oh no - sleep again...

[The Nappy Lady]

snowboarder Wrote:

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

> The Nappy Lady Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Hugs Snowboarder....I'm at work today otherwise

> > I'd come and help so you could get your head

> down

> > for an hour...is your other half around at the

> > weekend?

> >

>

> thank you:-) - but you have way more on your plate

> than me!!

>

> Not looking good. Since going to sleep at 7 has

> already woken once. ohhhh..

HA - yes, but everything stops for a baby cuddle...held a 5 week old the other day and couldn't believe how little and cuddly he felt compared to my big wriggler. How does that happen in 9 short months?

[KateMontero]

I think it's normal. Up until 3 months old my baby would only wake once duing the night. Between 3 and 4 months it was a little worse. Between 4 months and 7 months complete hell. Waking up to 5 times a night, refusing to settle and waking for the day at 4.30am!!!

Black out blinds, his own room and ending co-sleeping seem to have helped as sometime he now sleeps through 6pm-7am! Although only a few times so far. Or, maybe none of the above made any difference and it is just a co-incidence. Seems a lot of babies improve as they turn 7 months.

[snowboarder]

Oh good - so we're entering the 4-7 month phase! Last couple nights no better ugh guh ....I really am broken now...

[The Nappy Lady]

It is really important to try to get some rest in the day when it is like this....can you do that whilst DH is home, and next week when with parents? A couple of hours over lunchtime should do you the world of good, and early nights too if you can.

Hang in there hun....

[Fuschia]

Going to bed at 8pm and having DH deal with all wakings till midnight (if that's feasible?!)

Have an afternoon nap today if you can. Maybe take a piriton tablet if you are the sort of allergy prone family that have them to hand. They conk me out, very handy..I take them for insect bites, but they do help force daytime sleep when I need it!

[snowboarder]

Oh if only - in my own private hell at the in laws surviving on 4 hrs broken sleep and we're all on show..I'm in a kind of laugh/cry hysteria kind of mood...I've just given baby some calpol to calm and maybe make him sleep is that bad? Is the only drug I have with me other than infacol...Took a swift glug myself too...

[helena handbasket]

Snowboarder I absolutely feel your pain, and my stomach is clenching in knots at the memory of it! However, it has passed and I'm still alive so there's hope.

My son did not grow out of it. No advice worked. Solids didn't help, darkness didn't help, stupid lavender bath oil and massage routine didn't help. I lived on 4 hrs a night (not in a row) until he was 10 months old. Before he was born I was all about the Elizabeth Pantley/ Dr. Sears approach, but they had nothing to offer me once my son showed up! Some days his persistence made me lose the will to live. :)

Anyway, what saved my life was the Baby Whisperer. She is somewhere in the middle, against the crying parts but realistic about personality and babies that are so beyond a gentle pat and shushing. Her stuff takes work and mind -numbing repetition, but it worked. And frankly I was so out of my mind crazy after 10 months of demanding days and sleepless nights I was desperate enough to do it. I should have done it at four or five months though.

Interestingly enough, he also mellowed in the day because he was on such a good sleep and feeding schedule that he didn't get over-tired or hungry. Before that I was always on edge because he went from happy to meltdown with no warning, often in public. There was no rhyme or reason to any of it and none of the "advice" I got helped. I often joked that sleep deprivation used as POW torture should include a difficult baby in the daytime!

I had to laugh about the husband coming home. When mine would come home he'd ask how the day was and I'd snarl "just another sh&tty day in paradise!"

BUT by about one year he was sleeping roughly 7 -7. MY CHILD! The Baby Whisperer is that good!

[crystal7]

Snowboarder I feel you pain. My little one is nearly 6 months and still waking 3-7 times per night. She used to wake just twice until about 12 weeks but since then it's all been downhill. I've read so much on the subject of baby sleep. We've had some success with the Baby Whisperer and The No Cry Sleep Solution has good ideas but according to all of these books good night sleep seems to depend on good day sleep and I can never (or rarely) get my little darling to sleep longer than 40 min. She wakes up all smiles but half an hour later she's rubbing her eyes- eurgh! So sorry no advice but as I said I feel your pain. Fortunately from about 4 months she beaome a lot happier/easy going in the day- easier to cope with when sleep deprived!

[KBN]

Golly I'm not sure I should have read all of this! Anticipation of this lasting is not good! Sorry you are having such a rough time snowboarder...

Anyone any ideas for setting good sleep habits for a 10 week old? She sleeps, but ONLY on us, or co-sleeping. I battle with her in and out of the cot between about 9:30 and 12 (having given her a bath before), then relent and she sleeps with us. Then she sleeps very soundly and she wakes once or twice between c 1am and 8:30am (I'm breastfeeding). There seems to be no point in trying to settle her before about 9:30 as she is so alert and sometimes stays so till gone 2am. Do I go with the co=sleeping for now, or keep battling on with the cot? I don't mind the co-sleeping (in fact I like it) except for the guilt - the "everyone else's baby manages a cot, why not mine. Will we have to share our bed forever?". I know she is very young still but want to give her the best help for a good night..

During the day she sleeps a bit (in her front carrier, on me, or occasionally in the pram) but wakes in an instant if she is away from me. I'm trying to make her sleep more but that means my sitting still with her...

I went through a patch like yours snowboarder where I had not slept for more than 3 hours during a night - and it was the end of me. i don't know how you are still going! sorry to crash your post but wonder whether anyone can help?

[The Nappy Lady]

KBN,

Everyone's baby is different, don't think all the others sleep in a cot because it isn't true!

10 weeks is still very new, go with the flow, do what works for her (and you) in order to get rest and sleep. I reckon most babies start to click into a routine from around 4 months old. Just keep (gently) trying the cot and sooner or later you may find she settles better with it. I didn't use the cot at all until about 4 months old, but then she took to it very well, but we still do some co sleeping at night even at 10 months - usually when she is teething and waking in the night etc.

Make the most of the baby cuddles, before you know it she will be a wriggly toddler!

Edited to say - I know we are all programmed to feel guilty on some level once we are mothers, but try not to be, sounds like you are doing a great job. My guilt is that I didn't co-sleep enough with baby number 1, not that it seems to have done her any harm :))

Molly

[snowboarder]

Update - there's no pattern to anything is there? After all this baby snow slept in his own room on our hols in darkness and silence from 7pm until 4.30am, then until 6.30am. A one off maybe but at least I have recharged!! xx

[Moos]

Yay for you snowboarder!

[Fuschia]

It's interesting how a change of place makes them behave differently. Maybe you can chnage your arrangements at home to keep the good work going?

Black out blinds/white noise?

xx

[snowboarder]

Yup - blackout blinds on order, and he'll be in his own room rather than ours when we get home!

[Moos]

Our son sleeps much worse on holiday than at home. It's so unfair! but understandable.