The Baby Sleep Site™ Community - Group: Baby Sleep

debrako on HELP??!!!!

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:58:23 +0000

I am proud mom to a baby boy who will be 5 months old in 10 days. We have had sleep issues from the beginning. I have read numerous books, and this website holds the 2nd e book Iv'e bought in desperation to sleep.

I did feel that no book or website quite addressed my problems/questions.

I am hoping someone can shed some light on the matter???!!! Please???

My baby can fall asleep by himself at night, but continues to wake 10+ times per night. i want to continue to nurse him 2x a night.

I do not want to let him cry for more than a few minutes when he awakens all these other times. He sleeps next to the bed in a co-sleeper. So after a few minutes I will talk/pat etc. to help him back to sleep. He still wakes up shortly after, especially early in evening and early morning.

Will it confuse him to be picked up and nursed 2x but not other times that he wakes? Should I wait till he cries a lot before feeding?

Aarrgg. I am so frustrated and tired! 3 hours of sleep looks so good to me!

help???!!!

rsacks on 10 month old fights sleep

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:19:29 +0000

hi there-

I see this post was from back in July, I am wondering if you found any help b/c I am experiencing the same thing with my 10 1/2 month old daughter. She was never been a good napper, lots of cat naps but now does take her 2 naps. About a month ago she finally fell into an am nap I could depend on, 1 1/2-2 hrs after waking up at 6/6:30 sometimes 6:45. Now in the last week after a cold and learning to stand that nap has gone back to an hour and she is waking at 4 and 5 am.

We let her cry it out at 5 months b/c I felt she was ready and needed it. It took 2 nights of 59 and then 58 minutes of crying and then we had been set up until now. I can't stand the idea of doig it again b/c like your son she goes crazy, practically hyperventialting and I can't reconcile the teething and seperation anxiety that happens now. I am desperate though. I am falling back into nursing her but don't want to go backwards. She is clearly not hungry. She gets breast milk 4X a day and eats 3 meals of solids.

I'd love any advice you may have figured out by now.

traceyp on Traveling

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:17:30 +0000

JM it sounds like you and I have identical babies! We have been struggling so much with sleep with our little guy, and you would think we would have got it by now (he is the youngest of our 3 young ones). His 4 and 2 yo sisters were both pretty good sleepers - the 2 year old was a fantastic sleeper and I never had ANY issues at all with her, and the 4 yo was an angel baby so even when we had bumpy periods she managed to get through them pretty well. But this guy just SCREAMS when I put him down awake and never falls asleep no matter how long we wait; we have short naps, esp in the aft, and he struggles with catnaps too. Now he is getting hard to get to sleep at night, I suspect because he is overtired. I put him to bed early (lately it's been 7, but before about 6 or 6:30); but we are really struggling.

We are going away next week too and I have been consdering not going, because I don't want to screw it up any more. But on the other hand, if he is sleeping poorly already, maybe it won't make a difference. I would suggest bringing the sheet and blankets from his crib so it smells like home, and resisting pressure from family to keep him up late or miss naps. Try not to fall into accidental parenting!

traceyp on Fighting/skipping naps

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:39:42 +0000

I am having the same problem. My 5.5 month old is fighting naps. I know he has developed a sleep association and falls asleep nursing (the result of a family vacation and accidental parenting) but now even nursing to sleep isn't helping; he wakes when I put him down and if I try to let him cry it out, he screams - and I mean SCREAMS - and doesn't stop. He cried for 1.5 hours yesterday and today until I finally just got him up. Now it is starting to interfere with his night sleep, which had been good - I would put him down between 6 and 7 and he would sleep. Now he is waking shortly after he goes down and needs to be picked up and walked back to sleep.

How do I get him to break the sleep association if I can't CIO (because he never actually stops crying and falls asleep)?

jm on Fighting/skipping naps

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:24:05 +0000

For the past few weeks my almost 5 month old has started fighting naps. I lay him down to sleep and sometimes use his mobile to help him 'calm down'. We also use a pacifier to help him fall asleep. When he first started fighting/skipping naps, it was the last nap of the day. Which we worked around and tried to put him to bed a bit earlier. These past few days, he's put off several day time naps for several hours, over extending himself so much that it causes him to wake more at night ... screaming. Lovely. He had been taking 1 morning nap for an hour and a half and 3 - 45 min naps to get him through the day until bedtime, going to bed around 7- 7:30. Last night he woke up earlier than normal at 1:30 to eat (he has been waking around 3-4am) and had a hard time going back to sleep. And then was up at 5:30-6am where he has been getting up around 7.

Sometimes swaddling would help him to calm down more but he's starting to roll over and look around, especially when he's overtired. He slept through the night a few times a few weeks ago and I thought we were heading into a good stretch but I guess not.

I feel like we're on a rollercoaster and that every day is different and that there is no consistency/no pattern. We are following the eat/wake/sleep routine and we have a nap/bedtime routine. So, what can we do better? We're all tired!!

jm on 5 month old won't take final nap!

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:10:03 +0000

marguis and reshi ... when you put your kiddos to bed around the 530 hour, what time do they typically wake up? do they sleep through the night? feed around a certain time at night? i've often thought of maybe putting my boy to bed a little earlier but i'm honestly not wanting to get up with him for the day at 5am!!!! 6am is hard enough! just wondering!

jm on Traveling

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:04:06 +0000

Next month my husband and I will be traveling with our little guy who will by then be 5 1/2 months old. We are traveling to visit family, staying with family. Does anyone have any suggestions on trying to maintain nap/sleep schedules when away from home? And, what about recovering from traveling and trying to get back to good napping/sleeping when back home? We also will be traveling from Central to Eastern time zones ... any thoughts on that? After struggling to get to this point with naps and nighttime sleep, we're a little concerned with 'rocking the boat'.

reshi on 5 month old won't take final nap!

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:23:28 +0000

My little girl never wanted the 3rd nap after 4 months and she preferred an early bedtime of bwn 17:30 and 18:00. She usually get up from her 2nd nap around 13:30 and would be pretty wired at bathtime, but settled easily for the night. The endless battle to get her to take a 3rd nap wasn't worth the effort and I found that even if she did take that nap, it didn't make much of a difference to her mood or her bedtime. I agree with the last post regarding the super early bedtime. Good luck!

reshi on 7 month old feeding up to twice a night and waking frequently

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:39:58 +0000

Hi Meriam

Not sure if you're still having this problem...I've read Marc Weissbluth's book. According to him, breastfed babies may still need up to 2 night feedings until 8 months of age when they are fully esb on solids and eating protein. He should be getting 600-800ml of milk during the day. My little one was doing the same as yours and I've realised in retrospect that she probably wasn't meeting her milk requirements during the day and was genuinely hungry at night (I was only able to express 130ml max if my breasts were very full). I've started topping her up in the afternoons and evenings before bed and even though she now wakes briefly, she is able to settle herself back to sleep. Hope this helps

marguis on 5 month old won't take final nap!

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:33:07 +0000

My son is the same as yours. He fights that nap and we are almost never succesful. For me it is very important for him to take it because as a work time mom I would love to have some interactive time with him before his bedtime. But, as I read in Dr Weissbluth book, you might need to consider a super early bedtime so he can catch up on his sleep. So depending on his naps during the day we put him to bed at 5:30 and he falls asleep within 5 minutes. Try that, it might work for you too.

reshi on 8 month old wakes screaming at 9pm

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:21:18 +0000

Thanks for the advice about deworming Miriam. I'll give it a try. Last night she woke really often but was able to put herself back to sleep. My husband suggested turning off the monitor and using earplugs as he usu hears her before the monitor. Going to try that tonight!

Miriam on 4.5 month with terrible winds

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:46:43 +0000

Oh you poor thing. Both my kids were/are colic and reflux kids and I know it's not much fun! I assume you're really careful what you're eating and passing on through breastmilk? I know I couldn't have dairy, broccoli, beans, cauliflower, anything spicy etc etc. I also tried Infants Friend (homeopathic) with great success with one child and no success with the other. Also tried Gripe Water (very very effective at getting wind up but not very nice to taste), Infacol (didn't really find this helpful but some people swear by it) and Donnalix (found this very effective for stomach cramps as is an anti-spasmodic but you wouldn't want to use this all the time). All these are over the counter things from the chemist. I just got so desperate I would try absolutely anything. Also, try tilting her mattress so head is higher than feet, and/or try sleeping her semi upright in pram, carseat, infant chair or whatever you have. If she is refluxy and colicky, I personally wouldn't let her cry it out but I totally know that there's a fine line between responding to a medical problem and causing a sleep association one! Good luck and let us know how you go.

Miriam

Miriam on 8 month old wakes screaming at 9pm

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:35:59 +0000

Goodness that must be frustrating. Sounds like you've done an awesome job with her routine though for her baseline behaviour to be so brilliant! I have a 9 month old and the only thing that comes to mind other than what you have mentioned is, have you tried worming her? Our Dr maintains that the most common cause of night waking and crying is worms. Treatment is really simple one-off over the counter medication. Might be worth a try although I'm not confident that's your problem. It's nothing she's been eating or drinking at night before bed that she might be getting tummy pains or reflux with? The arching may indicate a gastrointestinal issue. Let us know how you go and I'll be interested to hear any other suggestion you get too. Good luck!

Miriam (Australia)

reshi on 8 month old wakes screaming at 9pm

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:06:42 +0000

Hi. My little girl has been waking, screaming at around 9:30pm most nights for the last 2 months. She naps for 2-2.5 hours in total split bwn 2 naps and sleeps from about 6:30pm-7:00am. She has 3 meals a day incl protein and has 3 breastfeeds a day with a top-up of formula before bedtime. She feeds once at night sometime bwn 3-6am. She has no sleep associations and always goes down for naps and the night awake. She has a consistent nightime routine of bath, feed, sing and doesn't fuss when I put her down. For the last two months, she wakes most days usually around 9:30pm screaming. She is rarely able to settle herself and I find that the longer I leave her, the more difficult it is to settle her. She always needs to be picked up and rocked and even then she arches her back and screams. She displays no stranger anxiety during the day but will only eventually settle at night if iI'm with her I left her once and she literally screamed for 3hours.

The paed has excluded an ear or throat infection and she has no teeth yet, but can't attribute 2 months of waking to teething! I suspect she wakes when she goes into light sleep, but why can she not settle herself, she has no negative sleep associations. Even her lovey doesn't seen to help. She sometimes also wakes at 12pm, but usu settles herself at this time. Some advice will be greatly appreciated!

nicola on 4.5 month with terrible winds

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:56:42 +0000

Hi, my second daughter is 4.5 months now and I have started sleep coaching. She has a good daytime routine and has 3 x 1 hour naps in the day. My problem comes in when I try to get her down for the night sleep. My evening routine is as follows: wakes from last nap at 4:30, I feed her (exclusively breastfed) and then bath her. I give her a nice massage and dress her warmly. On her tired cue, I gently rock her to drowsy and put her in her cot. She sleeps for 25 to 30 minutes and is then wide awake. Do I pick her up and treat that as a last cat nap or do I let her cry it out and make her sleep for the night. I have tried both versions, but when I let her cry it out, I find that she sounds like she is in pain and I pick her up to burp her. I can do this every ten minutes for 2 hours and every time, she has a wind.

I give her Zantac in the mornings for reflux and colix twice a day for wind. Is there anything else I can give her for cramps and winds? I tried to not give anything today and had a terrible day with plenty cramps, no sleep and winds that I couldn't get out of her.