Forum Is Currently Closed — We apologize for your inconvenience

Hello,

My son has had napping issues for about 1.5months, primarily he sleeps less than 30min and often wakes crying. By the afternoon, he's overtired and easily agitated. I'm composing a long post because I have done a good bit of reading about tips, training and patterns, both online and in books. We've tried many suggestions, and I want to provide anyone taking the time to respond with a more-complete background.

It started during what I think was a growth spurt at 3.5months. Before that, though not on a schedule, he was an excellent sleeper, taking several long naps and sleeping in two long segments at night for a total of approximately 12hrs. He was a noisy sleeper, often thumping his feet throughout the night, sometimes grunting and moaning too.

After the first couple weeks of trouble, during which I attempted to get him onto a schedule, I discovered that he was a very light sleeper during REM sleep. Perhaps, light sleeper isn't the right phrase because without any noise or stimulation, he wakes up. He's not a "one cycle sleeper." He wakes immediately upon entering REM sleep. We had thought we found the solution. At about 25min into his nap, we would go in and be ready to replace his pacifier and sooth him like we did when he fell asleep. We were unable to establish a schedule because we had to adapt if he had a short nap. But he did seem like a much happier baby. I had hoped that he'd grow out of these short naps. Recently that method has stopped working. Nothing we do seems to keep him asleep during the day, including letting him sleep in my arms while I rock in an armchair with the lights off and no noise.

He will sleep in his crib with a bit of a complaining. He's always been flexible, napping in the bed with us, crib, on the floor under his play gym, or on a chair in our arms. Now it seems like he's always "fighting" sleep regardless of the location.  Currently we are trying to enforce a routine that uses the crib in order to help him go back to sleep if he wakes. The routine starts with playing music, usually a sing-a-long and walking around the room with him. After about 2 songs, depending on how relaxed he is, I wrap him in a blanket (basically swaddling with his arms free) Then I walk around with him closing the blinds, turning off the light and shutting the door. I turn the music down, sometimes switching to classical music. Then we enter a pick-up-put-down routine, during which I rock, "shhh", and sing to him as necessary. I try to have him drift off to sleep in the crib rather than my arms.

Often he fusses when I start setting up the room for sleep. I presume he's making the association and understanding that it's nap time. I don't know if a 5 month old is capable of deciding that he does not want to sleep and deliberately fighting it, but that's what it looks like to me. Then, while sleeping, he'll cry out. Sometimes, he'll wake up, other times, he'll continue sleeping after I put his pacifier in. My mom thinks he's having nightmares. Is that possible? He rarely cries unless we are putting him down for a nap.

Another issue we have is that now I'm the only one who succeeds in putting him to sleep regularly. My husband seems to have a lot more trouble, and fails more often (either giving up or with me intervening, generally after more than 30min). Since we are both graduate students who take turns watching our son, it's similar to me working part-time in the afternoon. I was worried that my son thought that I would leave while he slept, so I've made an effort to leave when he's awake, prominently saying good-bye.

Final three bits of potentially-relevant information: 1) We traveled across the country to visit my family for Christmas, which meant a lot of new experiences and lack of schedule. It also ment sleeping in different places; however, my sons naps did not change until 1week after we returned. 2) Recently, my son has shown a sudden, rapid development in physical activities. For examples, he's now grabbing objects that are not placed in front of him. He started using a training sippy cup! I was really surprised at how quickly he figured it out. His interest in feeding himself, led us to give him rice husk bars that he gums. And he's started wiggling and making inchworm-like motions to get to objects – though he still screams to get off his tummy within a couple minutes. All within the last week. I think he has an "active" or "spirited" temperment with a touch of quietly observant. So I wonder if he's choosing not to sleep so that he can continue to explore and observe? 3) We decided to co-sleep at night; it developed accidently from our struggle with the recent nap issues. Basically, we bacame exhausted and if our son woke while we were attempting to sleep, we'd just move him into our bed where he usually falls asleep again. As it was happening nightly, I bought a bedrail and started putting him to bed in our bed. His night-time sleep schedule has changed slightly because now he's asking for a 4-5am feeding regularly.

Ok. I know this is a long post. And I thank everyone who's taken the time to read it. Is there anyone out there who has had similar issues with their child waking up in under 30min, but sleeping through the night fine?  Should we be worried that he doesn't have enough REM sleep? Do you suggest attempting to enforce frequent short naps or longer naps? And suggestions for either approach would be appreciated!!!