I'm going to run away screaming from my house guys, I swear to god.
My kid will not sleep. It will get "better" for a few days, and then so much worse. The past few nights she's been waking anywhere from 3 to 6 times from when I put her down at 8 until midnight. 4 hours- awake 6 times. At that point I put her in my bed, which we weren't having to do for a while, and she's still getting up another 2-3 times before being up for the day at 7:30.
Tonight she woke up at 3:30 and she's still completely awake at 5. I finally called my H up and told him he needs to take her, I can't do it anymore. Our nights are starting to affect our days- she's getting crankier and needier because she's tired, and I'm getting more annoyed because I'm exhausted and honestly just tired of her being on me 24/7. It seriously makes me want to go back to work which then makes me feel guilty. Ugh.
So our neighbors down the street used a sleep specialist to help with their kid who was doing the same sort of thing and apparently she's now sttn. I told H we're calling her tomorrow- I don't care how much it costs, I can't do this anymore.
Hopefully this is my last installment of my baby's shit sleep saga.
Post by underwaterrhymes on Apr 26, 2015 4:26:57 GMT -5
I'm so sorry. We've been there. K didn't start STTN until I night weaned him a month ago when he turned 2.
It was reaalllyyyyyy rough from about five or six months, which is when we started cosleeping, and then tolerable but often still pretty bad until around 18 months. When we got a king, it made a huge difference for us. And night weaning suuuuuucked, but he's waking only once (maybe twice) now. He starts out in his crib and then moves to our bed somewhere between midnight and 3 am.
I'm only awake right now because of this stupid bronchitis. I think things will get even better when he's back in his own room when we move to our new house this week.
But, I mean, dude is 2. Our solution is not a tolerable solution for everyone. We helped create a poor sleeper and have been trying to fix it for a year and a half. Not good. (Although I've loved cosleeping more than I can say and definitely more than I thought I would, I'm ready to have our bed back until the new kiddo arrives in August.)
Let us know how things go with the sleep consultant. And remind me how old is she again?
Post by underwaterrhymes on Apr 26, 2015 4:35:24 GMT -5
Also, I will add the week we did Ferber was hard, but awesome. Then he got sick. And then we traveled. And then he was sick again. And then he was teething. So we never revisited it because there was always an excuse.
But I do think if you follow it to the letter past a certain age it can be remarkably effective.
I also have the No-cry Sleep Solution that I think we will be using once we get settled in the new house.
Post by daisybuchannan on Apr 26, 2015 7:16:13 GMT -5
I feel you, sleep stuff is the worst.
What have you tried in terms of sleep training? Any time we do CIO I have to remind myself that any baby will cry harder within the first 15 minutes or so before they show signs of self soothing. It's also not a quick process a lot of times. That said, we've let Cameron CIO a bit, and her sleep has definitely improved.
Can you start with small steps- like taking one feeding away overnight at a time? That way it might feel more manageable?
I'm so sorry. My kid slept like shit too, I was so tired and emotional. I looked into professionals and I stumbled onto the blog "Troublesome Tots" by a very funny woman who is a baby sleep expert. I ended up emailing her, never ever thinking for one second she'd respond to me and she did! I cried when I saw her reply in my inbox. Anyway, she pinpointed my issue and gave me a plan of attack and my kid went from waking up 6 times at night to just once for a small bottle. I think he was 6-7 months old when I emailed her.
God you have my sympathy. I was up all night with my 4 year old last night with some sort of stomach bug and I was instantly brought back to those sleep deprivation newborn days.
Good luck and I hope you all get some permanent relief soon. The difference between a solid night of sleep and shit sleep is amazing.
Also, I will add the week we did Ferber was hard, but awesome. Then he got sick. And then we traveled. And then he was sick again. And then he was teething. So we never revisited it because there was always an excuse.
But I do think if you follow it to the letter past a certain age it can be remarkably effective.
I also have the No-cry Sleep Solution that I think we will be using once we get settled in the new house.
I remember we tried the no cry sleep solution with our eldest, now 6, and it did work. He was always a pretty good sleeper though and only started to give us resistance when he figured out the whole world was going on while he was asleep and he didn't want to miss out. I don't remember the specifics bc we did try a few things but I remember liking the No cry sleep solution.
I really hope the sleep specialist is able to help. My 2 week old doesn't wake as often as V and I'm a mess. I can't imagine how you feel. Keep us updated.
DDs sleep was like that. LOTS of wake ups and some long wakeful periods at night. She couldn't make it through sleep cycle transitions without waking fully. We did Ferber at 5m, 3w because I was losing my mind and getting about 4 broken hours of sleep a night and it was affecting her health.
Ferber worked beautifully for her. It taught her how to put herself to sleep and eliminated the wake ups during cycle transitions. We even had success with naps, since she was having the same issue with those. It was life changing for us. She went from getting maybe 8 hours at night (if that) and 2 hours total of naps (on a good day) to sleeping 11-12 hours at night and 3-4 hours of naptime a day. Seriously life changing for me.
Good luck, I hope you are able to find a solution soon!
ETA: she still woke to nurse 2-3 times a night until we night weaned at 14 months but it was nurse then straight back to bed so it was very doable. I chose to not nightwean because she had severe reflux and issues gaining weight, so a unique situation.
I'm so sorry. Months 4/5 to 10 were the darkest days because of no sleeping. I was going to lose it so we finally did CIO. It got so much better after that. I really hope the specialist can help! Good luck.
I'm so sorry. My kid slept like shit too, I was so tired and emotional. I looked into professionals and I stumbled onto the blog "Troublesome Tots" by a very funny woman who is a baby sleep expert. I ended up emailing her, never ever thinking for one second she'd respond to me and she did! I cried when I saw her reply in my inbox. Anyway, she pinpointed my issue and gave me a plan of attack and my kid went from waking up 6 times at night to just once for a small bottle. I think he was 6-7 months old when I emailed her.
I was just going to suggest this. This blog saved our lives.
I hope this doesn't come across rude but is she still in your room? I think that is probably the problem.
When DD2 was in a room by herself she started STTN.
And have you let her CIO?
She is still in our room, unfortunately there's no getting around that. We only have 2 bedrooms and I think putting her in with Ollie would make it worse. We just got him to a great sleeping spot and I don't want to rock that boat!
We've tried CIO but I've always caved and nursed. I think that's probably what we'll wind up doing but I still want to talk to the specialist since she's been eating so much at night, I'm not sure what to do about it. I can't cut her off completely now that she's use to it.
Thanks for all the suggestions and head pats guys! I'm actually surprised my original post even made sense since I'm pretty sure I was delirious when I wrote it!
I'm so sorry. My kid slept like shit too, I was so tired and emotional. I looked into professionals and I stumbled onto the blog "Troublesome Tots" by a very funny woman who is a baby sleep expert. I ended up emailing her, never ever thinking for one second she'd respond to me and she did! I cried when I saw her reply in my inbox. Anyway, she pinpointed my issue and gave me a plan of attack and my kid went from waking up 6 times at night to just once for a small bottle. I think he was 6-7 months old when I emailed her.
I'll look this up! Thanks!
And she just turned 8 months. The sleep issues started around 5 months. Before that she slept 11-12 hours straight through : (
I'm so sorry. I know you have tried everything and have really been struggling. Each kid is different and I hope the sleep consultant can help you. I've been there and it is the worst. Sending you some zzzzzzz's and hugs.
Post by badgerwrangler on Apr 26, 2015 10:28:57 GMT -5
We had to do Ferber to extinction with my now 4.5 year old son. It didn't cure things but they vastly improved. He still to this day needs to put himself to sleep. Weaning him helped at 8 months old.
Would putting the baby in the other room and putting Ollie in with you be an option? I would definitely cut out any night time feeding. She might be hungry a couple of night but she will figure it out.
Can you get away for a night and leave it to your H? That way there will definitely be no feeding at night. And don't feel bad about wanting to go back to work. When DS was 6 weeks old I was begging work to come back early and went back when he was 3.5 months old. It was heavenly.
She is still in our room, unfortunately there's no getting around that. We only have 2 bedrooms and I think putting her in with Ollie would make it worse. We just got him to a great sleeping spot and I don't want to rock that boat!
We've tried CIO but I've always caved and nursed. I think that's probably what we'll wind up doing but I still want to talk to the specialist since she's been eating so much at night, I'm not sure what to do about it. I can't cut her off completely now that she's use to it.
Thanks for all the suggestions and head pats guys! I'm actually surprised my original post even made sense since I'm pretty sure I was delirious when I wrote it!
I hope the specialist can help you. I'm sure they'll have some ideas that will work and that you are all rested soon.
Is she getting enough sleep during the day? I found when my kids didn't get enough sleep during the day it messed up their night. Now, my one twin was a HORRIBLE sleeper during the day and night. It took me way too freakin long to realize he just needed A LOT more sleep than most babies. At the first eye rub he went down for a nap and I allowed him to sleep as long as he wanted. I thought him napping until 6pm was crazy but he would go right back down at 730 for bed; it made a world of difference.
How much longer are you in the 2 bedroom? I will be honest. I would consider giving her your bedroom and sleeping on the couch. Then I would do CIO. I think she can smell you and she is not getting that distance to practice sleeping deeply.
Post by littlepeanut on Apr 26, 2015 19:41:21 GMT -5
I'm so sorry. Sleep issues are awful. I didn't realize how bad things were until I was actually getting sleep again. I will ditto Troublesome Tots. She also had a Facebook group with the same name that is super helpful.