Club for sleep deprived mums of 6 & 7 month olds!

[missmom]

It really is amazing what becomes normal, huh. If you'd a told me a year ago that three hours of sleep in a row would seem like such a luxury I'd have laughed. 

My LO take 30 min naps all day usually between 3-5 depending on how early he's up, etc...  The past couple of days he's decided putting himself to sleep is for losers and he's not going to do it anymore, so were back to 30 minutes of hysterics before each one.  I'm hoping it the regression before things get better, but I've had my hopes up before.   And no he is not in a good mood after those sleeps, he wakes up screaming, he has permanently red eyes, and he's super whiny.  I don't think my poor guy has ever not been OT. 

We're just recently moved back to Virginia from NSW where the LO was born and I do have a lot of support here.  My mom lives close by and takes the baby for a night a week so we can get 8 glorious hours in a row and put the house back together (she is an angel!) and my husband is very supportive and tries to help as much as he can. I don't know how anyone could manage this without ALOT of support. I have all this and I'm still losing my hair.

[mummabearm]

Can I join too?? My boy was 8 mo yesterday, but I am totally experiencing the same thing.

We are ssssllllllooooowwwwwwllllllyyyyyy improving (i think- then again Im not sure). I was just going in and breast feeding him so we could all get back to sleep or sometimes bringing him to bed with me. Now I am up to trying to train him to just get back to sleep with pats and shh shhhshhh. He fought it a lot last night, its almost like standing by the cot makes him worse cause he wants me to pick him up so badly. Its like he just tosses and turns after a sleep cycle and cant get into the next one without me. Sometimes I even hear him fussing after 45 min of sleep but he isnt fully awake just unsettled in his sleep, then he will get back to sleep and then 45 min later the fussing and rolling will be too much he bangs his head on side of cot and really starts crying so I have to go in.

Last night I was crying and at breaking point then he did a 2 and a half hour stint which was like heaven!

This has been sheer hell! I am consumed by this lack of sleep, my house is a pigstye and I am feeling very depressed!

Support of others is so comforting to me

Simone XXX

I have looked at the Pantley methos (Ive read her book) I like her strategies. My lo is off the dummy now, he was never that much of a dummy boy so it was quite easy for us to just stop giving it to him.

[Jaxsta81]

Welcome ladies! It's comforting to know that when we're dealing with our LOs in the middle of the night, somewhere one if us is doing the same!

Missmom-thank goodness for all your support, but you still are doing iron your own 80% of the time. I dont know about you but I feel like I've aged 10 years in 6 months. I rarely we make up anymore, or even moisturise my face, my hair is never down (LO loves to grab it) so I scruffily tie I up most days an i live in track suit bottoms! I try and make more of an effort, even if I'm not going anywhere, just to have a bit of me time and some pride, but easier said than done!

Hi mummabearm-the feed to sleep association I think I remember reading in one of the BW books is one of the hardest to break. That's encouraging that you weaned your LO off the dummy successfully using the Pantly method as I'm beginning to think that's at the core of our problem.

[Charjanemom]

Hi ladies!

Just wondering what A times you are doing right now? We are up to 3.5 hrs which dd seems to manage well with. We are hoping that this will push away the ew we were having but I'm feeling bad because it seems like a lot then last night we got Ot wakes twice

[Jaxsta81]

I'm at 3.25 hrs which is working for us. Unfortunately didn't make any diff to our early starts, but fingers crossed for you!!

I took Leon to our cranial osteopath and he said he had quite a bit of tension in his head which he's released and may make a diff in a week or so. Here's hoping as the next stop is a voodoo doctor! ;-)

[Charjanemom]

Ok that makes me feel better. Charlotte is an angel baby so rarely fusses which I think is making it hard to read if she is ot. I guess I need more patience to wait to see if the Ew totally goes away. It's a good sign she seems tired during them now rather than a hyper party for an hour

[Charjanemom]

Jaxsta- are u finding it hard with these long A times to fit in 2 naps and a decent bedtime? We are. I have been waking her from pm nap so that we aren't in bed past 8pm. We are just struggling to find the right A after a short pm nap.

[Jaxsta81]

I must admit our days are pretty textbook. Even if he gets up early I try to not put him down for his first nap before 8.30am. He's a solid 1.5 hr napper so we are lucky. The next nap is around 1.15pm which takes him through to 2.45pm and I start bedtime around 6pm. He's normally fast asleep by 6.30pm. He was even falling asleep on the bottle tonight.

Could Charlotte be catching up on her sleep in the daytime if she's sleeping more than 3hrs in the day?

[Charjanemom]

Well I don't let nap longer than 3 hrs in the day. But if her day goes like how it shouldas far as nap lengths it gets tricky.
After a few short NW she woke at 705
First nap was at 1015-12(I woke her)
Next nap won't be till 315/330. I'm having to cap this nap to make it to bedtime before 8. She had always been a good am napper. With the big increae in A pm naps are improving.

[mummabearm]

Our first A time is only just 2 hours. He gets very tired in the morning. Depending on how long he has for this first nap- I judge how long the next A time should be. If it is a short nap then usually only 2 hours again and sometimes we will need another nap late afternoon. On average i would say though that the middle of the day A  is approximately 3 hour. Then, after the afternoon nap we do another 3 hours then start bedtime routine.
Usually begin bedtime routine between 630 and 700, asleep within the half hour of starting it.

I have to share with you my mini success from last night. I have been trying my own bleary eyed combo of PU/PD, shush/pat, the pantley method, and the sleep lady shuffle to decrease nw. Last night I managed to get him back to sleep every time without picking him up. I have been so tired that so often I just whacked him on the boob or picked him up to get him back to sleep but after 3 nights of being totally strict on myself it has worked and I never thought it would. He has woken less (every 2 hrs) and gone back to sleep without being picked up. Still a long way to go but I feel so much better 


Simone

[becj86]

Hi ladies,

Just to keep things all in the one place, and given that this thread seems to be related mostly to 3-2 nap transition, can I please refer you to this thread: Anyone want to talk about the 3-2 Nap transition? Part 2

Its wonderful that you've all found some support and commonality here

[Jaxsta81]

Thanks Bec!

And well done Simone!! It's great when you have a success like that-feels like you've won the marathon!! It is all about patience and consistency........once you work out the issue! I bet tonight will get even better.

We definitely have a dummy issue here, so I'm going to work on him putting the dummy in himself in the day (generally don't give it to him in the day but going to have to start) and he's got a month to work it out, otherwise we're weaning. I would wean now and just be done with it, but I'm weaning him off the woombie at the mo! Bloody props ;-)

How are the rest of you ladies?

[Jo1stbaby]

We seem to be ok with props, she has her dummy but not overly attached to it although occasionally if she sees it on the sofa or something she will pick it up and pop it in.  I'm trying to stop that as I only want her to associate it with bedtime.  She also babbles more when she hasn't got it in.

Girls I'm with you with that having a cry.  The night before las was just so awful when I got back into bed eventually at 3.30am I had a little cry.  I don't know why wasn't intentional, I think it was tiredness that just sort of overwhelmed me.  I then layed there until 4.30am trying to sleep and was just going off when she woke.  My husband took her and tried to get her back off but no such luck.  But luckily for me he was off so he let me sleep in that morning.

Last night we had a good night.  Bed at 7pm, dreamfeed at 10pm, woke at 2.15am so I fed her and then woe up at 4.30am.  I held her and rocked her a little and she went back off but the minute I trid to put her down she started again so I brought her into bed with me.  She slept for half an hour before my husband had a go for half hour (unsuccessfully) so I then got up at 5.30am.   That wa a good night for us though no nw other than feeds but still the ew.

It's great when you have support laying in etc, its the best part of my week when my husband is off just to get some extra sleep.  Although the extra sleep I get that day is what a normal person would get in one night yet I have a whole week to catchup on which obviously just never happens.

I hope everyone else has had a slightly better night, its really good to be able to just vent about my day and have the support there.  It is really helping so thank you girls.

[Jaxsta81]

Really glad it's helping you Jo. I find it so comforting to know I'm not alone and I think about "you lot" when I'm stuck in my nursery rocking chair waiting for Leon to fall asleep!!

I can feel a tooth with ny finger so I think we're coming to the end of this bout of teething, thank God.

Also, Leon does seem so much more chilled and less whingey since visiting the cranial osteopath. I can highly recommend that to anyone!

[Jo1stbaby]

Having a really down day today been up with Jessica since 3am. She woke for a feed slept from 3.30 until 4.15 didn't wake but I sat with my hand on her until 4.40 then she woke for the day at 5.10am.  I just feel like a useless mum at the moment nothing I do seems to work. My husband is always in a mood with me at the moment, I dint know if its me always being wrong or just him being tired and stuff.

Awh the tooth that's a good sign, Jessica's always seem to take a long time from when we can feel them before we actually see them but we always feel there is light at the end of the tunnel because you know before to long it would have popped through.  Jessica's had two upper front popping through since last week and she does seem to be over the worsed of it now.

I also highly recommend cranial osteopath.  We didn't really Didnt find out until about 9 weeks what it was all about but we took her for two sessions by the end of the second week she was a completely different baby.  All her tension went and was definitely more settled.  We just wish we knew about it before.  I know it's not recognised in the medical profession but it definately needs more awareness of it.  We recommend to anyone we speak to.