Baby sleeping help - at our wits end!

Curious_George_2

i know its hard to be strict when your crying out for sleep and its hard to stay awake to get it done when you have to be up the next day, i do.. it seemed like a horrible never ending task when i started too...
but isnt just one or two more weeks of sleepless nights (each night an improvement after the first one or two) better than letting it go on forever?
thats what kept me going... knowing that if i kept strong it would all be over...

if your floorboards disturb him when you check before bed may i suggest not going in to check him? i cant go in either of my kids rooms at night without waking them anymore so i stand outside now and listen... as soon as i hear him breathing i go to bed... cos you know hes alright or he would be crying... so your basically checking hes still alive!

radio is good background noise, DS had the radio on before i found him a CD, i distinctly remember being stood in the doorway shaking my thang to lady gaga at 4 in the morning once!

Kimitatsu

I have not read the whole thread but I ahve a 13 year old who has never been a good sleeper. He didnt sleep through the night until he was 10 months old and slept in the same room as us until he was 3 and a half.

His issue the health visitor felt that he was too big for the cot (he was a big baby, he was 22.5 inches long when he was born) so when he flung his arms out then he would hit the sides - that would wake him up, and so he would cry. Our solution was to put a single bed next to ours so he could put his hand out and touch someone (he was always a touchy baby) and then when he went up to his "big boy" bed it was in his own room. From the time he got his own big boys bed he never got up again. We moved the bed out from ours in stages so he didnt get scared and he was fine after that.

Now before everyone shouts at me, its what worked for me, and given that it was either sleep deprivation on a massive scale or doing something which worked for us with the blessing of our extremely sensible HV, thats what we did. Sometimes its not about what the professionals say its about following your instinct and doing what is best for you.

gizmomum

CG I did read your post too and it makes alot of sense, as much for my DD as DS and it will become another trick up my sleeve I can use (I've got so many tricks from this post I need bigger sleeves :-))
DS definitely needs backgtround noise, altho I'm not sure about lady gaga!
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who checks for breathing sounds. It's nigh on impossible to go in without disturbing him so either llistening outside or through the monitor is the only option (altho I think maybe the monitor is a prop I should be doing without for him, after all he is two!)
So stage 1 is to get DS upstairs on her own and then to use what I'm going to call the CG method to get whichever one that kicks off settled
I've been close to tears reading some of these posts and the message about being strong and getting it done is soooo true...and angelfairy, I know exactly what you're saying about being so exhausted, especially with working full time. I think one of the best places I am going to start drawing the strength is from the responses here...they've shown it's not an impossible task!

jinky67

gizmomum wrote: »

I think one of the best places I am going to start drawing the strength is from the responses here...they've shown it's not an impossible task!

kate1979

I'm more of a lurker here than a poster, but can I just say how nice it is to read a thread about baby sleep without it degenarating into a fight about controlled crying v. other methods? Every other thread I've read on this subject turns nasty quite quickly. There has been some wonderful, friendly advice here.

I'm afraid I might have jinxed it now though by mentioning it!

For what it's worth, my LO (13 months) started off as an excellent night sleeper (though a rubbish daytime napper), but has become a little trickier to deal with now that he can stand up and move about. I will admit that some nights we've been so tired that we've got into bed with him (we have a spare bed in his room), especially when he has a cold or is teething. We've not really tried anything specific, just muddled through, giving hugs where we think necessary and trying to hold back if we think he'll settle himself. Purely done on instinct I suppose. Now he's walking, he's finding it much easier to sleep through the night.

So, not much help from me I'm afraid, but I wanted to say thanks for the thread, and for how useful it's been.
Kate x

angelfairy

hi all,

took me 2 hours to get LO down tonight. i took her up as she was doing her usual i'm tired signs, despite having a long (very unusual) nap this afternoon.

the lighter evenings do not help, alongside children playing and shouting outside (of course completely understandable though).

she has a bit of a cold to.

i did use some of Curious George's advice and kept moving myself closer to the door. i do not know how many times i laid her back down saying 'it's time for sleep'. must have been well into the hundreds.

fingers crossed for a good night. i'm going to try they moving closer to the door thing during the night also, even though it will be dark, but it will also help me with her separation issues of me leaving the bedroom day or night if she is in it alone.

hope everyone else has some progress tonight. not sure what we have is progress, but it's a start xx

Glamazon

Curious_George wrote: »

i know its hard to be strict when your crying out for sleep and its hard to stay awake to get it done when you have to be up the next day, i do.. it seemed like a horrible never ending task when i started too...
but isnt just one or two more weeks of sleepless nights (each night an improvement after the first one or two) better than letting it go on forever?
thats what kept me going... knowing that if i kept strong it would all be over...

if your floorboards disturb him when you check before bed may i suggest not going in to check him? i cant go in either of my kids rooms at night without waking them anymore so i stand outside now and listen... as soon as i hear him breathing i go to bed... cos you know hes alright or he would be crying... so your basically checking hes still alive!

radio is good background noise, DS had the radio on before i found him a CD, i distinctly remember being stood in the doorway shaking my thang to lady gaga at 4 in the morning once!

Yep, I'm checking his breathing
I can't help it! Just realised that if I go in the room in socks its OK, its if I wear slippers or go barefoot.

Well, he's gone down earlier tonight after having a 90minute nap and 2 x 30minute ones. He's sleeping on the vest I wore to bed last night and after 1 wake up, I put his lullabies on from downstairs and he went straight back down.
Tonight I WILL focus on getting him to go back to sleep in his cot instead of bringing him in my bed.

angelfairy

Glamazon wrote: »

Yep, I'm checking his breathing
I can't help it! Just realised that if I go in the room in socks its OK, its if I wear slippers or go barefoot.

Well, he's gone down earlier tonight after having a 90minute nap and 2 x 30minute ones. He's sleeping on the vest I wore to bed last night and after 1 wake up, I put his lullabies on from downstairs and he went straight back down.
Tonight I WILL focus on getting him to go back to sleep in his cot instead of bringing him in my bed.

i'm with you on this x

Glamazon

angelfairy wrote: »

i'm with you on this x

Report back tomorrow!

OP - sorry I seem to have hijacked your thread!

angelfairy

Glamazon wrote: »

Report back tomorrow!

OP - sorry I seem to have hijacked your thread!

Me too OP..sorry

OP ... let us know how your night goes too