Support thread for sleep deprived with babies over 6 months

by **Toblerone** » Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:51 am

[quote][/quote][*]Short article in today's Indo.
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/par ... 28130.html
Just wondering if anyone bought this book or used the service?
http://www.babysleepanswers.co.uk

by **supercat** » Mon Feb 07, 2022 2:14 pm

I am assuming you dont have a sleeper, me too so I feel your pain, celebrated 8 months of no more than 4 hours sleep in a row on a good night yesterday. Having read all the books, done all the googling and crying known to man I now think there is a lot of money to be made in sleep training, which works for some but not for others. My attitude is now, whatever worksin our house will have to do and this too will pass. :xxx

PaniniRoses · by **PaniniRoses** » Mon Feb 07, 2022 3:16 pm

DD slept amazingly until she was 4 months, but since then has gone no longer than 4 hrs at a time, sometimes even less. We have a short bedtime routine that has her in her cot no later than 7.30, but even then she's up again around 11, 3 and 7 every night.

We used the No Cry Sleep Solution, mainly to track her sleep pattern because I was too goggle-eyed to figure it out, and to learn to distinguish between her sleep noises and actual waking, but I am absolutely sure that she is simply sleeping they way she needs to and that when she is ready, she will sleep longer again. I have to keep reminding DH (who rarely wakes with her anyway!) that she's only a baby and we need to work around her for a while yet - she's not waking just to annoy us! I have heard some interesting results from sleep experts though, so I think as Supercat says, it works for some - hope you're one of the success stories!

Supercat, I never realised before that we have twins!

by **aurora** » Mon Feb 07, 2022 3:17 pm

i too have a non-sleeping baby so I feel your pain - same as supercat, 4 hr max stretch at night ever and then wakes up 2 hrly. He only naps for two half hours a day aswell. have tried everything to get him to sleep but nothings working so far. i was hoping he'd grow out of it but no such luck. i was just pondering employing the sleep doctor this morning (the one that was on tom dunnes show) - a friend is using her at the moment so going to see how she gets on. i'm going to also religiously follow the no cry sleep solution for 3 weeks and see how that goes, have been half heartedly following it before. if that fails i'll try get someone in.

by **supercat** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 9:51 am

Ahhhhhhh Bayby Roses and the Super Kitten, how cute. It also is another step closer to proving my theory that there was a full moon or something going on with babies born in May/June non of the ones I meet are sleepers.

Auroa and PR do you think we should set up a support thread for people with non sleepers over 6 months. I never thought it woudl last this long, how nieve. I was convinced that worst case she would sleep through at 6 months. Not a hope. Our routine is basically when she is looking tired at about 8 I bring her up to our room, nappy, jammies, low lights feed her and cross my fingers she goes asleep. She takes a soother which is good and from then on I am also in bed watching the TV on low and then she feeds roughly every 1, 2 or 3 hours through the night. Last night I nursed her and popped her into the cot but she only lasted an hour. I just keep thinking she will grow out of it and there is no point in stressing. I met a great Mum at my LLL who had the same problem with her no1 and she broke her heart before her daughter slept now on the son she is totally going with the flow as she thinks there is just no point. So how are you guys surviving?

by **aurora** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 10:00 am

thats a great idea about the thread supercat.
i'll have to complain about ds sleep everyday on here cause whenever i do moan about it he sleeps a bit better that night! he went asleep around 8.45pm last night, then woke at midnight for a feed, woke for a good while around 3.am but mooched around a lot and didn't cry for feed, then woke at 7.30am for the day.thats the longest he's ever gone beteen feeds. I have more colour in my cheeks today even though thats not a great night by most peoples standards!

by **BB1** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 10:34 am

Girls im so glad you posted this, DD is the exact same, slept great till 4 months and now goes no longer then 4 hours. Up until 12 midnight I'd say she wakes every half hour to an hour. Its exhausting, I feel better now knowing im not alone though!

by **summer101** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 10:39 am

hi ladies,

Great idea re thread, good to hear from other people who have non sleepers, my dd is same, never slept through the night and although she doesn't feed anymore she still wakes. She has no interest in soother but uses her bottle as a prop. Today though i have put her down for her nap without her bottle and she only needed a small bit of soothing and went off. She sleeps in her buggy & in the car without bottle so like panini i feel when she wakes at night she's not looking for anything she's had her sleep that she needs and will go back in a while after. I'm back to work in 2 weeks & hoping that maybe the change in routine will knock her out but i've been hoping for different things on & off the last few months and she hasn't slept through yet.

Supercat i like your theory re full moon around may/june :o0

tbh i never thought i'd be getting up every night after nearly 9 months so a thread would be great it would show other new moms that sometimes babies just don't sleep through.

by **Toblerone** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 12:31 pm

Oh Oh I don't really want to post to say that my DD is 14mths!!!
She has done 2/3 nights sttn in a few stints since she was 6mths old (i can tell you exactly when if you want - the dates are engraved in my head as wonderful nights :o0

) but now usually wakes at least twice during the night. Now I know she has been teething and bit sick but we never seem to get back to the sttn completely.
In our case, I'm the prop as DD won't take bottles. Latest is that she wants to stay with me - doesn't matter if I'm sitting on couch or lying down in her room. I have been through occasions of being v strict with her and ensuring that she ends up in her cot but I'm so tired (bk working ft now) and I'm getting v unreasonable over silly things - like someone parking in 'my' parking spot in work this morning has majorly p***ed me off.

by **BB1** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 1:57 pm

Grrrr just back from the phn with DD for her 7mth check, thought Id say it to her about the sleeping to see if she had any helpful advice, should have known better!! She asked me do I ever take her into my bed, and I said 'yes, Im knackered, anything to help settle her', so she proceeded to tell me she only wakes because I spoil her and have her in bad habits O:|

. She wakes even when shes in my bed so I know thats not the case at all. Should have known better then to ask girls O:|

by **supercat** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 2:43 pm

Yay, this could be great.

Toblerone could you edit the title of the thread to something like "6 months + sleep deprived but surviving support" I think you have to give your baby the benefit of the doubt for 6 months at least before you can really count it as a long term thing.

I think having somewhere to get support from other survivors woudl be great. I get lots of well meaning advice but the fact is I have tried EVERYTHING and she is just not a great sleeper so I am just going with it and really believe she will grow out of it eventually! Lots of people balme the breast feeding so its great to meet other moms who arent and their babies arent sleeping either. I also got a rap on the knucles form the PHN, but get a grip do you want to come to my house and take over O:|

by **aurora** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 2:50 pm

yeah i've decided not to mention the co-sleeping to any phn or doc anymore. phn at one of the early check ups told me it was obvious that that was the thing to change when i asked advice. but i told her things that were bothering me the bloated belly, slight wheeziness, the not liking lying down, the sleeplessness etc and she never picked up on the fact that it could be an allergy (ds dairy and egg allergic). if she had it might've stopped it before he got into bad habits....Gp the other week said to stop the co-sleeping too. suppose it could be worth a shot and i keep meaning to but i kinda secretly like him cuddled up to me haha.

by **supercat** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 3:08 pm

aurora, dont balme the cosleeping yet, he is still very young. My plan is to let it all hang out till the kitten is a year and then make some small changes. Just do whatever you can to maxamise the sleep and with bad sleepers who you can pop on the boob there is no better way than the cosleeping. It wont last forever!

PaniniRoses · by **PaniniRoses** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 6:58 pm

Great idea for a sticky/thread...as long as we can stay awake to post on it! :zzzz:

Girls, don't blame the co-sleeping, DD is in her cot in her own room since she was 4 months and she only slept in with us on 2 occasions ever! Tbh, sometimes it would be so much easier if we did co-sleep, but while she was in the cot in our room she was waking because of us (well, DH!) and the noises "we" were making. In some ways I do blame the bf'ing - dd takes such small feeds I think she just can't sustain a long sleep without getting hungry. But I know it's a good lifelong feeding pattern though, so I'm telling myself I can cope with it.

Aurora, I'll be posting every day here too - DD slept better than she has in a while last ! I think it's also to do with more layers in a colder room (long sleeve vest, babygro, 2 blankets and room at 17degrees). Going to try it again tonight and see if it works on demand rather than by accident. I felt really mean putting her back into the cot at 4 this morning, because it was so cold, but she seemed to be sleeping much more soundly than usual and she didn't wake til 7.45...so I was late for work!

Toblerone, I feel your pain about work. I'm back a month now and I was hoping the creche would put manners on her! She is sleeping much more in 24hours - ie gone from 2 30 mins naps during the day, to more than 3 hours yesterday, but it hasn't made all that much difference at night.

Overall, I'm taking heart from my sil - my niece slept beautifully from 8 weeks, since she was about 3 she fights going to bed and is up at 6.30 most days. My nephew, her brother, didn't sttn til he was over a year, but now he asks if he can go to bed at 7.30, and is still half asleep, wrapped up in his pjs and blankie walking his big sister to school every morning, and he's 4!

by **mamabelle** » Tue Feb 08, 2022 9:18 pm

My DD slept thru the night twice in 15 months - but started sleeping thru the day we brought DS home from the hospital! Haven't looked back since. So there is light at the end of the tunnell... We didn't want as long a tunnell on DS so when he moved on to solids I started giving him a feed of baby rice before his evening bottle. If I give him this he sleeps thru - if I don't he won't! So might be worth trying carbing your LOs up before bed for a week and see if it makes a difference. My BIL went thru the same with his DS and asked the creche to try and get more grub into him during the day and it made a huge difference overnight!

Mightn't work for any of you but if it gives one of you a nights sleep it'll be worth it! I still have flashbacks of those first 15 months...

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