My 16week old has never been a great sleeper. She's only STTN once (the day we flew back from holiday) Anyway, I'm not chasing STTN, I am happy with one waking a night. Lately we have dropped the night feed so when she wakes up I replug the dummy, sometimes have to rock her for 5 mins, and she goes back down (which is AWESOME and i don't care about the dummy dependancy now - sleep is more important!). Also what is amazing is that she self settles to sleep now, sometimes with a little cry but mostly not. I am really impressed with this bit as my son never could do this and I had to rock him for like an hour most nights to get him to sleep.
Anyway, she is unpredictable during the night. Sometimes she wakes up at 4.30am, needs resettling and goes back down. Sometimes its 2.30am then 5am (i try resettle at the 2.30am and end up BF at 5am)
Last night was awful, she woke at 230am, took us a whole hour to get her back down as she also had a dirty nappy (around 345am) she then woke again at 5am screaming her head off - I fed her at this time. AFter the feed as i was about to put her down she did another MASSIVE dirty nappy which of course i had to change... then at 7am my alarm went off and I had to get up for the day (my son is at school)
She is being changed to the 4 hour routine now and I am also dropping more BFs (am combi feeding) she is on 3 FF's a day and 2 BFs... she has been on one FF a day since 4 weeks old, so i'm inclined to think that is not the problem.
Sometimes during the night she will self settle back down, ie after her dreamfeed or after the 5am feed - sending herself off to sleep is not the problem - so what is?!
I just cannot cope with the tiredness any longer?!?!?!?! Even when she wakes once in the night, i've developed a very ironic case of insomnia and really struggle to fall back asleep after her night wakings, which is such a kick in the teeth!!
USually our EASY looks like this
E Wake feed 6am
A
S Sleep around 745/8am
E Wake feed 10am
A
S Sleep around 12pm
E Wake feed 2pm
A
S small catnap 4-5pm
E Feed 6pm
A Bath 645pm
S Bed 7pm
Dreamfeed 1030/11pm
Then unpredictable different night wakings every night. Granted she does have some good nights, ie wakes at 230am - shush pat then goes back down til 6am - which i'm completely happy with.
Dr's thought she had reflux when she was younger but that's not an issue at all anymore and unsure if she ever really did have it... She does have strange poo nappies, sometimes sludgy/green sometimes runny/yellow. I also thought if she's teething now? But we have been giving her calpol some nights when she's seemed really upset (also she recently had a cold, runny nose etc) She always has her fists in her mouth and drools a lot but she's always been like this (a very sucky baby)
Sorry for the long rambling post, i thought i should give as much info as i can. I am beyond tired and sleep deprived - i have lots of other things going on in my life as well as a son at school who is 8yrs old, lots of homework and extra curricular activities and Im just SOOOO tired I cannot deal with this for much longer!!! My son also never slept until he was over 8 months old and it makes me sad both my babies were such hard hard work who basically hate sleeping!
Please please help if you can xxxxxx
