We have tried self settling. we have tried "save of sleep" She just hates going to sleep!
During the day she hardly sleeps and we struggle to get her past the 40 minute sleep cycle, but at night (once we finally get her to sleep) she is quite a good sleeper. Only waking once a night for a feed.
Another Project A is dear little Abigail's bedroom... It's still not done! How horrible are we!
We promise to have it done by Christmas! (When she will be 4 months old!)
We need to get some special taks to hang the bunting and something to hang up the little project I have been working on!
Take some MDF letters that spell out A B I G A I L , some paint and a brush! And there you have it!
I'm not entirely happy with the colour, but after 3 coasts, I'm done for now! I can always change them later.
Hopefully very soon I can share some photos of Abi's room with you all... Hopefully!
I'd love the see pics of Abi's room. I think the colour looks lovely.
ReplyDeleteWhy do babies fight sleep so much? One of my girlfriends is seeing every hour of the night with her lil man at the moment. This scares me.
Hi lovey - thanks for your message! I am doing fine. I just retreated from blog-world. Lots of news, just wasn't sure I wanted to blog about it. Glad you're doing well. Abi is just divine. xx
ReplyDeleteOh I am totally there with you on the sleep issues. Little s was very much the same with the 40 mins mark. There are lots of things you can do, so individual to each baby tho'. Best thing I ever did was get in contact with my local (govt supported) parenting centre (over here in WA it is Ngala) for a couple of day stays so I could get support on working her sleeping. Really useful to spend the day with nurses/ experts who can answer all your questions and provide advice. I was initially a bit reluctant as I thought it was for mummies in more desperate circumstances but everyone in there was just like me! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteurrgh sleep. Just when you think it's sorted, everything changes and a new issue rears its ugly head. If it's not one thing, it's another. I can't remember what it's like to not feel tired.
ReplyDeleteI don't think not doing up her room makes you anything other than a busy mum - so I would cut yourself some slack there.
ReplyDeleteOur first two babies slept through the night from 6 weeks on their own which was fabulous. But they never really slept through the day from that age. They napped in their rocker or lying on a mat in the loungeroom. I never worried about it because they were happy. The twins were almost the same - slept through from 6 weeks and didn't sleep through the day. But the big difference is they would literally scream all day. We tried everything we knew to get them settled but nothing helped. When we moved to Melbourne when they were 4 months old they stopped sleeping through the night as well (each waking up every hour and not going back to sleep unless they had the breast...and it was alternating so I was getting up to feed every 30 minutes) and we all started to go insane. After seeing the child nurse for the first time in Melbourne I just started bawling my eyes out and told her our sleep issues. So she suggested "Tweedle" the next week I went in for a 4 day residential program and apart from it being the worst most hardest few days of my life - it was amazing. On day 2 they finally had a solid nap through the day and when they got up they didn't scream. They just lay on a blanket staring and giggling at each other. Four months of not being able to put them down because they would scream blue bloody murder and a decent nap and they were lovely!
There are sleep schools all over Australia and they vary from them just giving you hints/tips on how to settle, day programs to residential programs.
For me, the best part was literally having someone sit with me, explain how I was going to settle them and make sure I followed through exactly. As the twins were little it went like this...
Put them down in their bed and settle them (pat/stroke them til they calm down and stop crying) leave the room before they fall asleep. Depending on how old they are - you are given a time limit before you can go back in and settle them. For their age (4 1/2 months) it was around 40 seconds after they started crying again. Then I would go back in, resettle and leave. Repeat until they fall asleep. Everyone else there had it easier - they had their husbands there and only one baby, (I had two and my arms barely reached between the two cots when settling) I had two babies and my husband was at home with our other two kids.
But we survived and the twins became amazing sleepers after that. Tweedle also sold books on their sleeping routines but I can't see them on the website http://www.tweddle.org.au you could probably call and ask. But it might even be the book your talking about.
For me getting the twins sleeping through the day was a necessity. I had two toddlers to worry about as well as desperately needing rest myself. If you really want/need her to sleep through the day it just takes a lot of perseverance - if she is happy and you don't mind her being awake through the day then there isn't anything "wrong" with that.
You have to do what works for you which is often at complete odds with what the books tell you.
goodluck!
thanks everyone.
ReplyDeleteWould you believe after writing this post today Abi has had 4 x 40-50 min sleeps.
I can live with that. She isn't grizzly or sooky durning the day and will quite happily play on her mat, rocker or activity gym, but still a big old pain in the butt to get to sleep.
My girlfriend went for a few day visits at Tresillian and she lived in inner west at the time...might be worth giving them a call to see if they can help out if it gets out of hand...
ReplyDeleteThanks Jill. A girl in my mothers group has done the same and it has worked wonders for her.
ReplyDeleteI'm just seeing how things go, because she sleeps so well at night.
Fingers crossed she gets better! And not worse!