Wish me luck tonight-another night of baby not sleeping thru

jcr16

i so know the feeling, ifeel today like i been hit round head wth a base ball bat. I've always had fantastic sleepers. but last night went to bed about half 1. my baby ( 2yr) woke up at 2am. asking for toast and had wet through his nappy all his pj's. he was soaked. changed him and he wouldn't settle. so came downstairs. he had toast and drink, we snuggled watch a dvd. then at 6 am he fell asleep. only to wake at half 6. but half 7 i was dead. hubby woke up and looked after kids while i slept till 11.

i'm not used to it, so it was horrid.

when i was younger i could pull all nighters and still go to work next day fine. now i can't handle missing sleep,lol.

angelfairy

hi happynewmum,

you are not alone with this... there are a quite a few of us on mse struggling to get our LOs to sleep through.

i have a 13.5 month girl and am still struggling. we have trouble breaking the 4 hour mark after midnight most nights. i am still finding a way.

i find it really helpful to hear what other mums/dads are doing to see if i can pick up any tips.

i can't do the controlled crying, so am trying to find other solutions.

good luck

xxvickixx

I haven't really anything helpful to add apart from wish you luck and I do know what you're going through as our DS is the same.
I do think that some children are great sleepers and others are not and ultimately there's not a lot that you can do to change that. Yes there are things that may help a bit but once you get to the thinking that it's not something that you have done wrong and that you just need to cope with how things are it stops you going insane searching for the solution.

For us I'm really fortunate that DH gets up and settles DS more often than not, this was because if he saw me he'd want to BF. We're at the point now where if he wakes before 5am I won't feed him and he's gently settled back to sleep unless it's obvious that there's something wrong and then I'm not so strict!

We bought a groclock (you set the time for day and night and it glows yellow for day and blue for night) which in theory is great as it shows the child when it is an acceptable wake up time, and it has helped in getting him to sleep in the first place, and then it helps him accept that it is still bedtime when he wakes at night time so it's quite quick and painless to get him back to sleep.

The other thing that I should have thought of a long while before I did was that I drank quite a lot of coffee (regular not decaf) and I cut that down gradually to one (or maybe two if it was a really bad night) in the morning just to get me going again. This really improved his sleep as I think the caffeine was keeping him awake.

He now quite often sleeps through until 4-5 am but I have now just accepted that he's an early waker. We're currently working on getting him to play in his room for a while until it's a reasonable time for everyone to wake up!

I find the most frustrating thing is when everyone around you is giving you advice and making you feel like a failure?

It will pass, one day it will, and remember to take your revenge when your lazy teen wants to sleep until midday!

Woby_Tide

Happynewmum wrote: »

but he wakes up around 4 times a night. I get him out, give him a feed and put him back in cot.At his age he shouldnt need a feed

This... it's just association now, probably doesn't need a feed as you say. But they know that they will get attention and a feed if they wake. Thats the mindset that needs to be broken if you want more sleep. Tough decision but it's whether it's in your interests, yes it will affect the little one but you already know that they don't need the feed, they'll lose some attention(that is probably not good quality if it's interrupting your sleep/well being). The end outcome maybe that it's better for both of you, but of course there will be short term pain for both of you

Happynewmum

Good morning.
Dont need to mention to anyone how tired I am.Little one must have woken up about 5 times.Did feel sorry for himFirst time he woke up I let him have a moan for about 10 minutes then threw him back into my bed.Will try and extend this bit by bit and see what happens.

What I would do right now to have a Red Bull:(

Happynewmum

could you cosleep again while his teeth come? Perhaps from a certain time each night when you just need sleep?

To a certain degree I do.When he gets fed he lies next to me.But I wouldnt do it properly again. Took me far too long to break out of the habit

Happynewmum

yummymummy1987 wrote: »

I so know this feeling
My first was bfed til 12 months and LOVED cosleeping so we all got a fab nights sleep then when he was about 1 he went into his own bed no probs
My 2nd son didnt like co sleeping, was bfed til 13 months and only slept thro the night when i stopped bfeeding?? coisidence (sp) maybe?
All i would say is do what feels right for you, its easy enough for HV's/friends/people off the web to tell you what to do but they arent in your shoes through the night. All i would say is it wont be forever :T
Take care, hope you get a few hrs good sleep

Just wondering-how did you wean your little one off the breast?

xmaslolly76

Morning Happy

Was just looking to see how you got on. Did your little one just wake and go back to sleep or is he staying awake for a period of time?

I have the same problem when my bubs is teething thank fully he isnt grumpy he just wont sleep he is 8 months old now. Does he sleep well during the day as it can make night time sleeping worse if they dont get their proper knaps during the day unfortunately an overtired baby = a wide awake baby go figure!

Hope it gets better soon :-)

Jo_R_2

I do agree with skintchick about the comforting aspect of breastfeeding. I've had it with all mine to varying degrees, mostly with the first and then decreasing to baby (well I still call him 'baby' even though he's 14 months:D)

Although I would call myself an "attached" parent, I found as time went on, I simply couldn't manage being on call once DD2 hit the year mark. I was tired, grumpy, and although it was in my very nature to comfort them by feeding when they woke in the night, physically it took its toll, particularly as around that time with DD2 her dad left so I was bringing up two young ones, waking sometimes four times a night to feed DD2, and working near enough full-time.

We did work out that to some degree DD2 improved much more when she ate more solids (I should say this was after the age of 8 months and onwards) so I worked on getting her to eat more in the day and made a rule that whilst I would happily demand feed her during the day, the nights were mine again.

It was pretty hard, I didn't just go cold turkey if you like, but tried phasing it out. I still had her in my room so I'd hold her hand, cuddle her and whatnot, so she knew I was there and tending to her, I might offer her water if I worried she was genuinely thirsty, but gradually stopped the night feeding.

I also eventually took the step of moving her in with DD1 - interestingly I found this almost immediately cut out the night waking for feeds, but made me feel better as obviously she had company.

I hate to say hang on in there but work out a gentle but do-able strategy, with the support of those close, explain what you're doing and why, and go from there. It does pass, honestly:)

LJM

did your lo manage to sleep ok? and did you?