sleeping troubles !?!

I had trouble getting my girl to sleep when she was younger so we allowed her to sleep with us in our bed. i would like to reclaim my bed now but dont know how to do it. she has become very attached to me and likes to hug me when she sleeps. her cot is in my room which i can get her to sleep in during the day ( 30 minute naps only) but find it harder to get her to go back to sleep if at all when she's in it at night. she still wakes up for night feeds and lately what used to be three times average has turned into six. she has never had a solid feeding pattern much like her sleeping. and with the summer months being so hot i can have days where a feed her ( breast and mug) every 1-2 hours. also she wont go to bed herself. every time she gets tired and cranky i have to rock her or else she just keeps on crying, even when shes tired she wont sleep without being rocked first. I dont know if this has effect on her sleeping pattern. the doctors say she is healthy so it shouldnt matter too much, i could use any advice cause the last time i tried to get her out of my bed she refused to go to sleep until 6am and i dont wish to be up all night. please help!

Hi Heidi

I'm sorry i dont have any advice for you my little girl Ella is 6months old and has been sleeping in her cot since she was about 6weeks old.

The only suggestion i have is to ring a help line. Over here (WA) we have a place called Ngala, theyre a clinic in Perth that specialise in sleep. they have a help line you can ring or you can actually book in to go there and they help you work through your babies sleep problems. Do you have something like that in SA? They may have suggestions for you or maybe you could even go in and have them help you work through it...

Sorry i cant be of more help. I hope things work out, let me know how you go.

Bel

Hi Heidi,
You must be exhausted, getting up so often throughout the night. Try hugging her like usual, but then once she goes to sleep, try putting her into her cot. Keep doing this everytime she wakes up, and putting her in the cot during the day. She will soon associate sleep with her cot, and get used to sleeping in there. She may be waking up so often during the night, because your movements whilst you are sleeping could be disturbing her. Once you get her sleeping properly, you can then tackle the task of getting her to go to sleep in the cot by herself. Feel free to email me at traceyl01@hotmail.com anytime you like. Good luck.
Tracey

Hi,

Ihave an 8 month old who also sleep with me and my husband in bed for the first few months. When she was 4 1/2 months she got sick and very clingy and would also sleep wrapped up in my arms, and wake every hour (at least!!!) I was going insane as lack of sleep is not good for me, or many other people for that matter. Maybe you should try seperating yourself from bubs during the day as much as possible to make them see they can handle things with out you. This may make them sleep better without you. Also I found that getting my daughter out of bed and out of the room made her sleep much better, hours longer! To get her to sleep you could try cuddling her with your jumper off but in your arms. When she falls asleep on that you can put her in her cot with it so she can still smell you. I also found that putting her to sleep on a pillow worked because she was elevated like she was on my arm. (I know they aren't meant to sleep with pillows, but it worked and now she sleeps with out it!)

My only other bit of advice is get a routine at the end of the day. My daughter has no routine (she hates them) but at night she gets her dinner, bath, bottle and then put in her cot. She cries sometimes, and we let her cry but go in and settle her every now and then.

I hope this helps, it worked for me, but that doesn't mean it'll definetly work for you, but there's no harm in trying! Good luck!

Steph

Hi,

My son was very similar! I tried to put him in a cot after he feel asleep but it wasn't long and he would scream the house down...not fun in the early hours of the morning! I ended up making a little bed bedside our bed and I put him to sleep there! If he woke during the night and wanted to get into out bed I would lay him back down in the little bed I made for him and hold his hand! It worked, he would just fall straight off to sleep again! Hope this works!

Best wishes

Hi I had the same trouble with my daughter sleeping with us and wking in the night so we put her in her own room, Does she have a dummy?? we found the dummy helped her to settle in the night and she still sleeps with one now. also we tried controlled crying, she cried for about half an hour before she went to sleep and the first night we did that she slept right through almost.
Do you have a regular bedtime routine? if you give her a bath then a feed and put her to bed, after a while she should associate this with going to bed and be more settled-hopefully.

I know what you're going through. I slept with my son nearly every night till he was 4 months old. If it wasn't all night it was from 3 am onwards. If I out him in his cot he'd wake and for piece of mind I would give in. Isn't it frustrating that as soon as you lay with them, off they go but don't move or else!

Anyway it got to the point that he wouldn't sleep during the day without me and enough was enough. So i'd pick him up and rock him in my arms back to sleep but would not let him in my bed. The first week was hell but it got better. Then I moved onto not picking him up, just gently rocking him back and forth with his hip and shoulder in his cot. I must admit he is now 6 months and I am still working on this! He has only just gone into his own room and most nites I end up in there in the spare bed(he still doesn't sleep through). But as he is crawling now I won't let him sleep with me as I'm frightened he will wake up and fall out.

It is hard and I think once you've started it's hard to give up but it's a matter of perserverence. They're smart little critters - it doesn't take them long to train us!