[Alpaca Wacka]

From 7pm to 7am last night, my 8 mo old DD woke 7 times, never slept longer than 1 hr 45 mins, and got about 9 and 3/4 hrs worth of sleep. This has become quite typical. By 4am I was just sobbing while I rocked her. I feel so hopeless! I'm scared it will never get better.

We've tried letting her cry while I sit beside her in the past, (go ahead, stone me, I was desperate, and I had reached my physical limits) but it doesn't work. It did have the effect of helping us get her to sleep at night and gave us some limited success in extending her sleeping time from 45 minutes to an hour and a half or so for awhile. But its not a lasting solution.

Yes, my husband helps out. Yes, we've tried a family bed. This worked wonderfully for my first child, we were all happy campers. But this girl...

: she is way too restless to sleep with and turning my back away from her just makes her cry and scrabble against me for comfort. Most of the time if I put her in bed with us now, she wakes and wants to crawl around and play. No, I never pick her up unless she's Totally awake-as in, sitting up in her pack n play (which sits right next to our bed.)

I've read Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution. That DAMN book! It promises some hope, but by now, I'm so depressed, it's hard to really believe any of her suggestions will work, especially since the limited experiments we've tried have been total failures. I've tried telling myself that what I really need to do is give each step at least a month's shot, but really people, I don't have a month's worth of reserves in me.

:

 

[merrijayne]

It can be very hard dealing with a LO when you are at a loss of sleep yourself. IS this unusual or a regular occurance. It makes me worder if she could perhaps have an ear infection. My LO would be fine all day, then fuss like mad at night, and many times never having a fever. Often time what helped him was proping up his head on an incline during the night. Many times i would wrap him in a wrapp baby carrier, and walk until he fell asleep. And i know the last thing you want to do is walk while you are sooo tired. Other times i have given him a little bath to overstimulate him a bit. Then he could sleep soundly and was ready for it.

 

[Alpaca Wacka]

Oh I wish it were that simple! She HAS been sick with a rotten cold, but is pretty much over it now. She's actually on ABX as we speak, so I feel pretty confident that isn't it. Besides, this is a regular occurence.

 

[1littlebit]

that sucks. i totally understand the restless baby thing. sleeping with ds is like sleeping with at least 3 babies. and he's no picnic when he wakes up either. he pokes me in the eye, picks my nose, and pulls my hair.

what i do is lay in bed next to ds with my arm around him and i sing the same (stupid irritating repetitive) song over and over again until he falls asleep. he struggles and fusses little when i put my arm around him b/c he wants to crawl all over the bed and not sleep... to the point where he is so exhausted he alternated between screaming and playing but when i put my arm around him and hold him close while i sing he settles down quickly and goes to sleep.

o i can't carry a tune to save my life... so its definitely not my stellar singing voice. and the song is 'this land is your land' or 'this is the song that never ends' i sing it slow and at the same volume over and over. i know it sounds stupid but its the only thing that worked. now as soon as i lay in bed he comes and lays with me and his close as soon as i start to sing. then dp or i move him to his crib if necessary.

the other thing is that at bedtime about 30-60 minutes before we want him to go to sleep we change him into his pjs and all three of us get in bed. he crawls on us plays with us cuddles etc. and then i feed him and put him in his crib... then when he wakes up at night (which he still does at 10 mos) he comes and spends the rest of the night in our bed.

 

[foxtrot]

Sounds like my DD, but my DD is 14 months. Not to make you feel more hopeless. I really don't want to do that as I feel totally hopeless and on the verge of panicking thinking this will never end. DS is 5 and I thought he was an awful sleeper as a baby, but DD is so much worse that I now wonder if DS was really that bad.

Anyway, the good news is that my DD will now sleep for a 4 hour stretch at some point most nights. However, she's up for at least 1-3 hours at some point during the night. EVERY night. I too have tried everything. She climbs and plays on me if I have her in the bed. Or she stands on me or tries to get off the bed or claws my neck or kicks me. I too have tried putting her in the crib and letting her cry (as I stood right there patting her, so I understand the desperation) and she vomited even though I was standing there rubbing her back and patting her. She stuck her finger down her throat so it wasn't that she got too worked up. She does that whenever she isn't happy about something. She sticks her finger down her throat and makes herself vomit.

My DD has literally survived on 6 hours of sleep one night. And then she only took a 2 hour nap the next day so 8 total hours that day.

Anyway, the good news is that I now get a 4 hour stretch at some point and usually one other 2 or 3 hour stretch so it isn't completely unbearable anymore. Some nights are, but most aren't unbearable. But I have lost hope that she'll ever sleep through. DS was doing that by now. Everywhere I read it says that almost all kids learn to sleep by the time they are 3-4 years old, but is that really true? I don't know. And that is still 2-3 years away.

So my sympathies and I wish I had advice, but I don't. At least you know someone is there with you. At 8 months I was dealing with exactly what you are dealing with.

 

[PGTlatte]

Has she been checked for reflux ? An ENT would need to look in her throat. If there is reflux, that will keep her from sleeping. Also, the way I would deal with it would be to try eliminating dairy.

Our DS1 never slept more than 40 minutes at a time - ever - and then only if he was in someone's arms....until he was 20 months old, and we eliminated all dairy, from his diet and mine (he was still nursing), for sensory issues. He had been heavily dependent on zantac his whole life, and also had reactive airway disease (baby asthma), both of which went away with the dairy.

And for the first time in his life, he slept three hours at a time. Which may not sound like much to most parents, but to us, after living with his 40-minute waking cycle for almost two years ? Heaven.

With our second child, the things that have helped him sleep are an electronic noisemaker in his room, and a night light with a rotating aquarium scene.

 

[mean_jeannie]

I'm so sorry you are going through this. What is her schedule like during the day? Making daytime adjustments might help her in her nighttime sleep pattern.