please go to sleep!

[Zak33]

Zak Jr has slept through the night, every night, since he was under one. Before that it was ME waking him for his dream feed.

Babies need practice sleeping.. they don't understand what it is or how to do it. They need a lot of it too.

Zak Jr is now over 2 1/2 ys old and has 2 hours at lunch time (put him to bed between 12:30 and 2pm according to what we're doing and how he is) and he sleep to 2:30 to 4pm, exactly 2 hours and I have to wake him (not easy, grumpy little munchkin) and then to bed by 7:30.. awake at 7:30 ish, sometime 8am. So 12 hours straight every night, always. Even when I had a house full or party going on!

[Grey M@a]

please god no.. don't say things like that 0iD... I don't think I could cope with 4 years of it

4 years, Cameron is 6 and he still has a 5am wake up time xD Not good when you get a late night Most the time though you hear him reading to himself at this time of the morning. I don't know how many more times I can listen to the story of Ben 10 taking on Vilgax

[colincliff]

BT Baby Monitor 150 ...............................Downside is trying to resist quoting "Smokey and the Bandit" over it!

+1 for this monitor, as well as sleeping bags and an oil filled thermostatic heater. Winning combination for us.

Our daughter moves all around her cot at night so sleeping bags were the only thing to keep her warm. At the moment our flat is freezing - combination of high cellings and rubbish old boiler. It got to about 12 degrees in her room one night before we bought the heater!

She still wakes in the night sometimes especially if shes been ill, but has been better since she is warm!

I have to admit i do make my wife say 'over' at the end of each sentance when using the baby monitor tho............. small things etc

[0iD]

Yeah, baby sleeping bags are great for winter if you've got a fidgety sleeper

[angeleyes]

Lou was great when she was younger. Was going from 9pm to around 4ish from only a few weeks old. All changed now though. Having massive problems with her. She's been in our bed for the last few weeks. It started off when she had a virus and she hasn't wanted to go back into her crib since. We are trying everything at the moment as this is a habit that we want to break quickly. Many people have suggested the controlled crying method, but i just can't do it. I am not strong enough to hear her cry for more than about 30 seconds. Although that to me feels like a couple of hours!

Sleeping bags are great though. She went straight into them when she got too big to be swaddled in her small blanket and had no problems at all with them over the summer. They don't tend to overheat in them as their arms are still out of the bag and that seems to cool them down. You just have to be careful that you pick the right tog for the temperature of the room.

[0iD]

Yeah, the controlled crying thing for me felt like my ears were being ripped off tbh. Something about the pitch & tone of your child's cries that just hurts your ears so you can't ignore it for long. About 3 mins was my limit. The health visitor advised shutting their bedroom door & our own to cut down on the noise & distress.

[Lee H]

Hayden's been sleeping in a routine now for well over a couple of months.

However, she doesn't seem to be sleeping as much as what you lot are quoting, and this is causing me a little concern.

Last night for example, she would not sleep and was just making noises and shouting 'dadda' and 'daddy' until about 10.30pm and then she fell asleep. She woke at 12.30 for 5 minutes, had a giggle blowing raspberries and then she fell back asleep and she usually wakes between 8-9 am.

She sleeps during the day for a few hours and has a nap from 3 till about 6 as she knows daddy gets in from work and is always awake and bouncing on her hands and knees shouting 'dadda' when I get in.

Is this cause for concern as apparently I was exactly the same as a baby and now I usually only need about 4-7 hours sleep a day.

[angeleyes]

I spoke to the health visitor last time i took Louise to get weighed as i had read that she should be sleeping 12 hours a night when she was 6 months, but was getting more like 7. She said that babies at that age should get around 12-14 hours in total in a day and that some would sleep more than others and as long as she was a happy baby it meant she was getting enough sleep. Our childminders eldest used to sleep for 4-6 hours a day until he was well over one and a half and it didn't seem to do him any harm. He's in his 20's now.

[GoNz0]

Two of my kids were over 4 years old before they started to sleep through the night. That was hard.

[Bugbait]

Is this cause for concern as apparently I was exactly the same as a baby and now I usually only need about 4-7 hours sleep a day.

Wouldn't worry unless it affects her health, ie. Appetite, energy, etc. The accepted range appears to be 8-16 hours. Some babies just sleep less than others (wife has done a load of reading as we were concerned too).

[colincliff]

Last night for example, she would not sleep and was just making noises and shouting 'dadda' and 'daddy' until about 10.30pm and then she fell asleep. She woke at 12.30 for 5 minutes, had a giggle blowing raspberries and then she fell back asleep and she usually wakes between 8-9 am.

This is fine im sure. She still sounds like shes getting plenty of sleep over the whole day. 10:30pm - 8am is nice!

The only think i hate is a 5:30am wake up full of energy! Standing up in the cot and singing!

[Steve A]

My eldest son James (3) goes to bed at 7 and for the past week and a half he has been waking up at 4am every morning on the dot, its driving me insane, not sure why this has started all of a sudden and hope its just a phase .... fingers crossed.

[tiggerai]

4 years, Cameron is 6 and he still has a 5am wake up time xD Not good when you get a late night Most the time though you hear him reading to himself at this time of the morning. I don't know how many more times I can listen to the story of Ben 10 taking on Vilgax

Same here - Alex will wake up at 6am on the dot, irrelevant of the time he goes to bed - just defines whether he's a grumpy so-and-so or not for the rest of the day (same as me really, i get v grumpy if I haven't slept enough.)

Need to encourage him to read to himself though, that's one thing he's not doing great at.

[Grey M@a]

Same here - Alex will wake up at 6am on the dot, irrelevant of the time he goes to bed - just defines whether he's a grumpy so-and-so or not for the rest of the day (same as me really, i get v grumpy if I haven't slept enough.)

Need to encourage him to read to himself though, that's one thing he's not doing great at.

Cameron was the same he would say "Reading is rubbish, it's boring" so I made sure I started reading whilst he was in the room. I read a lot so he started copying and now he reads to himself. I generally find when I am reading to him though that every character has a different voice which seems to keep him interested to.

[tiggerai]

Cameron was the same he would say "Reading is rubbish, it's boring" so I made sure I started reading whilst he was in the room. I read a lot so he started copying and now he reads to himself. I generally find when I am reading to him though that every character has a different voice which seems to keep him interested to.

Hmmm good plan, maybe his dad and I can instate a reading hour on a sunday morning or something Need to encourage him to read on his own (and get the right books I think).

[Zak33]

sometimes kids internal body-clock wakes them.. but it's more likely to be an outside influence.

Does the central heating come on and make the pipes clunk and the radiators groan at the time they wake? Zak Jr seems to awake when that starts for us.

Sometimes it's the sunlight in their room.....

Roller Blind Black Out Blinds for the absolute WIN on that score.

and for Zak Jr. on a Thursday, it's the Bin Men.. he LOVES watching the bin men

And as for babies who cry... god we tore ourselves apart tryint to get Zak Jr to sleep when he was tiny... and all the cuddles in the world didn't do it.

Then, Daddy Zak, harsh b4ast4rd that I am, decided to leave him to yowl... and he went to sleep in less than 15 mniutes.

He was crying BECUASE he was tired and didn't understand the feeling.

I've grown ever harder since then.. and the Terrible Two's are upon us now .,... new thread for that though.