Sleep - OH YES

[The Nappy Lady]

Further to the 'early waking thread' we had going recently....Baby C actually slept 8pm to 7am last night - HURRAH!!!

Don't get me wrong, it isn't a guaranteed thing, we still get a mix of good and bad nights...with some 4/5am feeds, and actually 2 nights ago she went to bed at 7pm and then decided to start the day at 4.30am no, no, no, no, no...but I do feel we are getting closer to the dream of a regular 11-12 hour night with her.

How is everyone else doing? I hope some of you are making progress too.

Molly

[snowboarder]

Nope. In a horrid vicious circle of nap refusal during the day therefore too tired to feed properly therefore waking up several times in the night hungry. Hmph.

[linzkg]

shame on you molly little c just loves waking to spend time with mom .. whatever the time of day or night ;-)

good for you - glad to hear it :-)

mmm .. i've got a long way to go yet so i won't even comment!

[curlykaren]

am so with you snowboarder, unless I time it just right little man has a right paddy at dinner time as hes too tired to eat, seems 5 ish is the best sort of time but if hes resisted napping during the day then he'll sleep through this window of opportunity and wake up with the hump....ho humm....

[KateMontero]

Well we have had a couple of 6 am starts recently, maybe thanks to an earlier bedtime of 7pm. But this morning was 5.15am so way less than a garunteed thing. But progress.... think it's less sunny in the mornings which might be helping.

[The Nappy Lady]

Oh I'm so sorry - was hoping that maybe all the other babies of similar ages were following similar lines.

I think what has helped for us is that C is now crawling full on (high speed - very funny) and so very tired by the end of the day. The more time she has at ground level the better the nights sleep we get. So I'm now in a zone of trying not to be out and about with her in the buggy too much, unless a nap is due.

I'm also trying not to let her nap too much in the day, the best routine seems to be either one really big sleep at lunchtime - 2 to 3 hours, or two short naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Personally I prefer the one big lunchtime sleep, so I try to keep her busy and active in the morning, and have even resorted to evil things like putting her down, giving her to someone else, or changing her nappy if I think she's trying to cuddle up or breastfeed and have a doze before I consider it to be time! It is worth it in the long term and unless she's really tired I can usually distract her enough that she cheers up again and keeps going for a bit longer.

We had another good night - 8pm to 7am, so that is two in a row, and I feel so much better for it. No doubt she'll get a cold or start teething within the next few days so it will all be pear shaped again...sigh.

Molly

x

[curlykaren]

....come on here and flaunt your sleeping baby in our weary faces...grrr

[crystal7]

Jealous...short naps here so too tired to eat much at bedtime so 3 feeds in the night (and several more wake ups)... sigh...Any tips on how to get a 5 month old to nap for longer than 30-40 min?

[The Nappy Lady]

.....hanging head in shame and slinking off into a corner.....

If it is any consolation baby C and I both have the same horrible cold now....

[snowboarder]

crystal7 same here. Why do they sleep only 30-40 mins? Will it ever get better?

[lard]

crystal7 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Jealous...short naps here so too tired to eat much

> at bedtime so 3 feeds in the night (and several

> more wake ups)... sigh...Any tips on how to get a

> 5 month old to nap for longer than 30-40 min?

My advice for what its worth I don't claim to be the font of all knowledge not a doctor etc just knows what works for our baby.

You've got at the moment....little food, little naps cos hungry, tired, so little food, so little naps = vicious circle.

So in the day don't give them the little feed the penultimate time before bedtime for a night. They'll be grouchy as hell, but then hungry as hell at bedtime. Fill them with a big bottle then. This will then see them through asleep more..then be hungry when finally wake, so then eat more, which then lasts them etc = Better cycle.

Our almost 6 month old is 3 bottles a day (+ just starting weaning 3 meals for practice) and 7.30-7.30 at night using this kind of thinking. As I say it is what fitted in with our life. The better cycle means that she gets a good sleep and then a full feed which then sees her through to next feed and is happy.

If your baby is a healthy weight, postponing a mini-feed isn't going to do any harm imo.

[Moos]

crystal7 and snowboarder, my baby was exactly the same as a young baby - poor naps and therefore poor night sleeping.

Everyone said it would get better when he was crawling. Didn't. Better when he was on solids. Didn't.

At 7-8 months, started to do some sleep training and focused on both night and day - initially used the baby whisperer technique of pick-up / put-down and some other no-cry solutions. These involve a considerable investment of your time and energy at night, so will need some pre-preparation and help from partner, and many people swear by them. If your baby only sleeps for 40 minutes at a time he or she hasn't learned how to get through more than one sleep cycle and is coming into a light sleep and then waking when he or she really still needs to sleep.

As it happened for us these didn't work, and after much soul-searching we tried controlled crying. It's not for everyone, but it did work for us. I personally wouldn't do it on a baby under 6 months though. 3 horrible days later he had learned to go through a full sleep cycle of 40 minutes and settle himself back down. Now and ever since he's a reliable sleeper and loves his naps - though he still gets up early.

Molly - hurrah for you.