Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

DS has had bad colic, I am sure it is contributing to his sleep. I get so frustrated and sad when I see all these posts in these babies who sleep 8-10 hours straight through the night!

The dr promises me that he will phase out of the colic by 3-4 months but, I'm already so sleep deprived. I have to return to work in a few weeks. How the heck am I going to manage?

He wants to eat every 3-4 hours during the evening/night and then duriing the day, it's every 2 hours! Can you please share some support?

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

It gets better. I promise.

NONE of my babies STTN until they were almost a year old. I did CIO with my oldest at 10 months old. Eliza was up every 2 hours to nurse until she was almost 6 months old. I never had to do full on CIO with her as she started STTN by the time she was 8-9 months old.

My youngest has my heart wrapped around his pinky and I never had it in me to do CIO with him. He recently started STTN at 16 months. He also has a dog allergy and was on lots of meds until we finally rehomed our dog- once Luna went to live with our coworker, he started STTN within the month.

Here's the deal- with each baby I swore there was "something wrong" because they weren't doing what *all the other babies on LIF* were doing. Truth is, STTN is a milestone just like any other. You can try to help them reach it, but if a baby is not ready, they're not ready. My kids would nurse like CRAZY when they woke at night- that led me to believe they were hungry. Because they WERE. Once my DDs were refusing bottles from DH and would only be happy with me going is when I knew they were ready for CIO. And it worked. BUT, that was once I knew for sure they wasn't needing to be fed.

My son is a different story. He's my last, my baby, and had a terrible time with his allergies so I just didn't have it in me to let him cry.

You'll get there, I promise. And you'll look back at this time fondly. I don't miss the sleep deprivation, but I wistfully remember those moments in the middle of the night cuddling each of my tiny babies.

ETA: my second DD and my son were both colicky. It was awful. I found that giving a daily probiotic DEFINITELY helped my son. I wish I'd known about them when I was going through it with my DD.

Message edited 12/30/2011 10:44:31 AM.

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

Not sure if its support or not but ... NOT every child goes to bed 8-10hrs. haha

AJ never even STTN until after 1yr. 8hrs sleep is a mystical creature in our home. Only spoken of in whispers.

Some kids (mine personally) are not hardwired like other kids. I tried to put her to bed earlier and she'd just wake up at 4am. I tried the feed, dont feed, rock, dont rock, put down sleep, routine, talking, reading EVERYTHING (except CIO which I refuse) and nothing ever worked. She'd fall asleep just fine then because she was asleep so early she'd wake up in the middle of the night or early morning.

Its just NOT who she is.

Even at 3 if she skips her nap and falls asleep around 7:30-8pm (which does happen) my hubby and I both say "oh Sh!t, long night coming" and we try our HARDEST to wake her up half an hour later. Because if we don't, she will sleep until 11pm and wake up, ready and raring to go until 1-2am. NOT fun!

I learned very early that AJ will not follow the 'mold' or the 'standard' of other children. She is just who she is. I still only get around 6hrs sleep. But I'm used to it.

Good Luck!

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

I know it's not a popular opinion on here, but we get our best sleep when we bedshare. He still wakes to nurse, but goes right back to sleep.

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

Dd has sttn since since very young. I didn't do anything special she just did it and we woke up and was like yay!! That's just her. She's. Very good sleeper. I just had our little routine but nothing special. She did it on her own.

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

DS is 8 weeks. He too, wants to eat every 2 hours...so I tried to level up his nipple of the bottle. That doesn't work because he takes in too much it spits out all over the place.

Recently though, I've tried the CIO method, it's sort of working. The only things I hate about it is the fact that we live in an apartment and I am afraid of waking the neighbors, and I hate hearing my son cry. I hate, hate, hate it. But it's worked for me, if I don't go over to the sleeper when he makes a noise, he will go right back to sleep, and in fact, just the past 2 nights, he makes it from 11-5, wakes to feed and eats 5 oz, and this is when he gets loud with his cries and I hear him making those s*cking noises with his mouth, and then will sleep from 530-8.

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

I hear it gets better, but I am in the same boat as you.
My son thinks the middle of the night is playtime. Except last night he screamed for 3 hours.
Just know you are not alone.

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

the bad new - dd is just outgrowing colic at almost 7 months

the good news - it totally gets better.

she was so bad....it was heart breaking. going back to work is easier than u think. ur body just goes on auto pilot. as long as ur dh is helpful u will survive.

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

My ds woke every 2 hours until hewas4 months old niche had avid reflux -it does get better

Re: Moms of babies who don't sleep more than 3-4 hours please come in

My 9 month old rarely sleeps through the night but my 3 yr old is a great sleeper. I have no clue why this little guy doesn't want to sleep since I know he is capable as he's done it before and on occasion. Here's to hoping it gets better! Good luck!