Sleep Training - Surviving IT!?

Hi Rakker
Jip, shame man...sounds like our girls have the same sleep issues for sure!
Kiana also does the legs kicking and arms waving thing and she also throws her back out like a bow .... funnily enough all this mostly with her eyes closed because she is so tired! LOL. (although not funny at two in the morning...)

I got her to go from 20min naps during the day, falling asleep at the breast or in her pram being pushed, to 1 and 1/2 hours naps falling asleep in her cot without having a feed first.... THAT alone tells me we can do this! So I'm just going to keep on praying for strength, patience and perseverance and stick with it.

Good luck to you!! If you need someone to talk to or share experiences with you are welcome to contact me. You have my email addy and if you have Blackberry I'll add you to that too.
Good luck!! XXX

Hi Karin. Let me share my night , seeing that we have similar issues. (Thank goodness my issues start at 02:30 and not 12:30 )

Cherise slept from 19:30 to 23:30, which is awesome. Breast and bottle fed her then. She slept again till 02:30, which was also awesome. I gave her some milk as I thought by doing that she might give me 2.5 more hours of peaceful sleep. No such luck for me... From 02:45 to 05:15 (when I get out of bed during the week) I was in and out of bed the whole flipping time. Sometimes I got 15 minutes of peace, sometimes 5 minutes. It was like she was still sleepy, but her body was wide awake, legs kicking and arms never quiet. I just don't know what was going on. She actually slept after drinking just after 5 (which she never does), because she was also tired.

Tonight I'm starting to leave her a bit every time she wakes up to see if she doesn't start to sooth herself back to sleep. I am honestly quite sure she will learn how to do that, so I just need to persevere. I

Hi Meags - my biggest mistake was to agree to the weekend away last weekend... It was starting to get well on track and that just messed it all up again.

Last night was awful in one word.
It started off so promising - did our bath routine (very relaxing and calm) and she was in bed by 7h45. Moaned a bit when put down, but it wasnt long and she was fast asleep. (Last b/feeding was at about 6h45.)
So I went to bed at 9h00 and picked her up while she's sleeping and "dream fed" her. So know I knew her tummy was nice and full and thirst quenched.
Back into bed and she slept till 12h30.... there our trouble started. She woke and kept on moaning till I went to her, patter her a bit, turned her right and shhh...shhh...shhh .... She fell asleep, half an hour later she was awake again.
I left her a bit lying in bed listening (she sleeps in our room)
She moaned and even "sang" for a long time - no crying yet. So I left her, but she started crying soon after that. Went to her, patter her, comforted her a bit (no picking up) and she went calm again. Back into bed and it all started again... so this carried on untill 5h00 (yes 5h00) this morning!
She became very upset at times and then seemed to self soothe a bit and calm down again, just to pick it up again and get very angry cause I'm not picking her up and giving her breast. I just refused, I need to stick to this now even though its hard as hell.
So she fell asleep at 5h15 about and she slept till 8h00. Figures hey.... mommy had to be up before that of course. And those three hours would have been great much earlier, haha.

She was FINE without the b/milk for 11 hours (its proven). When she woke she full of smiles, giggles and didnt demand the breast even. I changed her nappy, played a few minutes, hugs and cuddles and only then went to sit and feed her b/milk. She wasnt at all over eager to feed, just calmly lied and drank...so I know for a fact she is big enough to go through the night just fine.

Gona stick to this, tonight I think will be a long and hard one again, but just maybe its going to be easier and get easier every night.

Thanks for all the advice!
So glad Matt is giving you great sleep nights Meags!! ((hugs))

Karin we tried to get Matt to self soothe but he wanted the dummy. but he doesnt suck. so I would sit by his cot and hold in his dummy until he was asleep. the problem was that if the dummy fell out, he would wake crying and not be able to self soothe without it. so in the space of an hour we were up and down the stairs for the dummy run like 6 times.

So I decided no more dummy.....and no more swaddle as the swaddle makes him angry if he doesnt have the dummy. After a week he is fine.
what I do now is tuck a blanket into the sides of the mattress so its tight-ish over his legs and body. arms out. then I give him a muslin blanket to hold in his hands and his new way of self soothing is to suck/chew on the muslin blanket. hooray no more dummy runs!!!!!

I feed him and put him into bed awake (he never falls asleep while drinking). I tuck in his blankets, give him one to hold and say goodnight and leave.

Sometimes he will moan. But if its more than 5 minutes I know something is not right (or if his cry becomes harder and not just moaning). I go up to check on him and sometimes the blanket is over his head or he's turned onto his tummy. So I resolve the problem (no talking or eye contact) and leave the room.

generally then he is lights out.

but it wasnt just that simple. weaning him off the swaddle has been a mission. he still struggles a bit in the day sometimes without it but we are getting there. I think you need to choose a path and stick to it. because doing one thing one day and something else the next day just confuses them. so even if you go away, explain to your friends you are sleep training and that is that. otherwise you start from square one again.

good luck!!! you can also choose to do the cry it out method but sit by her cot and pat her bum so she knows you are there, just that you are not going to always pick up and breastfeed. then after 5 minutes, pick up, cuddle, kiss and lay back down. I understand you're saying even when picking up she is still hysterical when you put her back down....but that happens. either you carry on like that or you hold her until she's calm, then put back down and pat bum while sitting there.

Thanks Karin..my ticker was a bit outdated!

Good luck, I am sure things will get better soon! I am sure there is a lot of milestone development taking place at the moment, and could also be the cause..Maybe she just wants to wake up to "practice" her new skills!

Wille mail to you too Rakker, just pm or send me the email addy. I hav eit ready to send at the moment. The books is called 'The Sleepsense Programme by Dana Obelman. Someone sent it to me quite a few years ago before my Daughter was born. They had used it and found it worked so when the time came I tried and it worked like a bomb for my Daughter but sadly didn't work for my son so it clearly depends from child to child.

2km, what is the name of the book? I am also busy reading up on sleep issues, ugh.