I am seriously getting zero sleep.

I know KNOW it will (it HAS to) get better, but in the meantime I thought I would start a thread so that we can bitch and moan about how freakin tired we are. And marvel at our ability to function (well, sort of) on zero sleep.

Harper is 4.5 months old. We started her on cereal at 4 months. I was so so so hopeful that she would sleep longer. But, more or less, she is still on a 3 hour sleep cycle. Not necessarily always to eat, but if she is wet, etc.

Actually, if it was just Harper it wouldn't be so bad. But adding a 3 year old into the mix and it makes for some seriously sleepless nights.

Today is a very rough day. I went to bed at 11, Harper woke me at 11:30, Rayna came in at almost one and I took her back to her room. She pretty much went right back to sleep so I was back in my bed shortly after. Harper woke at 1:30. Then Rayna reappeared. Then Harper woke up again. My alarm went off at 6. I feel like hell today.

This has GOT to get better. I remember w/ Rayna 5 months was the magical number. It was when things started getting better. Right now though, quite frankly, this sucks ass. Physically I am really starting to suffer. Ugh.

Sandy!! That really does suck ass!!! I hope it gets better soon. At least you don't have my David as your child. He didn't sleep through the night until he was almost 3. :eek: Now THAT sucked ass!!!! Hopefully that made you laugh at least!! :lol: Hang in there....it will get better!!!

Add me to the list. Jeremy is almost 9 months old and still getting up 2x a night. I would KILL for a full night's sleep. Plus Riley's had a cold for a bit and her coughing has been waking her up.

Plus add the fact that we spent a few days not at our house for the holidays, and that makes for even more fun sleeping. J hates the PNP, so he spent most of the time in bed with me. Yeah, that's even more restful sleep on my end.

It wasn't this hard at all with Riley. I'm trying hard to not compare the two, but she was sleeping through the night consistently at 3 months. I can count on 2 hands the number of times J has slept through the night. :tearhair: He certainly can't be hungry during the night--the boy is almost as heavy as Riley! :lol: But he doesn't have a comfort item (Riley had a binkie), and likes to use me as his comfort.

I'm sorry you're not getting sleep either. :hug99: Hang in there, Sandy.

Sandy and Darcy :hug99:
As the mom of kids who put her through sleep hell, I can sympathize.

Sandy...do they make overnight dipes for Harper's size? I forget. That may help her w/ the wet dipes :dunno: I take it Harper is waking Rayna up :hug99: Dang...does that affect Rayna's demeanor the next day?
Have you tried creating any sort of 'stay in bed chart' for Rayna? That was the age we started doing it w/ Aidan. We told him he had 2 options: he could try the chart and if he didn't try, we would put up a gate. Thankfully, it worked.

:hug99: I hope you start getting sleep soon!

:hug99:

I think for Harper she has outgrown her size 2 diapers, so I went today and bought size three. That should help. I think she is on the verge of sleeping longer and longer, I just need to get over this hill, so to speak.

As for Rayna, she was doing, overall, really well staying in her bed until Tommy's heart attack. She was understandably freaked out and would get up every night and come into bed with me. I wasn't going to have her stop doing it then b/c, well, we were all freaked out. Then, with him home we thought it would get better, but then the Christmas excitment got her all hyped up. Harper does not wake her. Harper's room is right beside ours and Rayna's is on the other side of the house. She is just waking up and coming into our room on her own. I think she does it w/out even realizing it sometimes. Last night, the first time, she fell immediately back to sleep when I put her in her bed, so I think she pretty much was just sleep walking.

So, I am hopeful that once the holidays are over (barring any other health crisis) that we will be back to our regular ole routine and she will start staying all night in her bed again. Or, at the very least, Tommy's strength will return in full and he can take her back to bed. Right now, since he is still very much in recovery mode, I don't want him to have to get up to help w/ the girls. I just feel like he really needs the rest, KWIM. But man. I swear they are all conspiring to try and kill me.

I appreciate all the support. I know y'all know where I am coming from!!!!

I'm there at the moment. Anna was a great sleeper until she got a cold about a month ago and she's been consistantly waking up 1-2 times since then. Jackson has never been a great sleeper, so he is also awake 1-2 times every night as well. Add to that my crazy holiday work schedule of late - and I average about 3 hours a night.

Fortunately the crazy schedule is over but I'm still catching up...I'm still so exhausted. Last night was a good night though. The kids went to bed late b/c we were at my Dad's for dinner until 8:30, so it was about 9:30 before either of them was in bed. Anna was up at 3:00 so I fed her in bed with me, then Jackson was up at 6:30. I convinced him to stay in bed with me until 7:00, but then I was up.

I've been so tired lately, so I've been feeding Anna laying down in bed. This is bad b/c I fall asleep, and then she ends up in bed with us for the duration of the night. I'm starting to think that she's waking up so she can get in bed with us. I really didn't want to get her into that habit, and I need to stop, I need to feed her sitting up so I can put her back in her crib afterwards...I just need to be a little less tired to do it though. :lol:

Sadly, I have a 15 month old who still doesn't sleep through the night. It SUCKS! I feel your pain and then some. Hope it gets better for you.

Sandy...do they make overnight dipes for Harper's size? I forget.

Huggies Overnights come in size 3 through size 6, but size 3's can be hard to find. Daniel has been in overnight diapers for months. It's the only way he doesn't wake up wet.

By the way, he's 14 months old and I was up with him from 3am to 4:45am last night. Ugh! Poor guy! And poor me!

PS - I almost forgot....I got my mom up every night until I was 8. Yes, EIGHT! I guess this is paybacks.

We have a three year old getting up every night, so we're with you as well. Yes, it does suck. Hopefully getting back into your normal routine will help.

Dennis

I'm checking in here as well........my 2 year old Alexis rarely sleeps through the night. Plus she is up for the day at 6-6:30am every.freaking.day!

How is everyone doing w/ the sleep issues?

We are hit or miss. I feel slightly more rested today than yesterday. Harper woke up a few times last night. Rayna showed up at 4, but I had Tommy take her back to her room.

Two nights ago it was awful. Rayna stayed in her bed all night :woo: and appeared at 6am but Harper was not sleeping at all!!!

I have a 13 month old who rarely sleeps through the night so I feel your pain! I keep wondering when he will consistently stay sleeping until morning. To add to my troubles, my 5 year old crawls into our bed at some point every night. My three year is the only good sleeper I have right now. I wonder if I will ever get a good night of sleep again.

Lora

Frances is still awful. If she hasn't had a nap, she's not too bad getting to sleep, but she's still getting up during the night (the other night it was four time). We made an appointment a week from monday to talk about it.

Just had J's 9-month appointment and the ped basically told me what I already knew in that I need to just let J settle himself down at night. Last night he was up at 10, 1, and 4:30. :blue: I hate this. At least Riley's still sleeping well.

Moriah is 5.5 months old. TG she is pretty god about sleeping thru the night 90% of the time. But lately she has been awake from 10pm-1am and that means that I usually get 4-5 hrs of sleep a night.
Now if it were up to Moriah only, it would be undisrupted. But Shoham and Yumi also wake up at night here and there. Nightmares, accidents...
So count me in as one who is lacking sleep big time.
I AM thankful she usually sleeps thru the night. I could not handle things otherwise. They are hard enough as it is.

Frances is still awful. If she hasn't had a nap, she's not too bad getting to sleep, but she's still getting up during the night (the other night it was four time). We made an appointment a week from monday to talk about it.
Be sure to come back and fill us in on how it goes. Is the appt. with your ped/GP? I'm interested in what s/he has to say about it. :)

I have two kids, neither of whom sleep through the night. J will sleep through the night about 2 or 3 times per month, and it's totally random. The last time Anna slept through the night was Sept. 9th, 2006.

Anna was an awful sleeper. She didn't sleep through until 15.5 months. She slept great for 15 months, and then started night waking again at about 2.5 years right around the time that J was born.

J started off great. He slept 4 hours on the day he was born, and increased until he was doing 7 hours (10-5) at about 8 weeks. I thought I had it made! Then he got sick at 12 weeks, and it's been awful since. He's not 17 months and is up 1-2 times per night, and it usually takes me 30 min. to get him back down once he's up. Often it will take even longer.

So, on a typical night, J is up 1-2 times, and Anna is up 2+ times.

I was a great sleeper. Eric got up every night until he was 6. I blame him. :lol2:

I was a great sleeper. Eric got up every night until he was 6. I blame him. :lol2:

:lol: Too funny!

Be sure to come back and fill us in on how it goes. Is the appt. with your ped/GP? I'm interested in what s/he has to say about it. :)

Duh, I was typing too quickly. It's with our ped. She's pretty good with this kind of stuff, and her sister is a child psychologist specializing in sleep issues, although in another state. But she's a great resource for our ped.

I'm really interested in any new tips... I cannot do CIO w/ Tatum... when she cries hard, she throws up everywhere... I really think I am going to just be waiting it out... plus, most nights I have both Caroline and Courtney in my bed by about 2 am or earlier... I figure Tatum is just going to end up there too eventually, which is fine w/ me if she just sleeps all night!

OH! I feel for everyone. When Carter was little, he would not sleep unless I held him. He wouldn't sleep anywhere unless I held him. Oh wait - he would sleep in his swing for a 2 hour nap during the day, but that was it. I would get him to sleep at night (in my arms of course) and then I would lay him down in his co-sleeper which was right next to me (I mean RIGHT NEXT to me). He would wake up within 15 minutes usually. This went on for the first 4 months. I finally just put him in bed with me and he slept. It was a miracle.

Heather is now waking up 2-3 times a night screaming. This has happened ever since Christmas Eve when that scary Santa came into our house! Thanks Santa.

One thing I remember reading is to have the dad go into the room and get the baby. A lot of times, the baby just wants mom and if they can't have mom, maybe they will stop waking.

Another thing we did when Heather was born is to split up the duty. I ALWAYS was the one to get up with Carter, so when Heather came along, I got Heather and my husband go Carter. That way I wasn't doing double duty.

Hang in there. It has to get better soon!

Another sleep disturbed night here. Harper got up at least twice, maybe three times. It is all a fog. Rayna appeared in our room but I couldn't tell you when. I have started getting Tommy to get up and take her back to her room, but w/ all his health issues right now, he needs his rest more than anyone. So, for the most part, I have been doing all the getting up w/ both kids for a while now. Seriously, I'm not even really sure how I am functioning.

I know Karri had mentioned that she did a sticker chart to keep Aiden in his room. I need to PM her to see how this worked. I am trying to think of ways that will be effective to keep Rayna in her room. I will try positive reinforcement before negative, certainly, IE: getting a gift if she stays in her room for three night in a row, or something. But it might have to get to negative reinforcement - IE: she will not be able to go to the park/bookstore/birthday party on Saturday if she wakes up and comes to mom and dad's room during the night. I just don't know at this point.

I don't really know what else to do with Harper? I have been feeding her solids and she loves them. Eats eats eats then nurses before going to bed. She is usually down by 7ish at night. Wakes up at 11ish to feed and typically has a big nurse then. That I can handle. It is after that that I think she should be sleeping longer. She can wake up anywhere from 2-3 times after that. I don't think she should be hungry and need to nurse for those times, now that she is about 5 months.

Dennis, I am super interested to hear what your ped says.

Sandy, so are we :)

Another terrible night here... worse than usual, but I will chalk part of that up to everyone being sick... Tatum refused to stay asleep and did not ultimately go down until after 3 am... even though she was very tired. :( She also had a crying, coughing fit that ended in her throwing up all over me. The only way she finally settled was having a bottle in my arms being rocked to sleep... should not be necessary at 15.5 months!

Holy crap. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself that my 10 month old still gets up once a night. I can't imagine having more than one child doing the same. My problem is the last couple nights when she gets up it takes an hour and a half to get her back to sleep.

Just read a little more. Morgan was up every three hours to eat until she was 6.5 months old and we switched from breast to formula. She was preemie so I don't know if she just needed more or what. I'm not saying if you haven't already to switch to formula, that's just when Morgan started going longer.

We had a rough night again - not because of Moriah who slept from 9:30-6:30, bless her!- but because of Shoham and Yumi.

Poor Shoham woke up at 11, 12 and 12:30 screaming. Obviously something hurt her. :( I checked to see if she had another pinworm infection. (She had 2 in the past and keeps getting it from KG... They even put up a sign a month ago that kids should be treated.) I was unable to tell and calmed her down, put her back in bed. After the 2nd time we called a service to have a dr over. We went to sleep at 12:30 after she calmed down and the dr came at 2 am. Then I woke up at 5:30 because Yumi wet his bed. I just read that this can be a sign that he is also infected. Sigh. So we'll all be taking meds tonight. Fun fun.
I hope the next nights will be better.

What's pinworm? I've never heard of it.

Ben has never, ever slept through the night. The longest he has gone is about 6 hours and that must have been a fluke, because it's never happened again. I am hoping when I wean him that he'll get the message that night time is not snack time.

What's pinworm? I've never heard of it.
You are very lucky! It is a parasyte.

OT and TMI for some...
Here is what www.kidshealth.com (http://www.kidshealth.com) say about it:
Pinworm is an intestinal infection caused by tiny parasitic worms measuring about 5 to 10 millimeters (about half to one centimeter) in length. Other names for a pinworm infection are "seatworm infection," "threadworm infection," "enterobiasis," or "oxyuriasis."

One of the most common roundworm infections, pinworm infections probably affect about 200 million people across the world, including about one third of the population in the United States. Of all age groups, schoolchildren are most at risk for pinworm infections.

But if your child has a pinworm infection, don't worry. Pinworms don't cause any harm (just itching), and it won't take long to get rid of them. And people who have pinworms aren't dirty - kids can get pinworms no matter how often they take a bath or play in the mud.

So last night was not better.... but not because of the infection. Taken care of that TG!

Moriah had her last meal around 8:30 and was asleep by 9:30 so I knew she was going to wake up during the night. She can go 8 or max 9 hrs without nursing- not more.

At 3 am, I wake up to yells of "Mommyyyyyy, Mommyyyyyy!!!" I rush to Shoham and ask her what is going on. She looks at me, smiles and then says "I want a kiss and a hug!" :) Did that, of course, and then she wanted me to tuck her in again. Then she got upset because it was not EXACTLY how she wanted me to do it. Sigh. She fell asleep right afterwards.
With her calling me and getting upset, she managed to wake up Moriah. Moriah nursed and did not fall asleep right away as she usually does. She was WIDE awake. I tried putting her back to bed but could hear her play and call out. I picked her up and then she burped, spit up and pooped. LOL So off for a diaper change. And then Miss M was simply up for the day. Or so she thought. It took me until 4:30 to get her back to sleep. YAWN.
I barely managed to get up this morning.

Last night was actually pretty good here. J slept unil 5:45!! :woo: Then he and I cuddled and dozed in the recliner until just after 8:00. :aok: Anna was up once in the night and then at 5:45, and then slept with Eric until 7-something. He was up with her in the night, though, so I got a nice looong stretch. :heee:

The night before, however, was not good at all. J was up from 2-2:45, 4:30-6, and then up again at 7:00. He slept again for about half an hour, but I had to be holding him. I think it's that last molar.

How are people even managing to function w/ these no sleep stories?????

Happy to report that Rayna has been doing better about staying in her big girl bed. Harper is still waking up at least two times a night. I have been resorting to bringing her in bed w/ me at some point. Gotta do what I gotta do to survive right now. She is eating plenty of solids, so I am hopeful that she will start sleeping more.

Shoham is sick so I was up with her until 1:45 am last night. Got up at 6:15.

Frances was up 5 times last night. She's lucky she's so cute.

We had our appointment with our ped today - she even called her sister the sleep expert in the middle of it. The waking up during the night is tied to the problems getting her to sleep. So once she gets better at going to sleep, the night wakings will get better. The challenge of course, is getting her to sleep. The summary:

- Let her ask for two things (go potty, drink of water, etc.) and then no more.

- Get her used to us being out of her sight. Right now, we sit in the hall where we can see her. We should leave for 30 seconds at a time - tell her we are going to the bathroom or something and then come right back. Then stretch that out to a minute, and eventually move down the hall to where she can't see us.

- Put a light on a timer so she can read books for a while.

- Put a toy or DVD that she likes in the room with her and tell her she can watch it or play with it if it's sill there in the morning - then if she acts up we take it away.

- Use timeouts or whatever discipline method you normally use. People think night time is different but it's the same to the kids.

Ultimately it's going to come down to putting up with a lot of tantrums until she gets over it.

Has anyone tried Melatonin? We put a few drops of it in Saxon's juice when he starts keeping himself up at bed time (playing around too much in bed) Our behavioral ped recommended it and a lot of the parents of kids on the Autism Spectrum lists I am on use it. It helped make him sleepier at bedtime and so he could settle down then helped him stay asleep. We use the Natrol brand drops and put like 1/4 of a dropper in some OJ. hth

DD2 is 5 months old and nearly sleeping through the night. She usually only wakes up one time, around 4 in the morning, which is no problem. The problem is she makes all sorts of noises in her sleep. I can be absolutely exhausted, sound asleep...the second I hear a noise I'm wide awake and most of the time can't get back to sleep. (which is why I'm awake now at half past midnite)

Has anyone tried Melatonin? We put a few drops of it in Saxon's juice when he starts keeping himself up at bed time (playing around too much in bed) Our behavioral ped recommended it and a lot of the parents of kids on the Autism Spectrum lists I am on use it. It helped make him sleepier at bedtime and so he could settle down then helped him stay asleep. We use the Natrol brand drops and put like 1/4 of a dropper in some OJ. hth

Must. Try. That. I put the girls down at 7:30 (no nap today either, mind you) and they are still up. :faint:

How are people even managing to function w/ these no sleep stories?????

It is amazing what a person can do even when totally sleep deprived.

DD1 (age 8) never slept. At a year old, she was still waking 4-5 times in the night. I may have gotten 3-4 hours of broken sleep every night until she was 16 months old. I still functioned pretty well. I was even working part time and did OK. But, I will say that by the time she started sleeping through the night, I was ready to have my doctor commit me to the nut hatch.

With all the sick kids I obviosuly got very little sleep these past few nights. Last night I had to get up/was woken up 5 times. One of the times I was up with Shoham for almost an hour. Sigh. She has tantrums if she wakes up in the middle of the night and I am always worried that she'll wake the other 2 up.

Well, we ended up getting tough with Jacob, and he has been sleeping through. Now... what to do about Anna?

Sarah - are they in seperate rooms? I think Dennis has given some useful advice. His Frances and Anna seem about the same age.

Nadine - they are in different rooms, but they do share a wall.

I think that we could try a toy or DVD that she can play with if she sleeps through the night.

She already goes to sleep quite well, so the premise that getting that under control will stop the nightwakings might not really work for us. I think that when she falls asleep, her door is open, but Eric is in another room. Maybe we need to work toward Eric closing the door when he leaves. :dunno:

Thought I would revive this and see how everyone is doing?

I am very happy to report that things are better. Actually, I read back through this thread and I darn near started crying reading my posts b/c it was so bad then. :lol:

Harper finally got w/ the program. She falls asleep between 7-7:30 at night. Sometimes she will sleep straight until 5am. Most times, though, she will wake up at around 10. I will go in then and just rock her back to sleep (no nursing). Like last night, she does wake up a lot at 4-4:30, but I ignore her and make her put herself back to sleep. She usually does, then wakes again at 5-5:30. At that point, I get her and bring her back to bed w/ me for a nurse before I have to wake up to get ready for work. She can sleep in our bed until 7 or later, doing this.

Rayna is doing much better as well. It is clear to me that her sleeping was interrupted with all the stressors in her life after DH heart attack. She is back to sleeping most nights in her bed. We talk to her about it all the time. She knows that she is supposed to stay in her bed until it is light out - she will come into our room and tell us that she slept all night in her bed! So, all in all, I feel like I am getting some rest now. I still feel tired a lot, but nothing like the zombie state I was in for the last six months.

I can tell a difference that it has on me in so many ways - my temper is not as short as it was. I certainly have a lot more patience with the girls. I am also a lot more productive at work. Yay for getting some sleep.

Glad to hear sleep is happening in your house, Sandy. It is in ours, too. Jeremy turned one on Friday, and for the last month he's been sleeping much better. He usually only gets up 1-2 nights during the week, and I've stopped nursing him at that time, which was hard to give up. I was thinking that it would be easier to nurse him back to sleep than to hear him scream for 45 minutes. But like I said, he's done much better, and in fact last night he slept from 7:30-7:30. :biggrin: That was refreshing! But we still have 1-2 rough nights a week--Saturday night he had a hard time falling asleep, and then he was up at midnight and up for good at 6:30. :dunno: He's definitely a differnt child than Riley!

Frances had a streak of 5 nights in a row where she slept all night a couple of weeks ago, but now we're back to the same old crap.

Yeah. Anna gave us one night, but that's it. J was sleeping through until he started cutting his eye teeth. Now he's up at least once at least half of the time.

Nathan is nearly 17 months old now and still giving me crap at night! He is up nearly every night at least once. Everyone tells me that I have to let him just cry but I just can't risk having him wake up his older brothers. Our bedrooms are just too close together! I go to bed every night wishing and hoping that he will finally sleep through but it just never happens. Ed tries to help out and gets up with him but Nathan only wants me! It's also not fair to make Ed get up when he works a full-time job. I just don't know when I will ever get a decent nights sleep again!

Lora

Ok, so I totally jinxed myself. I was up all night!!! Both girls were up at varying times. :handbags: :raincloud

Tatum is not sleeping through. She is up at least once and if she has a cough, which she does now, she is up all night. Last night, she threw up twice... all over the place. We have had a few good nights, but mostly, it is not good.