Suddenly huge sleep problems

[Impromptu_DTour]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy12

Omg she just ate some glossy paper...

...I've decided I'm not going to freak out about this one. Or should I??

i have a sneaking suspicion that this is your first child call me crazy..

j/k

iDTour

[Fuzzy12]

Originally Posted by Impromptu_DTour

i have a sneaking suspicion that this is your first child call me crazy..

j/k

iDTour

Umm yes :


I guess the second one I'd be feeding paper....

[Fuzzy12]

Originally Posted by Caco3girl

When you say comforter, I assume you are talking about a stuffed animal, my daughter loved her medium sized beanie baby. It was a white dog with pink spots. If you are actually talking about a blanket we went with a crocheted blanket...lots of little holes for her to breath fine through but still give her warmth.

Yes I mean a stuffed animal like a teddy. Something to comfort her in her cot and to signal it's sleeping time. We've been given a few but I am not keen on leaving her overnight with any of them. They are all blanket like. Also she's played with them ajd seems a bit bored of them. I've been trying to find something on amazon but I just can't decide.

[Fuzzy12]

She's in her cot. Hyper again and she was so sleepy just 5 min ago. I should have put her to bed earlier but I haven't showered in a couple of days and I was desperate for one.

[Fuzzy12]

If it's just a phase, just a wonder week, should I persevere with the bed time routine? It's supposed to withal to her that it's time to sleep but it's lost all meaning now as it's 2h or more till she finally falls asleep so she won't associate it with the routine anymore.

I'm reluctant to let it go though. It took me ages and a lot of planning and fine tuning to make it work. When it finally did it worked like a charm...

[Fuzzy12]

Originally Posted by Impromptu_DTour

Any experience I can share comes from being a dad of 1 little monster who just turned 2.

What i can definately say is.. man.. how good did we have it.. when we could sleep. Never before have i valued sleeping as deeply.. as i do now.

Figuring out how to align your kid to some kind of sleep schedule.. man it seems like theres a book for every technique, and the pros and cons, and concerns and worries about introducing development issues.. gah.. its been a nightmare.. and what makes it even worse.. is that once you find something.. theres no guarentee that it will be something that you (as a sleep depraived parent) can depend on for any measurable amount of time..

we had to just roll with what came.. and i did alot of research into the development milestones.. and 9 months is one of them for sleep regression. stuffs leveling up in that munchkin you got there, and that brain is rewireing and creating neurons all over the place.. i know that doesnt comfort in the least.. but it can be an exciting diversion..

we decided to co-sleep (i know.. "boo".. pfft). It was just so much easier for my partner (i was in a different county, putting together a move, and engineering school). It wasnt even the ease of just not having to get up.. it was a research project to its own.. but to warn Peri.. theres nothin like mum and pops bed, eh?

Hes finally sleeping in his room.. and finally sleeping through the night. After an arduous process of introducing him to his own bed, in his own room.. (which we werent able to fully do until we moved, and he had a "new" room to program this schedule to).. we still layed down with him until he fell asleep, and often.. he would only stay asleep for like.. 2.. 3 hours if we sacrificed to the right deity that evening..

then.. all of a sudden he started sleeping through the night. there wasnt really anything we did differently except to remain consistent and .. know that the time will come.. i feel so bad for her through, its been exhausting.. not only for me, but especially for her. I ended up staying up until he would wake up, so she wouldnt have to go get him to bring him to our bed.

Naptimes.. we discovered early into the game that the vacuum cleaner is the most useful tool in that house to get him to sleep.. we'd put him in his rocker, and turn on the vacuum.. it was an instant fit-buster.. and in no time flat he'd be sleeping.

i think it has something to do with what the inside of a womb sounds like to a baby. cause it sure as hell aint nice and quiet..

with our efforts in cosleeping though.. i has yet to teach himself a self soothing method. which is the thing im working on right now.. it sucks though.. because when you try and substitute a soft plush bunny for him playing with your hair, when hes nursing a bottle and juuuust about to fall asleep... *bing* he'll wake right up and it'll be another .. 2 hours.

i know your struggle.. just ride it out and keep asking around.. and expect it to change again ( i think at least a couple more times )

you will get your full night of sleep again..

iDTour

Thanks for the support. I guess at some point she'll start sleeping through again (she did when she was 4 months..for a few weeks but I didn't appreciate it then as I was so qofried about her weight gain thst I kept wanting to wake her to feed)

I wouldn't even mind so much if she must gets up every 2h like she used to but taking 2h to put her to bed initially is really wearing me out. That and her then waking up every hour.

She's still sleeping in our room. In a cot next to our bed. I can't even imagine putting her in her own room. From her point of view it probably wouldn't make too big a difference since I stay with her till she falls asleep anyway and me being right next to her she's somehow never found good enough. She wants to be held or fed when she wakes up. Co sleeping won't do either. In the night she just wants to be held.

I'm just babbling. Today it took just 1.5h to.out her to bed but I'm exhausted. It just seems to suck all energy out of me. I'm still grieving the loss of our bedtime routine...

[Little Missy]

Do you have one of those seat/tray/wheel-around jobs to sit her in so she can try to walk herself around safe things? Babies LOVE those. With a biscuit to gnaw on and throw in the tray.

Seriously, this is what babies do. And they love it.

Nobody ever believes me.

[Little Missy]

STEFFFFF!!!!??? Stef???!!!!

[Impromptu_DTour]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy12

Thanks for the support. I guess at some point she'll start sleeping through again (she did when she was 4 months..for a few weeks but I didn't appreciate it then as I was so qofried about her weight gain thst I kept wanting to wake her to feed)

I wouldn't even mind so much if she must gets up every 2h like she used to but taking 2h to put her to bed initially is really wearing me out. That and her then waking up every hour.

She's still sleeping in our room. In a cot next to our bed. I can't even imagine putting her in her own room. From her point of view it probably wouldn't make too big a difference since I stay with her till she falls asleep anyway and me being right next to her she's somehow never found good enough. She wants to be held or fed when she wakes up. Co sleeping won't do either. In the night she just wants to be held.

I'm just babbling. Today it took just 1.5h to.out her to bed but I'm exhausted. It just seems to suck all energy out of me. I'm still grieving the loss of our bedtime routine...

feel free to babble all you want around here about this stuff, from the parents here on the forum you'll find nothing but support.. weve either all been there, or are going through it.

Its really hard to remain functional on the level of not only a caregiver, but also a homemaker ( and maybe even also a student or employed, or managing your own business, i dont know what your home situation is )

It was a very deep struggle for us, but my SO works full time as the breadwinner, and i was going to school almost double time in an engineering school a county away, coming back on the weekends to clean up the house, dishes and do laundry, and let her sleep. It wasnt very much of a life.. and it was really taxing on us in alot of ways..

no situation is the same, i dont want to freak you out. what i mean to be getting at is, this time is important not only for you as a mother, but also for your baby. We're both control freaks, and very career driven.. so.. honestly having a kid when we did kinda ****** everything up.. and it was really challenging (for both of us) to accept that this time is our childs.. and hes going through so much on a neurological level, so so rapidly.. not even just growth and development.. but like.. the guy had the right to be a psychotic wishy washy insomniac..

i dont know if you're a "baby-whisperer" or will become one.. but for us.. (the driven control freaks), we had to submit to the realization that we cant control how this develops, how quickly the development is, or even if the development sticks from one week to the next..

it really cemented the whole undieing parental loyalty/servitude its been a long time since either of us had to place our own lives second to anything but eachother.. especially while letting go of an expectation on when it will come back.

in fact, fighting to keep him cemented to a schedule during a sleep regression, or some kind of developmental milestone.. often made things harder on all of us. we had to take a backseat and learn what was going on, and get creative about finding 'the next big thing' that will work. for us, cosleeping worked well because our own commitments required some measure of sleep.. even if it was still crappy. it was just easier to pull him over and nurse, before he fully woke up.

it wasnt until.. like.. literally last week that he started sleeping the whole night through.. and it wasnt until maybe a month or so prior to that, where he would stay asleep in his room, for 2 or 3 hours.. before that.. he woke up ever 2 hours and .. always woke up to the day earlier.. and with a god damn smile on his face no less..

im using.. alot of words i think.. to say.. dont ever feel bad about being frustrated, especially during these regressions, its so so easy to fall to that negative energy.

try not to get frustrated, but dont beat yourself up (or her) when you do.

talk (and babble) often. The worst thing is to come to a place where you believe you're alone in the whole ordeal, are unsupported, or that people who want to support you just cant understand.

its tough.. i get it. i dont think any of us will ever be able to tell you solidly what "will definately work", "this date is coming up therefore change all the lightbulbs to red ones", "put away the vacuum and get a sound machine with a train on it".. i mean.. i think its far to say you'll never have a shortage of suggestions to try..

if you can have fun with this time, and understand that it is.. going to be what it is.. it'll be alot easier to manage yourself and your expectations.

iDTour

[sarahsweets]

I let my babies sleep on their stomachs one they hit the 2-3 month mark and i used crib bumpers and a blanket. I did not have stuffed animals in the crib because of the blanket, My son was colicky and I often let him sleep in the swing. My youngest love being rocked in her carseat and in fact, when we had to get her used to her crib we started by putting her carseat in the crib and slowly began to get her used to not sleeping in the carseat.
I brought my babies into bed when I was exhausted and they were tiny. Sometimes I had to prop the bottle to deal with my other kids. I used to put the tv on when they were in their playpen. I let them use the walker with wheels and follow me all over house.When they were old enough to play in a play rooms, I used the baby gate to keep them in the playroom which we kid-proofed.. I used cabinet locks but only for a short time.I took them out with me even when they were little babies.
I used to bring the walker into the bathroom when I showered and sometimes brought them into the shower with me.

I let them suck on and play with things that werent toys like pots and pans. I put cereal in my sons bottle before the doctor gave his ok.
I gave them solids at around 5-6 months. I tried not to worry when i had my first baby and by the second and third I practically let them juggle knives. If they fell asleep in the high chair I let them sleep.
My oldest is 21 some of the"rules'were more lax then today but not by much.
Were these thing bad? I dont know, but I still did them because it kept me sane. It was hard being out numbered when they were little. Were all these things right or safe?I dont know but worrying about doing the "rignt thing"listed the baby books just didnt work out all the time. We can make ourselves nuts with the helicopter parenting.

I am not saying i am an expert its just that getting through the first baby made it easier for the other babies. My kinds survived and thrived and I dont think I woud have made it otherwise.

[Little Missy]

A walker, that's what I meant! GOOD POST!!! from Sarah

[Fuzzy12]

Love the psychotic wishy washy insomniac....

I'm actually having fun. Lots of it. Fuzzling is fascinating and she amazes me every day. I.love reading up on child development when I get the time and trying to understand what goes on in that little noggin of hers. Lots apparently. Crazy lots.

So I'm not upset. I'm happier, I think, than I've been in more than a decade. I do get frustrated though when things don't work according to plan (guess I'm a bit of a control freak too) but only in that moment. When she finally falls asleep, snoring loudly, or to sound clichéd when she smiles.. it's all good again.

Well, except when she got sunburnt. I cried for days about that one.

I forgot my point. I think I did have one.

Originally Posted by Impromptu_DTour

feel free to babble all you want around here about this stuff, from the parents here on the forum you'll find nothing but support.. weve either all been there, or are going through it.

Its really hard to remain functional on the level of not only a caregiver, but also a homemaker ( and maybe even also a student or employed, or managing your own business, i dont know what your home situation is )

It was a very deep struggle for us, but my SO works full time as the breadwinner, and i was going to school almost double time in an engineering school a county away, coming back on the weekends to clean up the house, dishes and do laundry, and let her sleep. It wasnt very much of a life.. and it was really taxing on us in alot of ways..

no situation is the same, i dont want to freak you out. what i mean to be getting at is, this time is important not only for you as a mother, but also for your baby. We're both control freaks, and very career driven.. so.. honestly having a kid when we did kinda ****** everything up.. and it was really challenging (for both of us) to accept that this time is our childs.. and hes going through so much on a neurological level, so so rapidly.. not even just growth and development.. but like.. the guy had the right to be a psychotic wishy washy insomniac..

i dont know if you're a "baby-whisperer" or will become one.. but for us.. (the driven control freaks), we had to submit to the realization that we cant control how this develops, how quickly the development is, or even if the development sticks from one week to the next..

it really cemented the whole undieing parental loyalty/servitude its been a long time since either of us had to place our own lives second to anything but eachother.. especially while letting go of an expectation on when it will come back.

in fact, fighting to keep him cemented to a schedule during a sleep regression, or some kind of developmental milestone.. often made things harder on all of us. we had to take a backseat and learn what was going on, and get creative about finding 'the next big thing' that will work. for us, cosleeping worked well because our own commitments required some measure of sleep.. even if it was still crappy. it was just easier to pull him over and nurse, before he fully woke up.

it wasnt until.. like.. literally last week that he started sleeping the whole night through.. and it wasnt until maybe a month or so prior to that, where he would stay asleep in his room, for 2 or 3 hours.. before that.. he woke up ever 2 hours and .. always woke up to the day earlier.. and with a god damn smile on his face no less..

im using.. alot of words i think.. to say.. dont ever feel bad about being frustrated, especially during these regressions, its so so easy to fall to that negative energy.

try not to get frustrated, but dont beat yourself up (or her) when you do.

talk (and babble) often. The worst thing is to come to a place where you believe you're alone in the whole ordeal, are unsupported, or that people who want to support you just cant understand.

its tough.. i get it. i dont think any of us will ever be able to tell you solidly what "will definately work", "this date is coming up therefore change all the lightbulbs to red ones", "put away the vacuum and get a sound machine with a train on it".. i mean.. i think its far to say you'll never have a shortage of suggestions to try..

if you can have fun with this time, and understand that it is.. going to be what it is.. it'll be alot easier to manage yourself and your expectations.

iDTour

[Caco3girl]

My daughter use to love her little bouncy chair...it vibrated and if you tapped it it rocked the kid. I use to sit there and tap it until she fell asleep, then I would pick her up and take her to her crib and lay her on her tummy. She didn't wake up.

She slept in her room with the TV on low for some noise and light from about month 2. Perhaps you should have her asleep fully before you lay her down?

And yes child one you are all "Is she warm enough, is she too cold, is her bed soft enough, is her bed too hard, is that shirt too tight, will it affect her breathing?!?!?!?!", and by kid two you are like "Awe, she crashed on the floor again fully clothed, how cute"...and you toss a blanket over her and call it good.

[peripatetic]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy12

If it's just a phase, just a wonder week, should I persevere with the bed time routine? It's supposed to withal to her that it's time to sleep but it's lost all meaning now as it's 2h or more till she finally falls asleep so she won't associate it with the routine anymore.

I'm reluctant to let it go though. It took me ages and a lot of planning and fine tuning to make it work. When it finally did it worked like a charm...

i kinda adapted to her for a while, but kept up the routine itself. so, like, she always has gotten last meal--play/stories--bath--massage--pajamas--song--bassinet/crib.

but we adjusted the bath to be when she started yawning/eye rubbing. which was sometimes earlier sometimes later.

we gave her a plush hippo, medium sized jellycat one, at about the age fuzzling is. we moved her into her own room around eleven months (had planned to wait until one year, but we kept waking each other up). she went without incident.

i didn't put cereal in the bottle, we did baby led weaning, and i always put her down on her back (though she would turn herself over about half the time once she was able...and then she stopped being swaddled), we used this sleep sack thing to keep her warm instead of a blanket until she was about one. she's 26 months and still has no pillow, though i'm getting her one within the next month.

i will say this though, so take all of the above for what you will: i'm told that i have a very easy baby with most things, and i think it's probably true. if i'd had a colicky baby or just a less "easy" one, i'm sure i'd've adjusted as needed.

we did and do give her a dummy/paci. she only uses it for naps and overnights, and she's got to give it up this summer when my husband is off school, and that's maybe going to suck.

hope that helps. xx

[stef]

wow I guess I had an easy baby!
i remember some periods though, it must have been that cognitive thing, of waking in the night after weeks of sleeping through the night

Is she having her dinner early enough?
maybe you could really wear her out playing early evening
then bath/ food/ sleepy baby
( this is super French)

I remember my son being terribly fussy but its because i should have fed him a little earlier
( instead of trying to organize baby meal+adult meal, at the same time)