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Hi Ladies,
It seems like everyone is having similiar issues - well we just got over our sleep issues, so hope there isn't anymore coming up.
Re: Naps - I bought the Contented Little Baby book at the Babies and Kids Market the other day. I tried the routine, but it only really lasted for 2 days. Still, she says they should only sleep for 3 hours during the day and we do that. Sometimes Angus sleeps for an hour at a time, or a 3 hour block. Also, she says the baby should be awake by 7:30am, so if he sleeps longer, I just deduct that from his nap time. I'm not super strict on it, but we follow it loosely and it seems to be working.
Re: Control Crying - Sometimes Angus goes through a stage where he cries every time we put him down, no matter how many times we rock him. So there have been a couple times where DH or myself have just had to leave the room. We listen on the monitor and if he cries longer than 5 minutes, we go back in. It's worked twice for me and he has fallen asleep within a minute and the other time DH went back into the room and just patted him on his side - he fell asleep within a minute then too.
Re: Leaving them in their cots. On the weekend I really wanted to stay in bed. Angus woke up and was chatting away in his bassinet. I left him there and within 15 minutes he went back to sleep and I got my sleep in - Yay! :dance:
Good luck to everyone for getting their sleep... :pray:
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We do have a routine for him at bedtime, and it all goes perfectly until we put him in his cot, then the real crying starts! He did put himself to sleep last night, I was amazed! But then he had another night of frequent waking and I ended up sleeping in the spare room with him next to me so Trav wouldn't be too knackered for work :(
Aaargh! I really hope it's just a phase! I think I'm going to go and buy Save Our Sleep today!
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rooey i hope things really do improve soon. maybe co sleeping with him would work more. does he wake often when u co sleep in the spare room with him?
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Rooey - that's a great idea that you are going to buy the book. Is that the Tizzie Hall one? Another thing I noticed after reading the Contented Little Baby was that I don't think I was feeding him enough in the day. So now I don't feed him after 3pm and then give him a big feed at 6pm.
At the end of the day, it might just be a stage hey? and some days will be really good and some days not. Angus was sleeping through the night a couple of times at 6 weeks and then at 12 weeks he wouldn't sleep at all. The other night I did a dreamfeed (well more of a 10pm feed after DH woke him up by slamming the door) and he slept perfectly until 5am. Previously when I gave him a dreamfeed, he continued to wake up at 1,3 & 5 - so it was just an extra feed :wall:
But I really hope you get some hints from the book.
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Rooey - I have Save our Sleep... and dont really rate it that well! I tried it for a couple of days (Minus the CC aspect... we dont do that in our house either) and it was horrible. The recomended amounts of feeds in that book are WAY less than Tiah usually has and I couldnt make myself hold her off a feed for hours because the routine said too :(
I do find that when I follow the bedtime routine we have she sleeps a lot better... and on the nights I am rushed and leave out her stories, or even the bath (Yes sometimes I am that unorganised!) she wakes up more?
I really think these few weeks are just a developmental phase eh... well... thats what I keep telling myself. :)
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B - just a quick question for you. Do you use Woolies or Coles for your online shopping? I did a shop online with Woolworths last week and it was really good, apart from a few items not being available (I didn't mark to substitute). But I had a look at the Coles site and it looks a bit more user friendly.
Thanks :)
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To be honest I don't think he wakes any less often when we co-sleep, I think it's just a bit easier for me to shove a boob in his mouth and go back to sleep :lol:. He usually has three naps during the day, they very rarely last more than an hour.
I think at the moment it's just easier and a lot less stressful for us to rock him to sleep, I hate him crying for an hour, even if I am next to him patting hm the whole time :(
Meercat, I'm unorganised a lot of the time! I'd like to bath him every night because he has a bit of eczema (my fault, sorry Indy!), but it's more often than not every second night with sorbolene moisturising every night. I try to read to him during the day, and Mum bought him some kids story DVD's, which is pretty much just an animated version of the book with a narrator reading it. So he'll sit and watch one or two of those while I frantically fold washing :lol:
I just hope this is a phase that ends soon!
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maybe try giving him a bath/wash, massage, read a book, a feed, then rock him to sleep every night around 7ish for a few nights and see how that goes. sorry just trying to help! hope i am offering some help at least. good luck with it all and i hope indy settles down soon for u. r u sure he isnt teething?
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Rooey and Meercat- Very sorry to hear of the sleep troubles. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or anything but we've found the complete opposite to what everyone else was saying. We don't have anything even remotely resembling a routine and Adrian sleeps from 9pm to 6am nearly every night.
We tried putting him in a sleep routine after coming home but he only slept when he was tired and if we tried to get him to sleep when he didn't want to it was just crying and screaming and because of that we were stressed and felt a bit like failures.
I read some of the Contented Baby book but had to put it away before i burnt it because it made me feel like i was doing everything wrong, like letting him sleep too much during the day and not having exactly 3 hours between feeds!
I experimented a few times ages ago with letting Adrian do his own thing. Other than making sure he ate plenty during the day, I let him sleep whenever he wanted during the day and then stayed up late until he fell asleep of his own accord, then transferred him to his cot. I did this a few times without me interfering or putting him to bed when i thought he 'should' go to bed and I learned his sleep patterns and he learned to fall asleep of his own accord without the fuss and stress of 'bedtime'. I also found he fell asleep better when in the lounge with us in his bouncy or bassinet with the comforting noise of our voices than putting him in his cot alone in his room.
Now, when he has his last bottle and DH and I are watching TV, he is in his bouncy chair and when he starts to drift off i pick him up, wrap him and put him in his cot, or just wait for him to be fast asleep before i transfer him.
I know it's not what any of the books recommend as they all say have a routine, but this is what works for us and if all else fails maybe its worth a try? You might have a few late nights waiting for him/her to fall asleep on their own but it doesn't seem like you've got anything to lose?
My experience has showed me that a book cant tell me how to look after my son but HE can.
Anyway, don't want to sound like a preachy know-it-all but like i said , if all else fails........
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Hi Ladies,
I just caught up on all the posts and I would have to admit that I am in the same boat as Jelly. Aidan has no routine whatsoever and seems quite happy most of the time. He still has his unsettled moments, a few more lately which Im putting down to teething. But I have no set feeding times, bathtime, sleep time or a bedtime routine other than wrapping his arms up. Some nights he goes straight to sleep, other nights he wants a cuddle. Im a bit worried about how this will all go once I go back to work and Aidan is in childcare, which is only about 3 weeks away :/ I dont want to go back, but I do. We need my wage and me sitting at home is not healthy (I tend to get lazy and dvd obsessed).
Hope all the babies are going well =)
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Jelly you don't sound preachy at all, no one is trying to say one method is better than the other. I love hearing about what everyone is doing because there are hints and tips in everyone's journey that I often pick up and try myself. When I refer to our bed time routine, I mean the steps that we follow before DD crashes for the night, not at a set time every day. It always depends on when her last nap of the afternoon was as to when we bath stories etc. It doesn't happen just because we think she should go to bed, it is following her cues. Just wanted to clarify that :) We realised early on we were actually keeping her up too late and she was very unsettled all evening, but when we started a regular bath and earlier bedtime when she first started getting really grizzly, she would crash out soundly, instead of up most of the evening grizzling and sleeping fitfully.
Just like all of us, our LO's truly are their own little people and what works for one may not work for another, but once again, I appreciate being able to hear so many different ways to parent as there's so much that be learnt.
Hi inSom nice to see you round!
Hope everyone gets a good nights sleep tonight :)
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Hi Ladies,
Insom & Jelly - that's great that you do it with no routine. Some people can tell what their babies cries mean, but I can't. Angus has always put himself in a bit of a routine - eg. feeding every 3 hours. It is really good for me because if he is crying I just look at the clock and I can usually tell what is wrong with him. Our 'routine' (if you can call it that) is always changing depending on his needs. Also, on Saturday we went to a friends house for a BBQ and we didn't get home until about 9, although he did sleep a few times in between. We got home and didn't give him a bath, but DH wanted to still read him a story before going to bed - and then he slept all night.
So I guess they just adjust. Angus is putting himself into this lovely routine of sleeping for 3 hours in the middle of the day. Yesterday I had to wake him up to take him to playgroup and today he won't be able to do it as we are going to have lunch with DH and then Gymbaroo. But I do want him to have a bit of a sleep beforehand, because otherwise he will be really tired in Gymbaroo and won't want to do anything.
Anyway, I've enrolled in another subject at uni to complete my Masters and I really need to get started. So far, I have just done the introduction part (posted in the discussion thread), but I really, really need to get started! :wall::wall:
Hope everyone has a great day. Also, at my new Playgroup a couple of the ladies were saying that they have heard of people who have never had a baby sleep through the night until after 12 months :o
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Tiah went to bed at 7pm last night... then only woke at 9.30pm and 2am to feed... and slept through till 7am!
I actually feel WORSE having had some more sleep... my poor brain is on overdrive!
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I just ordered an amber teething necklace for master Indy, another awful awful night and he's napping for the first time now! Aargh! Thank God his daddy is working from home today or I may have gone crazy :lol:
Hello lovely ladies, sorry no personals, going to try and get a nap in!
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Yay Tiah, Meercat I hope you got another good nights sleep in :crossfingers:
Rooey I put DD's on for the first time today so we'll see how it goes. Good luck with Indy's and hope you got a nap in.
AFM, DH stayed home yesterday to hang out with us, her naps went much better, and same with today. Night sleeps are great again, no more wide awake for an hour at 2am which is a blessing! Hope we're back on track, until the next hiccup ;) Bought a highchair today too, not starting solids til 6 months but it's nice to have her up at our height more.
First night out tomorrow too, have a mate babysitting and just hoping it all goes okay and she stays asleep! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend :)
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Evening ladies,
I feel so depressed today, I'm starting to realise I am doing everything wrong with Cameron!!! Basically, although we have a routine, Cam sleeps for very short periods of time during the day. Today after his bottle at 10.30 am he slept for only 20 minutes. I took him to the gymbaroo class and of course he was pretty grizzly as he was still tired. Then after we came home, he had a feed (he was due for one) and only slept for 10 minutes!!!! Of course by late afternoon he was hysterical as he was so over tired. I think my problem is that after he has a short sleep I don't try to leave him to re settle himself back to sleep. He knows that by whingeing I will pick him up, so de does and that's where I'm failing. Also, I am doing the sleep/play/feed routine instead of the sleep/feed/play, so he tends to fall asleep after his bottles (he associates feed with sleep). When I put him to sleep he is almost or fully asleep so he doesn't know how to put himself to sleep. I have to rock him to sleep which is really bad as he is always counting on me to rock him to sleep. I went to my hairdresser friend today and she has a baby girl 2 weeks older than Cam. She says that Layla has a 2 hour sleep from 8.30 to 10.30 am, and then again from 12.30 to 2.30. She then has an hour nap from 4 to 5 and then goes to bed at 7 and wakes up at 7. What I am doing wrong???? No wonder I am going out of my head trying to entertain a baby throughout the day because he is up for most of it. She did say she took Layla to sleep school at 6 weeks old (Rooey, it's the Koo Wee Rupp Sleep School, comes highly recommended), and they basically taught her ways to make Layla sleep longer through the day. They don't believe in CC, they showed her how to resettle Layla if she wakes up after a short period of time. My problem is that I pick Cam up too soon if he wakes up after half an hour for example, when he is clearly still tired. She said they encourage the patting and walking away thing, but my problem is I can't stand Cam crying so I pick him up. He of course has worked out that if he wants to be picked up he needs to cry. I feel like a failuire today, I feed guilty of not establishing good routines and poor Cam is only doing what I taught him......Sorry for the vent, just feel pretty low. Glad everyone is going well.
B xxx
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Oh Beata please do not feel that way :hug: you are not doing anything wrong at all :hug: many of us are in the same boat with our littlies!
I have to pat DD off for each of her naps during the day (somehow she just goes off by herself at night but not during the day) and quite often she wakes shortly after, getting to that 2nd sleep cycle is like searching for the holy grail sometimes! The last couple of weeks it has been 20 or 30 min catnaps and it's been really hard, so I know what you mean. And don't feel guilty for not establishing a routine, we don't have one! When I refer to routine for me it's more like just the steps I follow, but we don't have any set times. For anything! We do sleep/feed/play, so she wakes, I feed her, she plays, then approx. 2hrs later she goes back down. Sometimes (often) I miss the window and she's overtired, and I have to settle her with a feed so she'll go to sleep. So it has then become sleep/feed/play/feed/sleep and I've thrown out any kind of 'routine'. Just go with what works I say!
With Cam waking so quickly, can you put a comfy chair next to his bed and just stay there, and when he starts to wake, but still really sleepy, pat him/rock him, without lifting him, and see if you can stop him from waking fully? And if he does drift off, then maybe stick close by and do it the next brief awakening he has? It will be really tiring, and trying, but if you manage to get him to start sleeping a little longer he'll start doing it himself without you needing to resettle him. But it could take a good week or two to really kick in. This is how I got DD sleeping longer for naps around 10wks, but had kinda forgotten about it, and started doing it yesterday and today. She kept waking around 40mins, so 30mins after she falls asleep I go in and sit by her cot, and when she briefly wakes I shhh and pat her, and today I caught it twice and she slept for another 1/2 hr. I missed on 3 naps though, but tried not to get stressed out and just thought 'try again next time'. Hey and I am not afraid to admit when it's all too hard I'll put her in the pram and go for a walk round the block, normally she crashes and if I can get back through the front door without knocking the pram on it (bad aim ha ha) I can sometimes just roll her in asleep and I leave her there.
Sorry to go on, I just hate to hear you feel like a failure. You are not a failure. You have a beautiful little boy who loves his Mummy very much and is very lucky to have you. As for your hairdresser, it's great for her that her daughter is so clockwork, but believe me, there are many many many babies out there that are not. Please don't be too hard on yourself :hug:
