescendo and a wide awake DD instead of a sleepy DD, meaning it takes me far longer to get her back to sleep, so I usually react fairly quickly when she stirs (but I wait for the whimpering, rather than moving in on the F&W). I usually try a little SSH patting first, then offer the dummy - if both of those are flatly rejected as a soothing method, she goes on the boob, which mostly does the trick.

I was sorely tempted to ignore a big poo this morning at 05.45, but it kept on coming, so I reluctantly decided I had to change her. I wasn't very optimistic at getting her back to sleep afterward, but actually managed it by 06.45, so got another hour before she woke for the day. Just as well, I was in a sleep-lacking pissy mood prior to that minor triumph (after that, just a sleep-lacking mood)!

IC Oh dear sorry you had such a hard night. I hate those 'poo in the night' episodes, when you really want to just ignore it, for ages before eventually just getting up and doing it, wishing it was done in the first place!

I am in for a terrible night. Had my DDs birthday party today, 8 children and their parents running riot for a couple hours. DD collapsed after eating too much of everything at 6:30pm, earlier than normal, saying she wanted to stay up so was just going to 'have a little rest' so not sure if she will be up again or not, and if so when.

DS went to sleep at 6pm after refusing to nap for more than 1 hour. then woke at 7pm, fed, slept for 20 mins, now awake, and yawning. oh dear, not sure if/when he will sleep now!

Hmf well I had a slightly frustrating night, DD slept till 3 then fed, but then woke again at 5 and never really went to sleep again... At first she was just gurgling so I tried to ignore her, but then she started getting more cry-ish so by 6 I had to give in and get up. But that was despite hanging stuff over the curtains to try and block the sunlight out as much as possible... I hope she is not starting a new phase of early wakings just when we are starting to get somewhere with the dummy removal!

DS seems to be going into a strange new phase now too, several times now he has been awake for aaages after we put him to bed, and banging about in his cot for hours. But at least that doesn't keep us awake, and doesn't seem to bother him particularly either so far, so I will try not to worry about it unless it starts being a problem.

mynameis (or maybe I should call you Inigo? seeing as that is your name? ) DD went through phase of being awake in her cot for an hour or so after bedtime, and even now she does the same, gets up and plays with her toys quietly. I think it is when she is having some kind of developmental spurt.

Last night was hard work. DD not surprisingly had a broken night. She woke at 9pm? can't remember but upset and would not talk, took a while to calm her and put some pj's on her, as I just took her dress off and put her to bed as she fell asleep on the sofa. Then she woke several times through the night, had a couple of bad dreams. Her party was a big emotional rollercoaster for her so sort of expected it. Then she woke at 5:45am, again not surprising as she was asleep by 6pm!

DS went to sleep at about 8:30pm, boob at 10pm, slept til 2am then 4am, 4:30am, 5am, then up with us. He did not want the bottle last night at all. So tonight DH will give it, as it might be me. He is also very hungry at night, so was contemplating giving him a bottle at 2am or 4am...he might go through til 4am if he knows he gets a bottle? I am not sure about that though.

I went to bed late night before last (preparing for DDs party), and not til 11pm last night, so I am a bit swimmy headed right now!

oh and meant to add - hope some of you ladies got a respectable nights sleep last night, if babies and insomnia allowed.

MORNING EVERYONE!!!

Oof, sounds full-on WF... hope last night was better.

An improvement here - although DD was fidgeting from 05.45, which meant an early start for me too - she didn't fully wake until 06.30, but I was awake from trying to keep her asleep until that point IYSWIM...

She's still a bit restless, I think it's the heat (routinely in the mid-30s during the day here now) so tonight we're putting a little fan in her corner of the bed (well, not literally IN..) as the ceiling fan doesn't really reach that far. Hopefully it'll help.

Latest (as of a few days ago) from Pacific - she's had alot of RL stuff preventing her from posting...

"DS4 has been seen by paeds. I found the consultatation a bit disappointing as I felt quite dismissed as making a mountain out of a molehill. DS4's weight was plotted on the 9th centile having been weighed there with his vest and nappy on. biscuit. The constant crying and not-going to sleep was dealt with by telling me to let him cry it out. biscuit. And I was told 'reflux is a diagnosis by history' and if I felt he had reflux then we would treat it with Losec/Omeprazole.

So, he has had 3 doses of Losec to far, it is horrible to give as cannot be giving in milk. Medicines syringe and hysterical pinned down baby it is then sad. Well, if it works then well worth it IMO.
And - drumroll - he is currently asleep in his cot (not Amby confused) and has been for the last hour or so. This is the second time in his life that he has slept that long during the day on his own! He is now 16 weeks old and lovely with lots of smiles and long conversations with me or his brothers."

So there you have it!
(hope you don't mind me copying this from your post natal thread, Pacific!

Interesting that the emoticons didn't copy!

Thanks IC- hope she is having similar success with night sleep.

WF - am in awe. I can barely cope with just one so birthday parties and sleep issues would floor me. Be interested to hear whether the bottle makes any difference. We've experimented before without much change but I'm not sure we were terribly consistent.

We've been trying not waking DS up for the dream feed at 11 to see if he'll sleep longer. But seems to wake himself at 12 and doesn't appear to buy us another hour later in the night so might abandon that. I had a great night sleep on Saturday as in spare room at in laws and DH did night duty, bringing him to me to feed. As a result, DH now appreciates more how tired I am but is also now determined to 'fix' it. Just when I had decided to just live with it. Cue him reading lots of baby books and wanting to try their ideas. Not all of them good...