Very varied. First one was very easy and slept through the night from a very early age. Middle one was quite difficult with colic and other things which kept her awake at night and unsettled even during the day, last one was sort of in the middle. There is no “normal” IMO.

Mine is a couple of weeks old now. She sleeps pretty well, had one night of dusk to dawn screaming which was when she was 3 days old. Took her to a cranial sacral person who just seemed to hold the baby. Worked wonders and she is much happier since. (my brother did the same with his).

My eldest did not sleep through till he was about 5
Not demanding as such just never slept

Even now at 8 he regularity stays up till 10 ish – ie awake in his room not up playing etc and still gets up at 5:30 ish

his brother slept through from about 9 months and still needs waking in the morning

Not a nightmare as he did not really cry or get annoyed but the lack of sleep was awful.

We had a varied time with Crankbrat I recall once proudly boasting on here how he had settled down to be a good sleeper then going through weeks of disturbed nights . You go through cycles CB had “bad” to our perception colic and reflux we persevered and it resolved . Yours sounds normal PTFU get on with it and all will be bearable. I love the drill sgt bootcamp quote .

My two were dead easy as babies, but now they’re 9 and 7 they’re a bloody nightmare. Constant fighting, arguing, shouting, whining, crying, complaining etc. We get about 1 or 2 (if we’re lucky) days a week of peace and harmony, the rest is a mixture of conflict resolution, negotiation, crisis-management, and when really necessary pulling rank and playing the disciplinarian (which I hate doing, had enough of that when I was a kid!).

My main tip with babies? Routine, routine, routine, routine…..

I’ll come back to you on 9 year olds.

It felt like ours was always crying when awake (which was more often than not) and when he was asleep I just heard the crying in my head. It was a terrible experience and I was deeply depressed through it. He never really slept properly for 2 years, so just could never ever catch up on the months of sleep lost. But all worth it as four years on and he’s amazing fun. Just hang in there and survive as best you can.

A cranial sacral person?

You live in Didsbury and I claim my five pounds….

OP – sounds a bit like our second.

After months of trying all the different types of milk, and all the different brands, then trying all the different bottles….literally spending hundreds on trying absolutely everything, and after multiple trips to the doctors we eventually got referred to a paediotrician who diganosed some sort of intolerance and gave him Nutramogen milk which pretty much instantly fixed him.

If it’s driving you mad then get yourself referred to an expert, our GP didnt want to refer us and was full of “it’s normal” and “it’ll pass”, it was only because we had already had one that was nothing like this that we knew it wasn’t normal and were prepared to push it.

A cranial sacral person?

You live in Didsbury and I claim my five pounds…

Its like cranial osteopathy and they sort out the baby after being squeezed down a tight tube.

30 quid well spent to my personal harley street osteo specialist – here have a fiver anyway.

it was only because we had already had one that was nothing like this that we knew it wasn’t normal

False reasoning. Normal doesn’t mean ‘the same as everyone else’.

We had a second kid who was different to the first, but both were normal. Just different kinds of normal.

normal mate – welcome to fatherhood!

Is he more comfortable upright after feeding? could well be reflux. Reflux babies often want to feed a lot because sucking and milk soothes the pain, but then after they feed they are worse again.

but it’s totally normal for babies to not want to be put down, they are used to constant comfort and noise from being inside and it’s a bit of a shock to the system to be in the big wide world.

Is he more comfortable upright after feeding? could well be reflux. Reflux babies often want to feed a lot because sucking and milk soothes the pain, but then after they feed they are worse again.

^this

we thought our daughter had colic, after a trip to the docs the diagnosis was acid reflux. she’s 9 weeks now and the junior gaviscon we’re giving her has made a world of difference.

my daughter was like that, never slept and she constantly screamed for the first few months. we felt felt totally useless. we seriously considered adoption. we took a drive one day and for 30mins she slept, it was the first silence we had in days.

anyhow, apart from posting to say its normal, try different colic remedies. for the life of me i can’t remember which one worked for us but most of them didnt and this one fairly obscure on was genius stuff.

good luck to you and your family. it does get better… then they become teenagers!

could have been woodwards gripe water, but as this page says you need to find one that works for your baby…

http://www.babyexpert.com/baby/health/is-gripe-water-safe-to-use-for-my-baby/7354.html

and we found this book really helpful, not maybe to literally follow but to take the general ideas… but be warned, even mentioning it in some circles open a serious can of worms.

Our first five months were an absolute nightmare. Now at ten months, with her sat grinning and giggling on the back of my bike while we wander around the lanes of Pembrokeshire, it seems like a vague and indistinct memory. It gets better. So much better.

I just remembered that the only way we could get her to sleep was to swaddle her. Crazy how quickly you forget, she’s still only a toddler!

OP – You’ve almost exactly described our first 6 months or so or parenthood. Didn’t sleep more that 2 hours on the trot, screamed if put down so even sleeping meant sleeping on one of us. We went round the whole reflux thing as she was very pukey and shouty, medication for the reflux caused constipation and so it went on etc etc. Trying not to smack people in the face for suggesting we ‘treasure these early months’ was a test at times! In the end it does sort itself out and now at 18 months she is absolutely awesome.

We found life got considerably better moving onto solids at about 6 months, slept better and everyone generally much happier. Chin up, it does get better but half the battle is accepting that there might not be anything you can do beyond keep plodding on until things sort themselves out naturally and trying to maintain your sanity during that time.

Really appreciate the input. Just skimmed some of this but will read better asap.

The wee guy is an utter gem and I love him to death. I’ve cut back on work to spend more time with him and it’s great. He’s been a better sleeper today; tonight is yet to unfold!

he is formula fed and we have been using colief for a day…will report back!

Yes, he’s our first. I am happy leaving him and focussing on ourselves but my wife struggles!