u/roamingrebecca

The amount of attention and energy required to keep this child's head in one piece is staggering. Anyone else??!

My 8mo has been going to sleep independently in her own room for all sleeps since around 5 months. Everything is falling apart recently despite trying to stick to sleep training.

She's low sleep needs, average 11.5 hours total sleep per day. I have gradually tried to increase from 11.5 hours of awake time to 12 hours. Wakeup at 6:15, WWs 3:15/3:40/4:50, bedtime 8:15.

Over the last few weeks she has started crying more and more before falling asleep until tonight she scream cried for 40 minutes before we took her in the car. Today we had 12 hours of awake time which I gradually increased to as I thought not enough awake time was the main problem. But now she's reached the awake time thats been recommended and so it really seems like it's just separation anxiety.

I'm really stressing, feeling like there's no end in sight, and feeling guilty because surely there's something I need to do better that can save her from this crying? I've tried so many schedules, variations of WWs, so I fear it's just separation anxiety and that breaks my heart.

How long is this phase? I go back and forth between wanting to give up and cosleep, and just letting her CIO because I don't know what else to do.

We sleep trained my girl at 5 months and she's 8 months now. Sleep training seriously improved her sleep but it's still been challenging. I believe she's lower sleep needs.

Since sleep training she's always gone to sleep quickly and easily, but as she kept having EMWs I gradually kept extending her awake time until now we are at 3:15/4/4.5, 11:45 awake time per day. Naps capped at 2:15. Bedtime is 8:00 DWT is 6:00.

She is very happy and energetic and meeting her milestones and is rarely fussy at the end of her WWs. But she also falls asleep so easily in the car and while nursing - even long before nap time - that it makes me worry that she isn't getting enough rest. She averages 11.5 hours per day total.

Bedtime routine is nurse 45 mins before bed, diaper, PJs, sleep sack, brush teeth/wash face and hands(or a bath on bath nights), book, song, in bed fully awake. Nap routine is just sleep sack, song, in bed awake. I've been militant about maintaining the sleep training routine because I'm a pansy who knew I could not bear having to do it twice.

Despite that, in the last week or so she has started crying when being put down. She has also started falling asleep sitting up before her 2nd nap. I used to have to wake her from every nap but now she wakes crying hard before her nap time is over. Last night she cried for 30 mins harder than I've ever heard her cry before I gave up and nursed her to sleep. I don't know if it's because she's in developmentally clingy phase, or because her top teeth are about to come in, or if she has too much awake time or too little awake time. I feel completely lost and confused. If I felt confident about my plan I could bear her crying better but I'm not confident that I'm doing right by her.

We had a sleep consultant but after what I've learned in this sub I don't trust her. If you want the gossip about why I don't trust her I'll share the details at the bottom lol. Now my husband wants to another sleep consultant, either her again or a new one. I'm open to it but I feel wary of sleep consultants after our experience with her.

Does this sound normal? What should I change? Are all sleep consultants garbage?!?Any advice or sleep consultant recommendations appreciated.

Sleep consultant gossip: She told me that I had to night wean cold turkey to have independent sleep, I tried it and had a horrible hormone crash and supply dip. (I now feed baby once or twice per night) She said that we should have her sleep 7pm-7am plus three 1 hour naps(when she was 5 months) which was way more sleep than she needed. This was just her generic schedule that had nothing to do with my baby. She also told me go to 2 naps at 5 months and I tried and it was a disaster. (She's now on two naps no problem, it was just too early at that time).

My little angel is 7 months old.

We live a minimalist lifestyle with our personal belongings but with a baby it's different and that's okay. But the satisfaction of just simply giving away things my baby has outgrown rather than going through the hassle of storing it is so satisfying. I love being able to keep just a few precious keepsakes rather than feeling like I need to prepare for future potential kids.

Just my one and done win of the day, and shout-out to my husband for getting snipped.

My 7 month old averages 12 hours of total sleep per day. Does this really mean she needs 12 hours of awake time in her schedule? It just seems like so much!?

She is sleep trained, goes to sleep independently in her room for all sleeps.

Recently went to 2 naps. Schedule is 6:30am wake up, 3/3.5/4.5, 8pm bedtime. 2.5 hours max of day naps.

She's been having early morning wakes for awhile now but I am just in denial that she needs more awake time. She does get back to sleep after I feed her but if I don't feed her she'll stay up for an hour just babbling. Please set me straight lol.

So if/when I add more awake time, should I take sleep from her day sleep or her night sleep? Does it matter?

Of course I have tons of cute nicknames for my baby... But one hilariously terrible nickname has developed 😂

We always say Mama, Dada, and "Baba" to our baby, so I started calling her baba which is so cute... But then I ended up shortening it to just "bab" which of course is just Bob 😂 so now my sweet girl's nickname is somehow Bob ☠️

What are your cute and odd nicknames for your little ones??

I'm dying for the garden bench DIY or natural bench DIY! I have a big collection of DIYs for trade, I can send a list if you're interested. You could take as many as you want!

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Or watering, fruits, veg, or whatever else you can think of that I have to offer! I'll be pretty available today.

I'm working on some hybrids and I'm having some success, but also have a question!

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I'm putting my flowers together in groups of two, for example 2 white hyacinths trying to get blue hyacinths. But sometimes I get another white hyacinth.

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Same is happening with some other flowers too, for example two red roses making another red rose rather than pink or black.

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Is this just something that happens, or is this an indication that my flowers are not from seed bags? I wasn't super sure if my flowers were from islands or seed bags when I started.

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Another question - say I get an orange cosmo, and then get a clone from it. Will that clone also get me a black cosmo if I breed it?

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Sincerely, a confused gardener lol

One month ago we sleep trained my girl, she's exactly 6 months today! We did the chair method and she took to it well with very little crying, thank goodness because I'm a wimp.

She almost never cries when falling asleep for naps and night. Most nights she has a few short wakes but gets herself back to sleep with no crying whatsoever, no check-ins or anything needed. If she does do anything it's just a brief fuss. She's really nailing it.

However there have occasionally been what seem to me out of the ordinary wake ups here and there. Ones where she is distressed crying or up for awhile intermittently fussing or crying.

For example right now there's a thunderstorm and she has been up for an hour intermittently crying and fussing. In this and all situations he just wants to let her figure it out. I on the other hand think that since she has the skill to fall asleep independently that there should be some flexibility for us to comfort her. He says we need to have rules and follow them.

I get that he doesn't want to undo our progress. I just don't think that very occasional comforting will set us back. The one single time I contact napped with her since sleep training she slept independently no problem afterwards.

How do you handle these out of the ordinary wake ups? Am I being too soft or is he being too rigid? Honestly the thought of rigidly adhering to strict sleep training protocol for the rest of her babyhood makes me feel horrible.

We used the chair method starting 2 weeks ago and feel pretty complete as her sleep is 180 from before training. Yay!

But we've got one issue - poop.

My girl usually doesn't need us to come in during the night as she gets back to sleep on her own for most wake ups, but the last 3 days she has had a poop diaper in the morning. She is super prone to diaper rash so this is a no go!

We are considering going to check her diaper any time that she fusses but I am also nervous about stimulating her too much and then expecting her to self soothe.

We also inadvertently night weaned during sleep training but I'm thinking about adding back a middle of the night feed so I can change her diaper but then feed her and help her relax again.

I guess another option could be to move her back into our room so that we could hopefully hear if she poops.

What are you all doing for your little ones?

ETA we have been trying to check her without disturbing her too much but smell check hasn't worked because I guess her poops aren't that smelly and then we accidentally had her in single zip PJs so we weren't able to actually get in there. We are only using double zip PJs from here on out so we can check better.

It gets better 🤍

My baby had a tongue tie and thus latch problems. Nursing was painful, difficult and stressful for at least 6-8 weeks.

I remember frantically doing this big routine just to get her to latch well while she was hungry and fussing.

She's now five months old and does ALL the work. She get so excited when it's boobie time that she rolls and scooches toward me and hoovers up the nip with impressive speed. I used to dread feeding in the early days and now it's my favorite part of the day because it's so peaceful and comforting.

The beginning can be sooo rough, but it does get better!