I need my sanity

[jessgray]

my son is one on the 25th of this month. he is a good sleeper the only trouble is, it takes hours to get him to sleep. nothign works anymore. at night i can be up till 1am trying to get him to sleep.the only good thing is once he is asleep he stays asleep for ages. if any one can give suggestions i'd appreciate it.i need my sanity and sleep :)

[Jasper]

Hi Jess,

How are you putting him to sleep ? We used to rock my 8 mth DD to sleep and this was soooooo tiring and took hrs ! I have just stayed at Karitane where they do comfort crying and she now goes to sleep on her own in about 5 minutes....it took her 1 week to get used to this ( she is very determined!).

I was against controlled/comfort crying but after learning about why babies sometimes need this to learn to sleep it all made sense. It was still hard...esp the 1st few nights ( where both of us were crying).

Let me know if you think this may help and I can let you know how we did it.

:thumbsup:

[jessgray]

at the moment nothing works. cody is a very detrimed little munchkin he tries his hardest to not sleep lol. i used to rock him to sleep or give him a bottle and these methods work then all of the sudden they stopped working. i've tried patting him to sleep coz it works at his day care but he wont go for it at home.
baths used to help send him off to dream land but now he fights sleep like its the plague.
we are prepared to try anything :D

[jessgray]

still need help :D

[Tea Lady]

Have you got a child help line you can ring? They were great for me :) At the moment we're trying to teach our 14 month old to go to sleep faster and we sit in there with her and sing or just sit quietly but if she stands up and won't lie back down we leave for a minute or two and then come back. It seems to be working - kind of!

[BecH]

I don't know if this is what you are after but my daughter is very similiar and we bounce holding her over our shoulder or in cradle hold, on a exercise ball. This is the only thing that has ever consistently worked for us. Good luck

[Funkychicken]

It sounds as though you really need help here. I have loved rocking, feeding, nursing, pram pushing my bubs to sleep over the years but sometimes it's just not the best idea. I learnt the hard way with DS#1 and thought that by feeding/nursing him to sleep I was doing the right thing but in fact I was making it hell for him and at times myself. I learnt from a great sleep clinic how to get the sleeping thing right. DS was about 8 months, I think. I resisted going for some time but honestly it was the best thing we ever did and I was able to fall in love with him all over again once we got sorted and he became the happiest little munchkin!
Ask your health nurse or GP for a referral to a centre if you feel this will help your situation. I was told recently that our council now also run a free program in which a sleep specialist will actually come to your home and spend a day helping you with the sleep routine. Check with your local council as they may also have a similar program.

Good luck and you are more than welcome to PM me if you want to chat further.:)

[Jem]

i used to bounce ds1 on the bed.... him in my lap.. bouncing away....lol
its actually quite good excercise i found....
can be a pain... because once you stop bouncing....if they arent quite asleep enough.... you have to keep bouncing..... (sound like i have tigger on the brain...lol)
Might be another bad habit... but it might do the trick for you???
desperate times call for desperate measures iykwim...:fingerscrossed:

[jessgray]

hi guys sorry bout the slwo reply. DS has gastro.
well bouncing only hypes him up and makes him want to play and not sleep. controlled crying only makes him work himself up to wear he almost spews from crying. nothing really seems to work anymore now that he is walking :laughing:

[mumslilspunks]

When do you bath him?
I've found that when i bath ds of a night instead of the morning he seems to go to sleep alot quicker! Ive also found reading him a book while lying on my chest really calms him down and gets him really sleepy b4 bed!( Thats after his bath and bottle)

[jessgray]

he has a bath after dinner at night. then has a bottle sometimes he goes straight to sleep i will try reading him a book.he loves books :laughing:

[Priscilla]

Hi Jessgray,

I'm probably the last person to give suggestions here because my DS is a terrible sleeper also and has NEVER slept through.

I have however, found little ways to put Cameron to sleep. Aside from the bouncing, baths etc that have been suggested, try talking. Yeah I know, sounds silly. But I've found with Cameron sometimes, that when carrying him against my shoulder with a little rocking and me having a conversation with somebody, he'll miraculously drop off!!! Uh huh - weird I know. But I'm not complaining!!

Now, when I'm trying to put him to sleep, and no amount of nursing, bouncing, singing, patting will work, I just walk back and forth in his room just talking to myself. After about 10 minutes he'll fall asleep.

Another thing is, do you have a bedtime routine? I don't have a strict bedtime routine, but with Cameron I put on a CD and each time he hears that CD, he knows I'm trying to put him to sleep. To get him used to it, I used play it each time I breastfed and each time I was putting him to sleep just to develop that association.

Let us know how you go!

[jessgray]

I have found DS will fall off to sleep pretty well after a bottle if he lays on his tummy and i rub his back. i discovered it last night :smiliedance: so hopefully it wasnt a one off :laughing:

[Ondine]

My daughter is just 12 months old. She was going through a similar thing last week. She was such a good little baby, I could watch for her tired signs, (rubbing eyes and pulling her ears) and the first whinge that came from her mouth I would pick her up, give her a cuddle and kiss and put her to bed. She would roll over and go to sleep straight away. We were a little out of whack a couple of weeks a go with her birthday party running overtime until about 10pm, a wedding and lots of organisation for our own wedding. She was not getting to bed until really late, which meant she was overtired and this was contributing to her getting herself worked up (also to the point I thought she was going to vomit :barf: ) and screaming etc, that I couldn't stand it. I have tried eliminating her afternoon nap and putting her to bed a little earlier, this seems to be working the past couple of nights, and she is still sleeping in until 8am in the morning . . . she has anywhere up to 14 hours straight sleep a night!!! :sleeping: Hope things get better! :fingerscrossed: I completely understand the frustration!!!

[jessgray]

yep :D i hear ya! jsut when you think you have a routine down pat bubs throws a spanner in the works :laughing:
right now my DS is walkign around dead tired with puffy eyes and giggling (he giggles at nothing when he is over tired) but will he sleep? no :laughing:

[Tayla'sMum]

Hi there...

I was recommend this product by a local mothercraft nurse called "Calm" it's by a company called Bauer... it's all natural, so you could use it everynight if you had too... and if your little one teeths, you can still use panadol/bonjella etc as well. You give it to the baby in 4 doses over 2 hours before bedtime (the pack will describe it better) and you can then you can give another dose after four hours if necessary... the mc nurse said she had heaps of successful feedback, although I can't really comment, as my little one has never had a problem going to bed at bedtime... it's waking at around 3am and not going back to sleep!!! I've been trying it for about a week and it doesn't make a difference at the 3am waking... but she still goes to sleep like a little angel at around 8:30pm! Anyway... give it a go!

[jessgray]

thanks for that :) i will get some on monday when i get paid :)
currently he is waking up with tummy pains if he has anything with milk or soy in it :( and ive found latley he has become a very heavy wetter so hsi huggies nappies will leak bad so i have to wake him up inthe middle of the night to change him and then spend ages trying to get him back to sleep :thumbsdown:

[Tayla'sMum]

Let me know how it goes... :fingerscrossed: It may take a few nights for the "magic potion" to work... I understand what you're going through... myDD has been waking at 3am pretty much every morning for the past few months... I've been going out of my mind!! I have just recently read that a 1 year old should be going to bed no later that 7:30pm! This surprised me, because I was putting Tayla down at around that when she was 9/10 months old... then she started waking at 3am, so I started putting her to bed later and later to try and get her to stop waking! It didn't stop her waking, and I was putting her to bed as late as 9:30pm! Last night I put her to bed at 7:30pm and she didn't wake until 8:30am this morning!! :sleeping: I can't remember the last time she did that!! It was only the first night... but hopefully it will continue:fingerscrossed: ! I'll let you know how she's going in a few days, and let me know how you're going!

[jessgray]

good luck with getting tayla to sleep through :)

since cody has had problems with milk and soy he has been waking at between 2-5am everymornign without fail then he wakes at 7 or 8am for breakky.DP never wakes up a bomb could go off and he wouldnt hear it :laughing: so im very tired :thumbsdown:

[jessgray]

thanks for recomending that stuff :D we used it for the first time last night and saw a improvement in DS :smiliedance: he was less hypo before bed and alot more sleepy. he still woke up for a cuddle and bottle and nappy change but it was before i went to bed :yelclap: so no getting up at 2am and 4 am for me yay

[Tayla'sMum]

I'm glad it worked... nothing worse than being sleep deprived. For you and your little Munchkin!!

[jessgray]

i still a little sleep deprived lol bub #2 has deicded to give me early wake up calls :laughing: i spent last night and late afternoon up with a not very well cody i think he reacted with something he ate at daycare:thumbsdown: i told them no dairy and soy:mad: :shame: