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Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Sleep

Help please - and dont tell me I had it too easy in the early months!

11 replies

Elf1981 · 03/07/2006 19:00

DD is 9 months old on the 6th.
She's always been a pretty good sleeper - used to sleep for a full 23 hours in the first few weeks
From very early on, she started to sleep through.
I went back to work when she was six months, she had a couple of bouts of flu and woke up loads during the times she was poorly, plus just before her teeth came through. But once the event that was bothering her passed, she'd sleep though again
She's had two teeth through recently, just got over a viral infection (bad cough), but her sleeping has not improved. Last night was the worst - she woke at 1:30 and breastfed until 3:30 when I decided she was probably just using me as a comforter and I took her back to her room, cue lots of crying and then feeding from 3:30 til 4:00 when I finally managed to get her to stay in her room.
I'm so tired (I know it goes with the job of being a mummy ) and I really dont know whats wrong with her. Am I not feeding her enough in the day? She eats a big bowl porridge for brekkie, a large bowl of food for dinner, plus youghurt and fruit, tea with us, sometimes a youghurt / fruit, plus 3-4 breast feeds and also 10-15 oz milk while at the Cminders. She's about 19lbs (not had her weighed for a few weeks)
Any suggestions greatly welcomed.

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bramblina · 03/07/2006 19:31

How londg has she been like she was last night?

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Elf1981 · 03/07/2006 19:38

About three / four weeks.

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FrannyandZooey · 03/07/2006 19:42

Has she just started crawling / walking or similar? Big developmental milestones can disrupt sleep IME.

I do have sympathy but disturbed sleep is really really normal for young children.

I think your title has caught everyone on the back foot!

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VeniVidiVickiQV · 03/07/2006 19:44

Well if it was a hunger issue - upping the milk at her age is the answer - its the most calorific.

It could just be that she is teething, if calpol/nurofen/teething gels arent working you can try those homeopathic granules instead.

If you think she just wants comfort then you need to decide how you want to tackle it. Its better, usually, if you can get your DH/DP to go to her in the night as she wont associate him with b/feeding. The "kindest" way, IMO, is to stay with them and pat them gently to soothe them until they are calm/back to sleep. It takes one or two nights to crack it.

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bramblina · 03/07/2006 19:46

here is a post I started a few months ago, and was getting very stressed. Within a few days however he reverted back to himself and has been an angel since.
Your dd sounds a good weight, and a very good eater. Ds is also a good eater and started to wake for a bf so I would offer him more in the day. He has the same as your dd plus a snack mid afternoon, less the milk you mentioned and is 11m tomorrow.
What medication do you give your dd when she's unwell? IME at the age she is, she's unlikely to lose the ability to sleep so well (though from my post you would think I thought the world was about to end!) and sounds like she's having a tough old time with her teeth and virus. Do you think more teeth are on their way? How many does she have atm?

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bramblina · 03/07/2006 19:48

Sorry if that didn't make sense...I was pointing out that when my ds was your dd's age I seemed to have a similar experience...and was sympathising with that. I know what I meant!

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Elf1981 · 03/07/2006 20:01

lol Bramblina, I understood it too! She's got four teeth at the moment, two came through at six months, two came through last week. We were giving her Tixilyx for her cough, calpol when she was poorly / teething.

FrannyandZooey she started crawling about a month ago, is now pulling herself up on the furniture. I never really thought about it like that, I know she had a bad week of sleeping around the time she learnt to roll over.

VeniVidiVickiQV - might enlist DH to help with the sleeping thing. I tend to be awake before he is when she's crying but the past few nights he's woken up before me as I've been so tired. We're going on holiday in two weeks so for the five nights we're away I thought about trying to do CC / Dh to appease her rather than us feeding her.

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bramblina · 03/07/2006 20:10

The week ds got really mobile his appetite shot through the roof and morning naps went from 30mins to 2 hours. So it could be that as you say. How well does she sleep in the day?

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VeniVidiVickiQV · 03/07/2006 20:12

Having a plan or a set start date is good, if thats what you want to do.

I always felt with my DS that it reasonable to expect him only to sleep through till the average latest time he had slept to. So when i decided to do it with DS, I decided I wouldnt b/feed him until it got past 5am as i knew it was unlikely to be hunger waking him before then.

Mind you, my DS was 10.5 mths when i did this.

It turns out he slept much later than that anyhow - 7am! (after being awake on and off until 3am the first night). The next night was straight through.

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Elf1981 · 03/07/2006 20:14

Her day sleep varies. When we were at home together, she'd have an hour sleep in the morning and at least an hour in the afternoon. At the childminders, she tends to get woken up so it's anything from 30 mins to 1 1/2 hrs.

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Elf1981 · 03/07/2006 20:16

VeniVidiVickiQV - the start date was just because we wouldn't be at work the next day!
She used to wake at six for a feed and when I started to go back to work that was fine as I was getting up at that time anyway.