Our Sleep Plan - Support and Encouragement needed

marcellus- true! Thanks, I should do that, just wait until 10 days and see what changes there are.

I have to tell you all though that tonight she went down on only the 3rd attempt!! Yay!!

:dance:

Woot! What amazing progress! :clap:

OMG!! EVEN BETTER!! SHE WENT DOWN TONIGHT ON THE FIRST TRY!! THE FIRST!!
So proud of my little girl, she's getting it. And her routine is even out a bit tonight coz MIL is here.

BRILLIANT! well done to you!

Hooray!!! Well done!!! xx

thats great, must be such a relief and you were able to do it the way you felt comfortable with, Yay!

Well, did our 10 day log last night.

Asleep time: 8.20pm
Awake time: 5.45am
Total number of awakenings: 3
Longest sleep span: 2hrs
Total hours of sleep: 5.25hrs

So basically, NO PROGRESS!! I am really friggen fed up now. I have no idea why she is waking so much! We have gotten better with the rocking to sleep. We are now able to put her down first try for the first sleep and also during the night when she wakes. But we are STILL on the first step though. And EVERY night without fail she wakes after 1hr or less after she goes to bed. Why? She is not hungry or anything. I just pick her up and rock her and put her back down but FFS it's wearing thin. I mean seriously, the longest amount of sleep I've had in the last few months is probably 2hrs. That's not ok!!

I've really just had enough. I feel angry that I've got into this situation somehow and I feel like gentle techniques are rubbish and don't work but I can't bear the thought of letting her cry. So what are my options? I have none, I just have to not sleep. Great.

Can you tell I'm over it?

First :hug:
Second - you HAVE made progress!!! She settles much better now and that is a GOOD thing!!! Well done - you should be very proud :hug:

Now, that first wake up 1 hour after going down ...........

Is it at the same time / predictable?? If it is remember the book suggests sitting there in the 15 minutes before the *expected* wake time so you can pat / shhhh etc as they start to stir to help them move into the next sleep cycle.

You have made some great improvements so far but it can take a month or more to change sleep patterns. Try to focus on one change / improvement at a time. Keep going!!!!!

Oh Heaven :hug: :hug: :hug: I know they say you see progress after 10 days but for us it took LONGER for her to stop multiple night wakings. And YES its frustrating, especially since you focus on it so much, analysing every single tiny details, hoping and praying to see progress, and it fgeels like one step forwards, ten steps back, and that night of sleep feels like it will never happen :-(

How you put her to bed? Wrapped, in a sleeping bag, or under blankets? We put Jazz to bed either in a sleeping bag or under blankets, but then when we stopped doing that (just dressed her warmly) it made a huge difference :o :dunno: She hated being wrapped, always kicked her way out of it, and it seems it is pretty much anything that covers her arms/legs that she hates.

I know it might seem like a long shot, but the way I saw it, what have I got to loose? It's not like it can make their sleep any worse :rolleyes:

We also found success with our amber necklace.

Thanks Michelle! I forgot about that. I'm going to try that tonight. I think it's about the 1hr mark she wakes up. Last night I think it was only 45mins.

Thanks Leash. Yeah she's wrapped to go to bed. It's really hard to put her down when she's unwrapped coz she flails her arms around when you go to put her down and wakes herself up. But lately she has been getting her arms out and then going back to sleep in the night so maybe now that she's settling easier it might work. Might try her unwrapped tonight. She has an amber anklet but I don't know if it does anything. Maybe a necklace would be better. I think she might be getting her top teeth. I just wish I knew the reason why she keeps waking, I hope there's a reason coz at least then I can do something about it.

Thanks so much guys. I will soldier on anyway :( No choice really!

Also, do you think her daytime naps are effecting her sleep at night? Because at night she is put down to sleep but during the day she STILL either is held or in the HAB.
It was IMPOSSIBLE to put her down in the day before and I actually haven't even tried for ages. If I don't try it's like I can hope that I might be able to do it but if I do try and I can't do it it just makes me so frustrated and angry iykwim?? So I'm just living in denial, pmsl. But maybe I just really need to cut out the holding while she sleeps in the day altogether so she gets the idea that she always sleeps in her cot??

It's sooooooooo hard to do though. I'm not very patient I don't think. And when I'm not getting enough sleep at night it's hard to have patience and be bothered during the day. Much easier with DH here aswell so we can take turns. He might be getting a bit of time off soon though :crossfingers:

I know the book says try anything to get day sleeps happening but I would try doing day sleeps, even if its just one, in the cot?
OR, maybe, put the shirt you are wearing today in her bed tonight? If she doesn't sleep much in the cot, that might help it be a bit more familiar?
Or maybe a mixture of both?

BRB, its about to rain and I have washing on the line lol!

Right... I can empathise too BTW, about not being patient. I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to Jazzy's sleeping, mostly because I just want to scream SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEP DAMMIT!


Hmmm, actually, thinking about it... do you think the silence of night is waking her up? If she is in-arms during the day, she'd hear noise, at least some. ou've probably tried but maybe if you have a tv in the room put it on at night? Or a radio playing soft music or even white noise at night might help?

She seems to be such a light sleeper during the day too, it's so annoying!! She doesn't even sleep that well when I'm holding her it's just that when she stirs I can quickly get her back to sleep whereas if I put her down she's awake after 45mins and still cranky and I can't get her back to sleep and it makes me cranky I've put in all that effort to get her to sleep and she's awake again so soon! grr... in the HAB she will sleep for 1.5hrs or more.

Hmm.....in the day I have her sleep time music on while she sleeps. Man, that would do my head in playing all night though, pmsl. Or maybe I'm so tired I won't hear it.

Well tomorrow is the weekend and DH will be home so I can start trying some day sleeps in the cot then. Who knows, now that she's easier to get down at night she might be easier to put down in the day too.

Heaven, if there's one particular day sleep that's better than the others try putting her down for that one. I wouldn't bother with the others though, cause it's just more stress (and less sleep).
Concentrating on night sleep is easier. Once she gets the hang of it, you may well find that the day sleeps improve all on their own. The most important thing for now is that she gets enough day sleep so she's not overtired.

When we did the NCSS, we found that day sleeps started working once DS was able to put himself to sleep in the cot, not before.

good luck (as always)

Thanks marcellus. I'll try for just one day sleep to start and see how I go.
Oh man, I can't wait til the day when DD puts herself to sleep. Feels like it will never happen though!

Oh, another thought - One thing that can set in around 6 months is separation anxiety.

Oh yeah that is just starting. Well not separation anxiety yet but crying at strangers, lol.

Home alone by myself tonight. She went to sleep at 7.15 and slept for 1/2hr, have been trying to put her down since then and she won't let me put her down even when she's sound asleep. So now she's in the cot crying. I can't hold her anymore, my arm is dead. Tried just giving up and getting her up and she was still crying so what's the point. So she's crying in there now bc I need a break. Maybe she'll magically go to sleep. Doubt it but I give up, I've had enough. Nothing works.