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Post edited 5:45 am – March 18, 2011 by Ozmum
Post edited 5:46 am – March 18, 2011 by Ozmum

My 6mth (7mth old on 25th March) son has never been a good sleeper. From around the age of 5mths his day naps naturally started to increase and I could put him to bed awake and he would fall asleep without a fuss. I believe his naps increased in length due to his increased activity. Although the majority of his naps had increased in duration to over an hr he has never slept through the night but once or twice has slept till 5am.

There is no pattern or any consistency with his sleeping apart from every night between 10.30pm and midnight he will wake up. I will not feed him but will try and soothe him with a pat and put his dummy back in. He has had a consistent bedtime routine from 3mths of age (6pm – nappy free time, 6.20pm – bath, 6.30pm – into PJs and sleeping bag & cuddles with dad, 6.40/45pm – breastfeed, 7.15pm – in cot asleep or with 15mins). Also since 10wks old we have played the same song on repeat for every nap and bedtime. 

He was exclusively breastfeed until about 5.5mths old when I started to introduce solids. He is slowing getting the hang of eating solids and has 1 – 2 tbsp of fruit with natural yoghurt for breakfast, finger food of soft veggies/fruit & rusk at lunch and 1 – 2 tbsp of veggies with rice cereal for dinner. I try and breastfeed on demand but the majority of the time he will feed every 3.5 – 4hrs. He is only breastfeed once overnight and this time changes everyday and could be anywhere between 11pm – 6am.

Since he turned 6mths old he has achieved some milestones of sitting unaided with supervision, 2 front teeth have appeared and he is commando crawling. Since he could roll, around 5mths, he has started sleeping on his tummy or side and he seems to sleep for longer periods in these positions. 

Up until last week I would only keep him up 2 – 2.5hrs max before I put him down for a nap. Now that has all changed and I put him down for a nap and he won't! I am always looking for tired signals but I can never see any!!! Even when he is becoming grumpy most the time it is his increased annoyance that he hasn't quite mastered crawling yet and is venting his frustration.

In the last 5 days he is also refusing to take his 3rd nap which means he could be up 4 – 5.5hrs before his 7pm bedtime. I know that this affects his nighttime sleep as he is very overtired by bedtime and he has woken up more during the night and is also ready for the day at 5/5.30am. 

Yesterday he had 2 naps ( 2 x 1hr) and refused the 3rd so by bedtime he had been up 4hrs. He woke at 11pm and the only way I could get him to sleep again was by feeding him.  He then work at 1.30am, I feed him at 2.30am for 30mins, he then woke at 6am and I feed him at 6.30am and he then slept until 8am. At 10am I feed him and he fell asleep instantly and stayed sleeping for the duration of the feed (approx. 30mins) and when I put him in his cot he woke up and refused to go back to sleep. His next nap was at 1.20pm (where he only slept for 40mins) and he then refused to go down for a 3rd nap later in the day. I started his bedtime routine earlier and he was bathed, feed and asleep in his cot by 6.45pm. I'm hoping this will make a difference.

Today I subscribed to the Member Area and have read all the relevant ebooks. I am not a fan of the CIO method but will let him fuss for short amounts of time. He rarely sleeps for longer than 4hrs consecutively and I don't know why!?! He falls asleep during his last feed but when I lower him into his cot he wakes briefly and then falls asleep again. So what am I doing wrong, how do I get him to stay asleep for longer than 3 – 4hrs? I don't have him on a schedule yet as his wake up and naps times are so inconsistent but will try him on some that were mentioned in the ebooks.

I feel I'm going backwards not forwards with the increased feeds at night and almost non-existent naps during the day. I was so happy when his daytime naps starting lengthening as I could finally catch up on some sleep too!!

I know that this post is super long but I didn't want to leave anything out. If anyone has some advise for me that would be much appreciated.

Thanks…

Post edited 4:52 pm – March 20, 2011 by Ozmum

The night I posted this entry he woke at the usual time of 11.45pm and his Dad went in put his dummy in and he went straight back to sleep. He then only woke once again for a feed and slept until 7.20am. The following night he went to bed awake without a dummy, fell asleep on his own and still woke up at 11.45pm! His Dad went in and was able to get him back to sleep again.  We heard him crying a little during the night but he put himself back to sleep a few minutes later.

Last night he once again woke up at 11.30 and it took 1.5hrs to get him back to sleep. I even tried feeding him to calm him down but he would keep coming off and on so I knew he was hungry. That said we let him grizzle for 1/2hr and he slept until 6am where I feed him and put him back to bed and he slept until 7.40am.

So I'm not sure that he does have a sleep association as he can go to sleep without the dummy but still wakes up around the same time every night. Is this a habit? Is there any way to break it?

One book that I've read by the Baby Whisperer says that if your baby wakes at the same time everynight the way to break the habit is to gently wake the baby up an hr before they normally wake up and this will distrupt the pattern. Would you recommend this or have any other suggestions?

Thanks…

It's working!! For the last 2 nights we have gently woken up my 6mth (+3 wks) old son an hr before his habitual waking time. The first night he went straight back to sleep and woke at 2.30am for a feed, straight back to sleep and then up at 6am. Last night he slept straight thru until 6am!! I of course didn't sleep the full night cos' I had to check on him a few times cos' he has never slept that many hrs consecutively.

The baby whisperer says to gently wake up 3 nights in a row so tonight will be the last one and hopefully he will get into a regular pattern of sleeping!

His day time naps are still hit and miss, yesterday he had a 2hr nap in the morning but today it was only 30mins. How much awake time should a 7 mth old be having between naps? After waking he generally only lasts 2hrs and then I put him down for a nap and then for the rest of the day it goes haywire! At home if I try and put him down for a nap every 2hrs he cries and carries on but if he is in the car, pretty much on the dot of 2hrs he falls asleep which makes me think that he can only last with a 2hr wake time. What do you think? I'm desperately trying to get him on a schedule but I can't.

Thanks for all your advice….