Despite popular opinion, sleep is NOT over rated!

Well DD2 seems to think sleep is over rated!!
If I didn't know any better I would think I'd have given birth to an elf. She is such a strong willed little thing. (D&D nerds will get that reference :lol:)

In bed at 7pm up at 11:30pm, 2am, 4am until 5am, then 7am.
After 10mths of this I think I may need some assistance in locating my brain!
I'm a zombie!

She feeds to sleep every time she wakes, won't go to sleep any other way.

She naps well during the day generally a three hour nap in the morning and another one for maybe 40min in the afternoon if we have time for it.

I'm not really just after any solutions, I know it will pass and she will get better!! Just need a vent cause if someone else tells me that I need to suck it up and let her cry I might just slap them!

Maybe just some help when the time comes to find my sanity??

Where does she sleep?
:hug: I know it's hard, i remember all too well. I never let mine cry either. I found that co-sleeping helped.

We were co-sleeping, but since she has started crawling she crawled off the bed a couple times because I'm so tired i didn't hear her stir.
We put a single next to ours up against the wall but she crawled off the end.
So just last week we have put her into the cot next to the bed. She usually will come into our bed when she wakes at 4pm (4am I mean, 4pm I wish!! ha) and we co sleep til we wake for the day.

She is just a clingly little bub, will not let me out of her sight through the day, so i think this is contributes.

I have no advice cos I feel your pain!! Miss M still hasn't slept through the night, and is usually up for a few hours in the wee hours of the night!!! She's just wanting to play though - I wish I could give her a bottle and she'd go back to sleep!!!

So no advice - just LOADS of sympathy :hug:

Ah ok. When our youngest became active we also introduced a cot but he also woke around 3am for a feed and co-slept with us until about 7am. We also occasionally tried sleeping with him down on a futon mattress next to our bed then I would creep back into mine. He couldn't fall off the mattress and we closed to door so he couldn't get out. He was also more clingy... I put it down to him being the one I was separated the longest immediately after birth. He is now 3yo and is in his own single bed but still wakes up at 3/4am most night and comes into our room to sleep with us until morning... but often sleeps to 8am which is a blessed relief.

This too shall pass... if you are a SAHM just take it easy. I'm still taking it easy LOL

hehe yeah am a SAHM. I can hardly remember my own name let alone function in a work place. If the dishes don't get done til 3pm, it's no big deal in this house!

you know it's interesting you say you were seperated the longest from your youngest.
After DD2 was born we were seperated because I had to go into surgery to have a tear repaired. DH had left not knowing this would have to happen to get DD1, so she could meet her little sister.
She would have been alone for a little while before he came back.

Thanks Mel! We can shout each other coffee, I might put some whiskey in mine lol

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Thanks Mel! We can shout each other coffee, I might put some whiskey in mine lol

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Yup not a problem, when you come down to visit yeah? ;)

hehe maybe if I let her cry in the early hours they might hurry up and get the HELL out!! :)
otherwise YES!
When I come down for my extended holiday!

I feel for you! We have had so many sleep troubles here too. Have you considered putting Bub in her own room? :hide:
Our DD was waking as often as yours... We were co-sleeping, then moved her into a cot next to our bed and I had planned on keeping her there untill she was at least one, then the sleep deprivation was just too much so DP and I discussed it and we reluctantly decided to *try* her in her own room(after much sadness). That night she slept through for only the third time ever(she was around 6 months old by then) and slept through another 3 times that week. I couldnt believe it, I felt like a new woman! Now she wakes on average twice a night for her feeds, also she is feeding to sleep like your DD.
Just an idea! Hope you get some sleep soon :pray:

we were going to do that but unfortunately I am about to be invaded by all, yep ALL my IL's (11 of them) as they move down from up north.

So will have to wait a few months until they leave before we have any spare rooms to put her in!

Mine is still waking twice a night and everywhere I look I seem to see 'just let her CIO that will fix it straight away' which a) I don't believe and b) I don't want to do :shakehead:
BUT the idea of a full night of uninterrupted sleep sounds like pure heaven at this stage and I don't know when I will get to enjoy that again!

ll80- OMG I think I might have read your post about that the other day... terrible! Hopefully your DD waking up often will get rid og the in-laws quickly ;)

pixie-I think people who reccomend CIO should come and stay with us while our Bubs scream... Not a chance!

I feel your pain too mate! DS is EXACTLY the same..argghh... In fact since birth (10 months now for both of us!) I havent had more then 4 hours straight sleep, and 4 hours would be only a handful of times :doh:

C'mon babies..your mummies need sleep! :shakehead:

ashamedly out of desperation I have tried to leave her cry a little when she stirs in the hopes she would go back to sleep no chance, she works herself up to be so hysterical, it's heartbreaking. So no CIO for us.

She will not let me put her down today either! Clingy is an understatement lol. Little Koala! Thank god for carriers or my back would be screwed.

Peach - yes that was my post! Countdown is on the first lot arrive this weekend!

Lee - 4 hours is like a luxury! hehe So very sad!

Pixie - I'm hoping its sometime between now and their 15th b'day!

:hug: Oh hun I remember this time all to well wiht my ds!

Stick it out and continue with your gentle parenting cause it will pay off! Ds was fed to sleep like your dd all the time unitll I fell pg then i gently weaned him and he went into a little bed next to ours and started sleeping through...this was at about 20 months i think..i have a thread somehwere about it!
could you try putting her to bed earlier?????
The sleep deprivation is the worst but she will eventually do it and you wont know yourself :hug: Sorry its not much help :(

hey hun not sure if this is what u wanted to hear but have you considered sleep school? im sure the nurses there will have gentle parenting techniques aswell as CIO techniques x

:grouphug: hugs for all the sleep-challenged ladies!!!!!

*yawn* another non-sleeper here lol

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Well DD2 seems to think sleep is over rated!!

In bed at 7pm up at 11:30pm, 2am, 4am until 5am, then 7am.
After 10mths of this I think I may need some assistance in locating my brain!
I'm a zombie!

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Is this her routine every night?

Maybe you could try shifting her bed time 2-3 hours later to coincide with your own bedtime, so that you can take advantage of her 4.5 hour stretch? An added bonus is the 4-5am wake period would actually be at a more reasonable hour (more like 7 - 8am), so you'd get an 8 hour period with 2 wakings, instead of 3-4. To get her going to bed later, start her bedtime routine 10-15 mins later each night, until she's going to sleep at the time that suits.

Have you considered a mattress on the floor? That's where DS has slept since around 8 months cause he hated his cot and no room for us all together in bed.

We've never let DS cry it out either, but he's gradually gotten better (on the whole). If he's sick, teething or going through any sort of developmental leap then he needs a whole lot more help getting to sleep and staying asleep. That's just the way he is i think.

Too bad about the IL invasion. How long they there for?

Well not much has improved here!
I am still a zombie and she is still waking up at least 4-5 times a night. I went out and brought some Braurers sleep calm and that has made a big difference in getting her to sleep. Not a magic cure for the waking up but its something at least.
TO cut her some slack she is cutting the top two front teeth at the moment so that's probably contributing to her wakefulness.
Just have to ride it out!

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Is this her routine every night?

Maybe you could try shifting her bed time 2-3 hours later to coincide with your own bedtime, so that you can take advantage of her 4.5 hour stretch? An added bonus is the 4-5am wake period would actually be at a more reasonable hour (more like 7 - 8am), so you'd get an 8 hour period with 2 wakings, instead of 3-4. To get her going to bed later, start her bedtime routine 10-15 mins later each night, until she's going to sleep at the time that suits.

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I have tried making her bed time later but she just cries and whinges the whole time, it's better for my own sanity to let her sleep and me have at least a few hours to myself where I can sit and do nothing.

She's cut back her afternoon sleep now, so not having that at all just maybe an hour or two in the morning so come 6-7pm she is well and truely ready for bed. I am well and truely ready for her to go to bed lol

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Have you considered a mattress on the floor? That's where DS has slept since around 8 months cause he hated his cot and no room for us all together in bed.

We've never let DS cry it out either, but he's gradually gotten better (on the whole). If he's sick, teething or going through any sort of developmental leap then he needs a whole lot more help getting to sleep and staying asleep. That's just the way he is i think.

Too bad about the IL invasion. How long they there for?

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I was just thinking of mattress on the floor, if things dont improve soon will give it a go. Means having to go out and buy one but thats no big deal can just buy the base then when she is ready for big bed.

and the inlaws are staying too damn long!!
few more weeks most likely if not longer

I know it's no laughing matter..but your first two sentences mde me giggle as we are still exactly the same here! arrrggghhhhhh!

Hang in there!

Hey we started using a mattress on the floor maybe 2 weeks ago.... first thing that happened was that I was suddenly able to settle her without BB - dummy and a cuddle and she was back to sleep. Then she dropped from waking twice a night, to once a night and the last two nights she has slept through till 5am or 6am! Better for me too cause I can just lie down with her, don't have to get her out of bed or put her back in! Worth a shot!

(almost) anything is worth a go, hey?
We were lucky in that we had a queen-size mattress lying around, so DS has plenty of room to roll around, and we can co-sleep when he's having extra trouble.
TEETH - yes, that'll certainly cause disruptions. I know DS has a very hard time sleeping for at least a couple of weeks before the teeth start errupting and then this continues until they're all the way through.... sigh.

Yep, I highly recommend a mattress, preferably a double, on the floor beside your bed. If you buy a futon mattress you can roll it up for storage when not in use. It's a very handy thing to have... don't buy foam... not comfy and harder to store. We've used our futon regularly for 18 years. They are handy when the kids have sleepovers when they're older too.

Thanks everyone!
I am just back from the hell that is the local pool and swimming lessons for my 5 yr old. NO ONE should have to go through that when sleep deprived.

I guess I am mattress shopping on the weekend!

on a side note
A little public service announcement:
Please make sure when you're making that extra strong cup of coffee that you DON'T reach over the kettle for the coffee jar. You'll end up with a really sore steam burn on the underside of your wrist. :S

Oh
I also forgot to say is that because the house is so noisy from the in laws being here thats another reason why her sleep is so crap at the moment
she literally could wake up at a mouse fart
the other night I was creeping out of her room after finally getting her to sleep and my ankle cracked, WOKE HER UP.

so I've got the radio in low for some background noise and that has made a big difference she's not waking up at every noise from the two little boys now (they're 2 and 1)

Yep, mattress on the floor worked a treat for us too.

I'll bet she settles down a bit when the in-laws go!

Yeah don't do what we did and just put the cot mattress on the floor - cause it's pretty damn uncomfortable for me!

Yep, you gotta be comfy when you lie down there next to them... they can sense your vibes... if you are not relaxed they can tell LOL another trick is to breath a little bit more audibly than you usually do... and make it get deeper and slower like it does when you go to sleep. I've heard they get in sync with this and it can help them go to sleep better. So basically pretend that you're drifting off to sleep.

I still sleep with the radio on... BBC News Radio... lovely droney soporific monologue... no sudden heavy metal... or worse still: Jazz!

We used a double mattress on the floor with DS for AGES. It was great for me cause I could come and go and fall asleep or not - and it wouldn't matter.

Now he's moved into a "big boy bed" but I hate to say it...he'll be 2 in Jan and we still have completely crappy sleeping. I could count on one hand how many times that little bundle has slept through the night...

I guess some kids are too busy to sleep :pray: