Sleeep

I could only think of moving her bedtime out...

DD is five and half months and we were having major issues with sleep. waking anywhere from 1-6 times a night. also feeding.

So we got to a point we just couldn't take any more sleep deprivation so i read a few books and talked to a few different people.

then last week we did one night of tough love. we waited for ten minutes before getting up to her. the first time she went back to sleep. the next two times i got up after ten mins and checked her nappy. then put her back to bed and sat beside her cot and placed my hand on her. she cried on and off for about 45 mins each time. then once she had calmed down. i said good night and gave her a kiss and she went to sleep after i had left the room.

the next day we were all tired but i noticed she fed a lot better instead of the mucking about and fussing she was doing previously, she just concentrated on feeding. She also slept better each nap time.

Since then out of the last 7 nights she's slept from 7pm - 6/7am 6 of those nights. She's so much happier during the day and well I think it's just reset her clock for sleeping and feeding. She also resettles herself sometimes during the day if she wakes after 45mins.

i don't know how long she will continue but I'm amazed at the difference it's made to me, my husband and daughter, and even the dog, who was a bit miserable with all the noise and waking each night!

she starts solids in a few weeks which I'm hoping will help even more.

i think it's just a matter of trying different things until you find something that works for you, also feeling comfortable about what your doing too.

disco

Just thought of another thing. We just started using the safe-T sleep last weekend and since then night sleeps improved dramatically. Not sure if a coincidence?

Maybe an extra blanket to keep her snugglybuggly when it gets a bit cooler at that time of the morning - then she might not wake up so 'thoroughly', stay sleepy and go back to sleep......

Any luck last night?

Well we moved the bedtime to 7pm and changed the nappy at the 1pm feed.

She woke at 4:20.

Last night she woke at 4am again

We'll try pushing it out to 7:30pm bedtime tonight and see if it helps. Also I'm going to put a heater in her room. She seems warm enough but it's worth a shot. (she wears a merino nightie and a merino sleepsack at night)

Thanks guys. Even if things don't work it's so nice to have people trying to help us. It's lonely at 4am

Aggghhh!!! That sucks so much. Crossing fingers that the heater makes a difference or one of the other ideas as you must be tired getting up at that time for the day.

if she is waking and happ to lie there then just leave her... she may go back to sleep.

in my house any wake ups before 6 were treated as night wakings, so a cuddle and feed and a clean nappy then back to bed! and if she want sto lie there and gurgle to herself and stay awake then thats fine too.

Yep pushing her night routine out doesn't seem to have worked. Last night we were at a friend's place and she dropped off for an unexpected nap at 5pm so we decided to try really pushing out her night routine. So she went to bed at 8:45. She woke for her feed at 3am (so an hour later than normal) but still woke at 4am.

We do have blackout curtains in the room but it's dark at 4am anyway. I was thinking of maybe getting up around 4 and sitting in the room and seeing if there is a car or noise at that time that might be waking her.

She usually wakes up grizzling and while she's happy to play after she's initially been tended to she rolls onto her stomach and gets stuck and then gets upset. However we do have a safety sleep coming which I'm hoping will help.

She has about 3 day sleeps currently. She is up for 3 hours at a time and then usually sleeps for 45 minutes to an hour 15 . I am pretty sure she can't go down to two yet as she's pretty ratty and sleepy by the time she's had her night bottle.

I fear you guys may be right and it's just her normal wake time. The issue is 5am would be fine but 4am is just too early for us. We have been going to bed at 9pm which gives us an hour and a half after Rowan goes down but even that doesn't feel like enough sleep really. I think the issue is that our body clocks are just not able to manage functioning at that time.

Edited by Bobbie

Sometimes after about 30 minutes I can pop the boob in and she will settle with us but it doesn't usually work as she's not at all hungry.