Sleeping in his own room.

[Kirsty&Felix]

Last week we put Felix in his own room ( against my will! I was happy where he was next to me till he was about 16! ) He's six months old now.

I've heard a lot of mums say their baby slept a lot better when moved into their own room not Felix though. It's been a terrible week. When he used to wake up in my room I kind of sensed it before he was fully awake and managed to settle him most nights very quickly without even having to get up. Now by the time I can rouse myself to get out of bed he's already beside himself and much harder to settle and is needing to be fed etc to get him back off taking about an hour.

Last night I was so beside myself after feeding, rocking etc it had been over an hour and we's already been up a few times. I put him in our bed which usually settles him very quickly ( last resort ). Well he thought it was play time at 3am started shouting and laughing flaying his arms around like a mad man. I eventually had to put him back in his cot and managed to get him off close to 5am. Hubbies alarm went off at 6.30am!

I said this morning I'm giving it one more week and the cot is coming back in our room. I'm back at work in 4 weeks. I work 13.5 hour shifts on a very busy surgical ward looking after people post anaesthetic, getting up at 5.30am. So I'm terrified about going back to work. Sorry I'm ranting now but I'm exhausted!

Did anyone else have troubles at first and then their baby was ok? Has anyone any suggestions without having to resort to Furburising/Gina.

Thanks a very tired and grumpy Kirsty.

[loulouh1973]

Hi Kirsty, sorry to hear you're having a nightmare. I haven't had much problem with putting Evie in her own room, she went in quite early at 10 weeks. I did however do it in stages. I started by putting her in there for her daytime naps, and feeding her in her nursery so she got used to the room. Then, she went in her moses basket in the cot, then I put her down in the cot at bedtime and stayed in there till she was asleep. Obviously, Felix will be too big for his moses basket, but have you got a big cotbed? We have, so we put lots of teddies at the head of the bed, and the cot top changer so the bed didn't feel so big. Also, do you put him down while still awake so he knows where he is? Sometimes babies can get spooked when they are put down asleep and wake up thinking where am I? I don't know if any of this helps. hope things improve for you
Lou & Evie x

[Jess&Frank]

Hi Kirsty,

You poor thing! Sounds like you've had a terrible night. I'm amazed you are up and on the internet this morning, I usually just stay in bed all day if I've not had enough sleep!! Although, this is getting more difficult as Frank demands more entertaining.

It must be catching though, Frank was up last night at 4am. We hoped he would go back to sleep until 4.30am, when I finally gave in and fed him. Put him back down at 5am (asleep). But the old 'Moses basket trick' kicked in, he was then wide awake. He kicked about and shrieked until 5.30am. We then gave in and put him in our bed. Same as you Kirsty - last resort, but at least it works!

We're in the process of moving him into his own room. He sleeps in there 8pm til 11pm. But then we have him back in our room. I'm like you Kirsty, I cannot face getting out of bed during the night. Maybe you could try having him in a travel cot or something in your room for the main bit of the night - 11pm to 6am (or pref 8/9am)?

It MUST all work out in the end though... because I don't know any 16 year olds who sleep in their parent's room. He might be sensing your anxiety about going back to work and that is what is making him more unsettled at night.

Alternatively, old wives always say that a bit of whiskey before bed works a treat...

Let us know how you get on.

J

[Kirsty&Felix]

Thanks for the advice. We've just had a two hour mid morning nap in our bed! He does go off to sleep ok in there at night and his morning nap it's just when he stirs. If he strirs and he knows I'm there I think he just settles. Travel cot is a good idea then I could just transfer him into there in the middle of the night.

Also think that Gina works brilliantly for a lot of people. My friends two children were sleeping through the night in their own rooms at 4 weeks old! It's just Felix goes purple and coughs loads when he cries for any length of time so it would be too distressing for him.

Just have to see if it's any better this week.

[Lucinda]

Kirsty, we are going through the same thing! Charlie is 20 weeks and getting too big for his moses basket, he has to sleep with frog legs as he is so long. So after asking his daddy if he would go in the spare room and Charlie could sleep with me! ( that went down well!) I gave in this week and have tried to get Charlie to sleep in his own cot bed!

Well no sleep for me this week! Like you I used to settle him before he really woke himself, now he is in bits by the time I get to him. We used the moses basket in the bed trick last night wasn't superb, but at least we got a little sleep, he has gone down now so am praying he is getting used to it ( last few nights it has taklen us a few hours to settle him). I waited for his dad to get home tonight at 7 before we started to try to get him down as I am so tired I dont have the patience after lack of sleep.

Good luck tonight, I'll be thinking of you when I am awake no doubt!

[Kirsty&Felix]

Good luck to you too. It's good to know we're not the only ones.

[Lucinda]

Hi Kirsty how did you go? I am relieved to report a 8 - 7am, with a dream feed at 10.30, so some sleep last night. I hope you and Felix had a better night?

[Kirsty&Felix]

That's brilliant well done Charlie!

Felix went to bed at 7.30pm in his own room. Woke up at 10.30pm crying wouldn't settle so I breast fed him. He fell asleep but quickly woke up again. Just mumuring not properly crying but after 30 mins of laying awake listening to it he was properly crying. So went and got him 5oz formula and he took it all. So don't think I've got that much milk left really. Then he started laughing and playing so I put him in the cot all giddy about 1am by now. He went quiet after 5 mins and slept till 6.30 am.

Think I'd just got used to him sleeping through. It's absolutely rubbish! He has got another tooth breaking through though. Maybe that's why. At least I've had 5 hours sleep last night though. Just don't know how I'm going to manage at work if he's like this the night before my shift.

By the way I read yesterday the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency have said children should not be given Bonjela. In very rare cases it could cause Reye's syndrome which leads to liver and brain damage due to the gel containing salicylate salts. The Bonjela Teething Gel is safe though. I'd been using the ordinary one because it said suitable for teething babies from 3 months. I wonder if they won't print that on the box any more. It's was more effective than the dentinox I found but wont be using that anymore. He had loads yesterday too until I read that last night. Will have to go back to Dentinox or the teething gel.

Anyway lets home Charlie keeps it up.

[Lucinda]

Good luck Kirsty...I will be praying we both have a good night tonight...not least because we are all at a wedding all day tommorrow!

[Kirsty&Felix]

Hope Charlie is doing ok and you managed to get some sleep for the wedding.

I think ( fingers crossed ) I've worked out why he's waking. I was up for two and a half hours on saturday night trying various ways to settle him. So yesterday I went out to get a travel cot and had it all set up and ready. He woke up at 11pm. I'd only expressed at 10pm so I gave him 6oz formula and he slept straight after all night in his own room. I think he's just waking up hungry. The health visitor told me to reduce his solids so he'd take more milk. He's not taking any more milk so that's not really working anyway. I think he's been night waking for as long as I've been reducing his solids.

He refused a breastfeed this morning because he's teething so I've had to express and mix half of it into his cereal. So I'm going to give him as many solids as he wants today and just keep mixing milk in. Then he might start sleeping again.

Travel cot is a brilliant place to put him now while I'm in the shower. I just fill it full of toys and he loves throwing himself around in it.

Oh and last night I brushed his teeth for the first time. He was so good don't know what I was worried about. He quite liked it.

[Amy&Daniel]

Hi

We were very lucky with Daniel, he started sleeping for 8 or 9 hours through the night at 10 weeks. But then, at 20 weeks, he started waking up in the night. Since then, it has progressively got worse. Now, at 26 weeks, he's up once if not twice a night and I'm getting very tired.

Each time he's up, I feed him and he always seems starving. In fact, he feeds much better than he does in the day time. We're lucky too that he mostly goes back to sleep after the feed.

But today, I asked the health visitor about it because it just seems to be getting worse. She suggested not feeding him during the night until 4am. And if he wakes after 4am, to just give him one side. The idea is that he gets the idea that night-time is for sleeping and day-time is for eating. So we're in for a few nights of crying... can't say I'm looking forward to it.

tired Amy

[tinkertoes]

Hi Amy.. and welcome to moormums... sorry to hear that you're not getting too much sleep. Sucks, doesnt it. That's really useful info from your HV - thanks for sharing that. Let us know how it goes, wont you... will have fingers crossed that Daniel doesnt get too upset. Unfortunately think we may have to resort to the same ourselves - I was thinking J waking up may be a sign of him becoming dependent on his dummy... but maybe not and maybe it is an eating thing. Wonder which to eliminate first? Need to move him into his own room in the next week or so too - any recommendations on which order to do it all - or just go cold turkey and change everything at once??

Anyway - must go try get ahead on some sleep now!

Good luck.

[Amy&Daniel]

We went to bed on Thursday night fully expecting to be up most of the night. We heard crying on the monitor at 4.15am. Damn! I thought, that means (as per the rules suggested by the HV) that I have to go and give him half a feed - rather than sending my partner. I rolled over to one side in an attempt to get out of bed. Next thing I knew, it was 7am!! I am quite a heavy sleeper... I must have nodded off and Daniel gone back to sleep.

So, having simply decided to get tough with him, somehow, he got the message and slept through (well, 11pm to 7am) for the first time in weeks!!

I thought it might just be a one off, but he did it again last night!! I'm very much hoping it is a sign of things to come.

So I would recommend going cold turkey and doing it all at once. If you are going to be up in the night for a few nights, I'd rather just do it once rather than having a few episodes. Although, when it gets to 3am... I would probably decide something very different. I do think that Daniel has slept better in his own room though.

Best of luck.

A