going slowly insane............

[ferretfan]

i'm sure this issue has been addressed a multitude of times on this board, however, due to my rapidly deteriorating mental state i have barely the savvy to type, let alone perform a search function........

dd (approx 4.5 months) began life as an awesome cosleeper. she would only require 2 feeds in 12 hours from around 4 weeks old til sometime before christmas. since then the nights have been increasingly more challenging, now we are at the point where she only sleep for 40mins to an hour without waking, and seems to want my nipple in her mouth the whole time. i know some mothers can sleep while nursing laying down, unfortunately i have ridiculously large breasts and any night time nursings require that i remain uncomfortabley awake, for fear that she would be smothered by a wayward mammary. i have heard that the NCSS might be something i could look at (i'll take a trip over to amazon after i am done posting) but am i missing something else?
recently for naps i have been allowing her to sleep on the boppy where she has free access to my boobies. when she stirs she just roots around until she relocates the nipple and then drifts back off to the land of nod. i'm thinking i might have dug myself a bit of a hole with that and am making a determined effort to put her to bed for naps now.
i did post a similar query on one of the other boards a week or so ago, but got no replies :( perhaps i didnt sound desperate enough. now its getting to the point where i need to fix it before i start chewing the furniture :nut
i understand she is very little and needs nighttime nourishment, but i cant go on with no sleep. i have a disabled DH who needs my attention as well as a small child (we wont even mention the ferrets :wink ) and today i feel as though i am as much use as a chocolate fire guard

sorry for rambling. any tips greatly appreciated

[Heatherb917]

Sorry you're frazzled mama....it seems that something happens to babies around 4 months that makes sleeping impossible. I haven't found the reason nor a quick solution! I will tell you that my ds sounds alot like yours in that things went downhill fast right around 4 months, but be encouraged! My ds is starting to come out of it at just over 5 months. Although he still takes mostly 45 minute naps, there are days now when he will sleep an hour and a half and sometimes even 2 hours! Nights are also getting better, except that now baby thinks that 4 am is when the day begins....but that's fairly new.

The NCSS book is helpful, although I haven't had time to read through it again lately for specific tips. The most interesting piece of information I have found about infant sleep is that they have very short sleep cycles. Anywhere from 20-45 minutes. When they stir at that point alot of them don't seem to know how to get themselves back to sleep. It sounds like your baby needs to nurse at that point to get back to sleep, for mine it is the pacifier. My baby's sleep cycle is almost exactly 45 minutes and if I can sneak in there right before he's about to wake and pop the binky back in, sometimes he can cruise through the awakening and get back to sleep. This used to work more often when he was younger and now that he's older he pops into an alert state much more quickly.

I hope you can find a solution or at least get through this rough patch without getting too frazzled. Just know that you are not alone.

Many hugs to you!

[RainbowSquidney]

My DD went through a growth spurt around 4 months where she wanted a boob all night long too. She is now 10 months(!) old and still has those nights if she is teething or having a growth spurt. Even without those times, she is up at least 2x a night. I just remind myself that she won't be nursing/co-sleeping forever..... :(

I don't have the large breast problem, (fortunately or unfortunately?) so it is easy to just have her do a nursing marathon every so often. On those nights where I am up a lot, I put household chores on hold for the next day and nap whenever dd naps. That's the only way I could keep any sanity..... :nut

I'm no BFing expert, but it sounds like she might just be growing. I hope things get better for you.
:hug

[alegna]

:hug

Absolutely normal. In your shoes I would concentrate on finding a way to sleep while she nurses. She's big enough now that she won't smother ;) Get creative with some pillows and see what you can figure out.

-Angela

[ferretfan]

thanks for the helpful advice mamas :thumb