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Ryn i had the same problem with Kimberley she was awful to get to sleep until she was 5 months old. She would only sleep with us in the room with her and as soon as we left she would scream. One night after being up to her i don't know how many times i stuck her in the car capsule and managed to get 2hrs sleep. It was the only way to get any sleep.
I tried a stories on tape or CD for her to listen to and that worked for a little while. I know BBC sell some good ones on CD.
All I can say is that I went to Tresillian for settling and it was a god sent !
They taught my little girl to settle her self at every sleep period.
I swear they have special "sprinkle dust" at that place as they worked a miracle.
After I left there my baby would wake, feed, have a little play then nod off for a 3-4 hour sleep without fail. She is still a good sleeper and is 3 years old. (Born 01April' 04).
Information and contact details for Tresillian and Karitane are in the blue book..
Good luck :)
Well, it was "shocker night" last night. Twice in the day DS went down like a dream - humming and rocking 10 mins, into crib, rocked as the machine took over, he napped for an hour from the start of the rocking (he naps for up to an hour during the day, can't get him to do longer even in the sling). He tends to nap most of the morning, up about 1pm, down for a nap about 3.30-4pm, up until bedtime. This works for us as he's then tired at bedtime. Sometimes he will refuse his nap and I give up trying after 5.30 - he will be too awake at bedtime and I need to start to make dinner before 6 if I want him starting bedtime by 7.
Night time. 6.50 bath, 7.05 feed and book (can't do book without feed), 7.30 in his bed being rocked... 7.55 awake again. OK, wide awake and refused to go back to sleep... until 10pm. Still wide awake so he came to bed with me but still refused to sleep. All night, 1 hour naps then loads of kicking. And screaming if I turned the bedside light out, I hate sleeping with that on all night. At least shocker nights are getting fewer, I really need this routine to work!
I have caffine-free drinks already, alcohol seems to make DS work night-time better but I really don't want him needing a nightcap so I usually don't drink, I don't eat much chocolate, but can easily cut out what I do eat and see if it helps.
I did do one change last night - bath in the bathroom. Usually DH fills the bath and we do the bath in the sitting room, but as his company wants him to work 7.30am-7.30pm (out the house 7am-8pm) I need to do everything myself, including the bath, so that will have to be in the bathroom as I can't lift a full bath through the house.
This is another reason I want DS asleep by 8pm: he gets so excited to see his Daddy that he won't sleep when he hears Daddy come home, and Daddy is going to be far too tired to do anything on weeknights - even I'm not expecting any attention from him. This is only until he gets a new job (he has another interview soon) or August, when the company will review the overtime everyone's been told to do.
Meredith, DS is far too young to be able to do mattress to mattress - he's a wiggle-bum so I can't leave him alone on my bed as he can wiggle off (OK, it would take half an hour from the middle of the bed, and that's an effort, but overnight he could do it easily) and he can already roll over (2 months old - half proud, half worried what we've started!) so for now, him sleeping with no barriers, even on the floor, isn't an option.
I'm looking on the plus side - he is going down better now. I just need a better night tonight!
btw, we go out every morning somewhere whilst he's awake; today we're going to the airport to see my sister off. More usually we're out for a walk in the pram or to a mother's group.
RYN i too agree with earlier bedtimes. for months sophie went to bed at exactly 5.45pm every night!!! dont know why, just did, now it's anytime from 6-7pm.
through the day she lasts no longer than an 90mins up before she needs to go back to bed. after first feed of morning she's back in bed within the hour! first sign of the tired signs and i whip her off to bed.
sophie still has around 4 sleeps a day.
Hi Ryn
I bath Erynn in the lounge room in her baby bath. I fill a bucket with water just before she wakes up from her afternoon snooze and then just add a kettle or two of hot water once she wakes up and we have had a play. After her feed and she is in bed I empty the bath out and the water goes onto my garden first thing in the morning. My roses have never looked better and I am conserving water due to water restricitions!!!!
Although she is only 7 weeks old I dont think that she will be in the baby bath for much longer as she is getting a little frustrated that she cant kick and stretch her legs as much as she wants too.
Hugs to bubs
K :)
DS has been 8pm bath for the last two nights due to needing emergency doctor's appointments after a car crash - he is in so much pain from where the buckle hit his nappy area I'm stopping changing the routine for now (plus it's hard for me to keep picking him up as I'm injured too).
Thanks for all the suggestions - I'll be re-starting in a couple of weeks when DS feels better and I'll need them then. Right now he just wants Mummy all the time.
I hope he's ok Ryn, and you too. I hope the injuries aren't anything serious.
We'll recover, but DS is in constant pain - I've never been happier that he's in cloth nappies before! I'd hate to see the injury if he hadn't been bulked up down there. Well, I'm in constant pain too, but I'm old enough to get on with it; as I understand from DH a penis injury is the end of the world even when you understand why everything hurts.
Hi Ryn
Has this been happening for a while or is it recent? The period around 8 weeks is a Wonder Week fussy period that often shows up as sleep problems. I keep banging on about this book but it has made so much sense of what we've been through with Angus that I'll tell anyone who'll listen! The up side is that it gets better, it's normal, so hang in there, it sounds like you're doing all the 'right' things.
I'd also suggest that it might be worth checking your diet - Angus was much happier when I stopped having cow's milk, and additives in the 100s, 200s and 600s.
DH had never heard of the Hungry Caterpillar but I recently found the tiny version I had as a child so Angus gets that now. The other bedtime book I use is Time For Bed by Mem Fox. She's an Australian author but should be available in the UK. It's got a lovely rhyming verse that's easy to memorise. She also has a great book called Reading Magic which is about reading to children plus a stack of other great books with gorgeous pictures.
Hope you and Leibling get some sleep soon!
Well, the good news is he did 8.30-12, then 12-4.30... without wanting a feed until 7am. Downside is weeing is so painful every time he passes water it wakes him up. So he was up from 4.30-6.15... and so I'm awake for the day!
My diet... I only really eat home-cooked things, but the odd packaged food hasn't upset DS in the past. I have cut out all caffeine but that's not really altered anything save to make me want chocolate.
This has been pretty much since birth - he needs jigging to sleep. Now it's jigging until eyes shut then rocking, which works on the second or third attempt. DH usually does the second attempt now as I'm in too much pain at the end of the day - DS needs a lot of comforting and hugging all day, so I don't get a chance to recover until he's better.
can you just boob and snuggle in your loungeroom with DH so you don't get lonely and bored? our babys always just stayed with us sleeping on our laps until we went to bed, i know not for everyone but thought i would suggest it.
beckles
I could do, but I want DS to go to sleep in the bedroom. Plus DH is not going to be home until 8pm on weeknights now due to overtime, so that part of the battle won't be too bad!
9.30-10.20-3.40-6.20 last night... good, although we started putting him to bed at 7.20!
Those wake up/feed times actually sound really good Ryn.
Milo would feed almost frantically of an afternoon/evening and gradually got down to those times (plus 2-3 more feeds in the day, 6-7 all up)
It took a long time for us to get Milo's bedtime any earlier than 9pm (Its 7.15 -7:30 now), and then all of a sudden one night I put him down at 8, and he slept for 12 hours!
I think they sound good, but my mother tells me I'm feeding him "wrong" because I was sleeping through the night at 8w old on a 4-hour regime. I don't want to implement a 4-hour regime because DS feeds more when he's growing or when he's upset, so not letting him feed in the last week would have been downright cruel.
Grrrr...don't listen to your mum Ryn. You put so much love and thought into your care of Leibling (both while you were growing him and now) and in my opinion are absolutely correct in feeding him when he needs it not when the clock says. There's no way I could get Angus to feed 4 hourly - he'd be screaming the house down for an hour. He usually empties both breasts too so there's no snacking going on. Do what you think is right sweetie.
Rayray reminded me that we didn't get a 7-8 bedtime for quite a while too. It used to be 9/9.30 and started getting earlier only about 4-6 weeks ago (I think) and has gradually come forward to somewhere between 7 and 8 depending on feeding/sleeping patterns that day. Hang in, it will get easier.
Only just noticed your DH's muscles. You're looking very glam too!
IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE!:
but my mother tells me I'm feeding him "wrong" because I was sleeping through the night at 8w old on a 4-hour regime
Homestly Ryn, our mothers (particularly mine) have crap memories.......and even if it is true, so what?
Samuel sounds like he is totally doing what all new babies do.....his own thing.......he sounds totally normal to me.
Of course, some babies do sleep through the night at that age, but the vast majority of 2 months old babies would still be waking for at leat 2 feeds a night, more likely 3 feeds..........
Just go with the flow....
Ta girls, I reckon the reason I can miss meals now is due to that stupid schedule. DS doesn't feed much in mornings, then hourly from late afternoon onwards, but he takes at least one full breast, usually quite a bit from the second too.
Last night we did bathtime at 7.30, he was asleep the second the lullabies started and slept 8-8.50, then 9-11, 11-3, 4.30-6.30. Not so happy about the 3-4.30 awake time! I ended up putting on his lullabies and jigging him to sleep again, well, it's starting to work! He is getting fewer naps in the daytime too; no naps at all after 2pm.
The hard part is getting him to close his eyes, he knows he's tired but not to close his eyes. I've started playin a close-eyes game, yup, training him like a pet a little, but I want to be able to say "DS close eyes" and have him close his eyes and sleep. When we play I do "Mummy close eyes" to give him an extra hint too LOL.
Hi Ryn,
I had similar problems with my DS (now 16 weeks) and a DH who works long hours, so I do 99% of bubs care. I stopped bathing our son at bedtime (as it seemed to be to overstimulating) and started doing it late afternoon, used a baby hammock (gets them used to being out of your arms) and cluster fed in the evening 3pm, 5pm, 7pm. These were shortish feeds but seem to fill him up. And introduced a "lovey" - a teddy bear that goes to sleep with him - we started by having her with us breastfeeding. Now when bubs wakes up he sees his lovey, touches her and puts himself back to sleep 50% of the time (we're still working on it).
Now bubs wakes up twice to feed during the night, but goes straight back to sleep with no assistance afterwards. Sort of 7pm to 12pm, 12.30pm to 4-6am. We're still working on lengthening his day sleeps but the lovey is helping there :dance: .