so over it!

[Aaliyahsmummy]

My little girl does not much at all and its driving me insane

She knows how to sleep, she even knows how to sleep in her bassinet every night she will sleep from 7.30ish till 3.30, with a dream feed at 10.30(which is great) but shes horrible to resettle after 3.30 last night it took me until 5.30 and then she woke up 20 minutes later.

I tried until 6 to get her to sleep, but then just popped her in bed with me then she slept for about 40 minutes and was up again.

Since then she has slept maybe an hour at a stretch and no more than 15 minutes at a time and only while someone is holding her, the second we put her down she wakes.

This has been going on for weeks

She hates the sling, screams even harder.

Mum came over for the day and even she said its ridiculous, the poor girl it just tired all the time.

Monday i'm calling my child and youth health nurse, they have a place we can go for the day so maybe we can get some help.

Any crazy out there advice would be appreciated though, at the moment I would give anything a go!

[Lateralus]

first of all - big hugs to you because it is SO hard... We went through a very similar thing with our DD when she was a wee one... She never slept for more than 40 minutes around the clock for 5 & 1/2 months...

Firstly - you have to know that it doesn't last forever. At the time it seems like there is no end in sight, but their sleeping will improve eventually. Don't lose sight of that fact!

I remember DD used to have really wakeful periods in the early hours of the morning (1-4am was her specialty) and it would drive me crazy. The advice I was given was to emphasise that it was nighttime as much as possible. Don't put the light on, speak in very low hushed tones and keep things very boring so bub has no motivation to wake up. Then, when it is an appropriate time to get up (sadly, this is probably earlier than most parents want - but be fair on bub - around 6am or so ) make a big fuss of the morning routine - open the curtains, wish her a big cheery good morning and lots of kisses and cuddles. They are pretty smart little chickens and will start to work it out eventually!

Is your DD breastfed? Could it be that she is having a growth spurt? They quite often get more unsettled when they are having a growth spurt and want to feed more to help to build up your supply so more time on the boob (especially curled up next to you at 3:30am so you can get some more shut eye) might help?! If bub is bottlefed - I am not sure what the deal is with increasing feed volumes - but I am sure one of the lovely FF mummies can help you out on that one.

[Aaliyahsmummy]

Thanks Lateralus!

I do keep telling myself she will grow out of it, its the only thing that keeps me going

I'm not very bright in the mornings, so I will defiantly try to be a bit brighter and make more of a big deal out of it.

She is bf as well, so your right it is possible shes going through a growth spurt and just trying to eat more.

I was just talking to my mum and she said I got my first teeth really early, so it could be that shes starting ti teeth.

At least I'm not alone, Being a mummy can be so much fun at times

[Piffle]

Between 2 and 4 months my DS fought sleep to his last gap. It was probably the most difficult "baby" period for us (we didn't have much of the really early baby colic/arsenic hour troubles). I read up on Baby Bliss routines (can google) and figured I actually needed to start a sleep routine - so every "nap" we'd do the same "sleep triggers" i.e. walk down the hall singing lullaby, draw curtains, put on sleeping bag, stand singing lullaby and rocking for a while, then place in to cot. Eventually he began to associate that with going off to sleep. The other really important breakthrough for us was figuring out WHEN to put him down for a sleep. Baby Bliss gives good advice about "awake time" i.e. how long bubs should be awake for before being put down for another nap (I think 1.5-2 hours awake time at that age but check the website). I think prior to this I had been leaving it too long and he became overtired and then more likely to fight sleep. Even now at 12 months I work on "awake" time to figure out when to put him down for his second nap (3-3.5 hours now).

And to be honest I think half of it was just his age - he grew out of fighting his sleeps (not completely but he is much better). I don't know if the techniques above helped or if it was all about the stage he was going through. I think it helped a bit.

It WILL get better!

Can you get the odd sleepin somehow? I LIVED for the weekends where I would get ONE sleepin (cause hubby was home we did one morning each). It kept me going!!! Hahahaha.

Good luck!

[missie_mack]

I'm actually wondering if perhaps your expecting her to have too much sleep during the day. Not all bubs are made equal when it comes to sleep.

My DS was a catnapper during the day (3 x 45 minutes) but slept all night at this age. He did establish a routine himself at about 6 months when the sleep patterns during the day changed. My advice is stop trying to force anything and let her develop her own routines. Babies don't need to be 'taught' or 'trained' to sleep (as much as we are lead to believe!) Monitoring of foetus' actually shows they generally establish their own routine even in-utero. If you really want a routine focus on the night time period with the booby, bath, pjs, bed routine then and see how it goes.

[Aaliyahsmummy]

I'm actually wondering if perhaps your expecting her to have too much sleep during the day. Not all bubs are made equal when it comes to sleep.

My DS was a catnapper during the day (3 x 45 minutes) but slept all night at this age. He did establish a routine himself at about 6 months when the sleep patterns during the day changed. My advice is stop trying to force anything and let her develop her own routines. Babies don't need to be 'taught' or 'trained' to sleep (as much as we are lead to believe!) Monitoring of foetus' actually shows they generally establish their own routine even in-utero. If you really want a routine focus on the night time period with the booby, bath, pjs, bed routine then and see how it goes.

Sorry you may have misunderstood what I was saying. I have not put dd on a routine at all. She displays tired signs at roughly the same time every night so that's when I start our bedtime routine of going to the dark room, wrapping singing ect

She needs to sleep during the day, she is tired, that's the whole problem, if she was happy or content I would be fine for her to stay asleep all day and night if she wanted. My problem is I have a baby that screams most of the day, falls asleep constantly, but simply can't sleep for longer then 15 minutes, which for her is far to short.