Stressed as.. tried everything I can think of... exhausted

SingleMumOf2_3

nicky - he has a dummy. at night refuses it entirely. though will take it in the day at times. i have today started to put colief in his bottles. but cant at night as i add the milk powder as and when needed so the bottles are room temp and not hot. i tried him on rusks yesterday and he rejected it.. as he did with his other solids. but maybe just an off day. i didnt give any solids today and he hasnt seemed any different from that.
i can handle most things.. have been through alot the last year. but its the lack of sleep that is killing me. i am the type who needs a full nights sleep to function well. so as you can imagine a whingey toddler who is tired and pushing his luck, and a baby screaming for most of the day.. i am not handling so well on no nights sleep. but.. i will try and try and try again until i figure out a solution. i will do all i can to ensure both my boys are happy

KiKi

SingleMumOf2 wrote: »

i am the type who needs a full nights sleep to function well.

Oh, totally. And when you're sleep deprived all you want to do is keep them quiet so you can sleep! I had a ten day old stay with me for a week. By the end of it I kept the light on in my hallway as I was so worried my zombie-status would make me fall down the stairs with him in the middle of the night!!

KiKi

ticklepenny_2

Is it possible that he is suffering from reflux? If so tilting his mattress slightly may improve how long he sleeps, but this will also apply to angling changing mat and ensuring he stays tilted after a feed. Baby massage may help with this also.

Also you said that you tried lactose free diet whilst he was BF, was he having problems at this stage as well? My brother started life with a list of allergies as long as my arm and ended up on goats milk and soya based milk, as soon as my mum worked this out he started sleeping for more than 20 minutes at a time.

If your GP is being useless try to see another, or even have a word with your health visitor. I had problems with DD not sleeping at 41/2months and felt I was banging my head against a brick wall till I spoke to a Dr other than my own GP. She told me to wean DD (against all other advice) as she was a larger baby, I did and it worked. Baby porridge was my saviour, followed by heinz powdered shepherds pie.

But as you already know each baby is different so I would just keep pestering health professionals till you get the help you need. It may be worth writing all the details down. EG, when the problems started, constipation whilst BF, which milks he has been on, and a diary of a typical day. That way they may be able to see something you dont IYKWIM.

I also echo the other posters who suggest someone else giving you a break. Even if it is a friend taking them out for a 2 hour walk to the park just so you can get some sleep.

SingleMumOf2_3

well.. i am going to attempt to take him up and try my hardest to get some sleep. i will update you all tomorrow on how we got on.
we cant get out at all tomorrow.. so will be a very testing day. especially as the landlord has agreed to get a shower fitted for me. so will be lots of drilling going on and strange people in the house. which i am sure will only add to the stress and the upset for baby. but i will be strong.
even if it means i have to use the swing and dummy to get him to sleep in the day and the evening. if it gets him used to a routine with feeding we will be getting a little bit closer i am sure.
of i go for lots of pacing, rocking and patting until 1am lol. maybe if i start now i may just manage at least an hours sleep
thanks for all your advice. he has a cold too i think atm. keeps coughing and gagging. and has been a bit sicky today. so i am hoping that wont effect things too much.

NickyBat

SingleMumOf2 wrote: »

nicky - he has a dummy. at night refuses it entirely. though will take it in the day at times. i have today started to put colief in his bottles. but cant at night as i add the milk powder as and when needed so the bottles are room temp and not hot. i tried him on rusks yesterday and he rejected it.. as he did with his other solids. but maybe just an off day. i didnt give any solids today and he hasnt seemed any different from that.
i can handle most things.. have been through alot the last year. but its the lack of sleep that is killing me. i am the type who needs a full nights sleep to function well. so as you can imagine a whingey toddler who is tired and pushing his luck, and a baby screaming for most of the day.. i am not handling so well on no nights sleep. but.. i will try and try and try again until i figure out a solution. i will do all i can to ensure both my boys are happy

truely i can understand it is killing you, i like you on't function well when i havent had my sleep and i so wish i could offer you a solution. Maybe its the solids he is kicking up a stink about if its them he keeps refusing but the milk isnt filling him??
Another thing i used to give my little one was semolina, i used to buy the dried pack and make it with his milk - it did help.

pupsicola

I really feel for you. Went through similar when my youngest was around the same age. They are always restless and off their food when teething. I found nelsons teethas wonderful when mine were teething.

May sound like a funny question but could the milk be disagreeing with him. Not an allergy as such but babies can have funny reactions to new things introduced into their diet. Maybe this new hungry baby milk is giving him tummy pains. Just a thought.

Im also a single mum and trying to cope with 2 tiny children on barely any sleep is horrendous. Is there anybody who can give you a break so you can rest? Even if a kindly neighbour could help for an hour or so it would help you.

Jenx

My son was a nightmare - never slept, fed constantly (or so it seemed) upto 20 times a day - in the end I took him to the osteopath who was specially trained in mctimoney cranial head massage - worked like a dream!
I wasnt a believer, but it worked for us, and after 2 sessions, he was 'fixed'.
The massage was really gentle and he had great fun cos it was like playing finishing off with a whole body massage so it relaxed him....worth a try??? I found them in the local yellow pages:) goodluck!

ajaney

Just wanted to send you a hug really as I know how hopeless you feel when you're not getting any sleep because of Baby.

You've had lots of good advice & I hope it gets better soon for you.

I've just in the last month weaned my baby from exclusive breastfed to 1 or 2 bottles plus solids 3 times a day (hes now 7 months). We've had a few struggles with the food, I found letting him hold some food like Cucumber sticks, rice cakes (must be no salt of course) or sticks of cheese helped to get him interested & the cold cucumber helps soothe the gums. In terms of solids, mashed sweet potato, pureed pear & yoghurts have gone down the best.

Keep posting & good luck x

MrsBartolozzi

When he is crying is he bringing his knees up at all?
My DS2 was totally BF until he started solids and within a short period of time he was up all night in a similar pattern to your son. He was around 6-7 months old and so we assumed it was teething, but it went on for so long that I went to the GP to ask for something to help him sleep so that we could! I was very lucky to get a locum (had mentioned it to usual GP who said that babies are known for not sleeping and there was nothing wrong) who suggested that because it had happened since having solid food DS's gut flora could be out of whack.
He suggested we give him a couple of teaspoons of good live yogurt (we used Yeo valley) twice a day. Within about 3 days there was a noticable change to him and within a week he started to sleep for maybe 4 or 5 hours at a time (took a few weeks to get out of the habit of waking, but the pain wasn't there iykwim). I then gave him a couple of tsp yogurt for pudding once a day for ages after in case it came back.

smithyjules

Hi there,

My first baby was a breeze but my ds 8 months now, is truly a challenge! He would cry and scream and cry and scream and wouldn't even settle in a swing, refused a dummy the whole shooting match. He would be awake screaming between 2-5am and then fall asleep exhausted and then my daughter would be up at 5.30!He was on hungry baby Aptimal and we used Avent bottles (which were fab with my first baby!). Never really noticed any huge problem with wind but my aunt (2 reflux/colicky babies!!) suggested Colief and Dr Browns bottles. We used the colief religiously with the dr browns bottles and within 2 weeks there was a marked change in him, and made up the bottles in advance for the day and again for the night (advice on how much in advance to make them up changed between my children and neither have suffered any ill effects from bottles made in advance but just my experience). After that 2 weeks I explained all of this to my GP and he prescribed Colief for us from then on as we had given it a good go ourselves before asking for such an expensive item i expect.

He honestly was a different child after that, he settled better and started to enjoy lots more things. If you are using Colief it has to be at every feed if you possibly can as otherwise it will probably confuse baby's tum I think.

Anyway I really do hope you find some help from this thread even if it just some moral support, it is such a lonely time when you are up in the night, especially with a second child as you have the guilt about not being able to be the mum you were before for your first. Give yourself a pat on the back, you are doing a great job, hang in there!

ps my little fella has now developed the temper of a toddler at 8 months you wouldn't believe it unless you saw it. I'm an experienced nursery nurse and have never come across such a "spirited" baby before, it seems each stage of development with him is going to have it's own challenges bless him.

Forgot to say have a look at the colief website as that explained it all for me really well, the leaflet in the packet is a bit brief.