Frequent night wakings

**Em_325** · March 13th, 2014, 01:44 PM

Im in need of some new ideas of how to help DS with his frequent night wakings (or a reminder to revisit old ones.) DS is 15 weeks old and this was our night last night (which is becoming the norm) Bed 7pm, awake at 9pm (he usually has a dreamfeed at 10pm so I gave it to him then), awake at 11.40, 1.00, 1.30, 2.00, 230, 3.30, 4.00 (had a bottle went back down at 4.30), 5.00, 5.30, 6.00. At 6.00 I put him in his swing as he was still tired and he slept soundly till 9am. Apart from the 9.00 and 4.00 wakings when he had a bottle (he is fully formula fed) I put his dummy back in and give him a quick rock and he usually goes straight back to sleep until the next waking. I have tried feeding him earlier than 4.00 but he just cries and refuses the bottle. Im getting a lot of pressure from well meaning relatives to "just leave him to cry and he will soon stop once he knows Mum's not going to come" but there is no way I am going to do that to him. I'm also looking for suggestions other than co-sleeping as some nights we do it and it works and others he isn't interested in co-sleeping and wants his own space.

DS has been an unsettled sleeper from day 1. He had reflux and colic which the reflux is under control with losec and he seems to have outgrown the colic. The wind issue was a big one and I do wonder if it is still wind bothering him but he is getting pretty good at getting his wind up and I give him gripe water on bad nights which doesn't seem to have much effect. He has always been the same since birth though that he will do one stretch at the start of the night and once he wakes up from that he is unsettled for the remainder. With the dreamfeed he was starting to go till 3 or 4am till he was waking which was heaven but when he wakes at 11.40 you know you are in for a looong night. We have a consistent bed routine of bath, massage, wrap, dummy, comforter, and cuddles which works really well now to get him to sleep and during the day he is in a loose 3 hourly feed, play, sleep routine. He sleeps in an Amby Baby Hammock for the start of the night and then after the dreamfeed I put him in his cot (the first 3 nights I did this he slept till 4 and 5) and when he wakes from that he wont resettle in the cot so he goes back in the hammock. The reason I don't leave him in the hammock all night is he likes to sleep wriggled up to one side so is always off balance and I worry about the angle of his neck. He sleeps with his bottom half wrapped but refuses to have his arms wrapped anymore as he likes to hold on to something. I introduced a comforter (a small blanket square with an elephants head) so he generally cuddles it or puts it over his face and holds onto the blanket.

I know there is no way he will sleep through but I would to get him back to at least having a four hour stretch after his dreamfeed to give me the chance to get a few sleep cycles in myself. He is a lovely little boy and I know I can be a way better Mummy when I am not a sleep deprived zombie so I want to help us both.

So any ideas of what else I can try?

**Teeki** · March 13th, 2014, 02:06 PM

He sounds pretty similar to my boy. He used to wake once or twice a night, and now without us changing a thing he's up every hour. DD did it too.

So he's in bed around 7, then he generally starts waking every hour. I give him a quick feed - he starts rooting around for it - and put him back. Usually once I've gone to bed I'll put him back twice but if it's clear he'll be waking hourly I bring him to bed so I can rest better.

Last night I went to bed at 10:30 and he woke. He woke again two minutes after I put him back so I started again. Repeat three times and he decided he didn't want to go back to sleep at all. I tried everything and he didn't want to sleep

At 3 I was almost in tears so I went and got DH from DD's room (she'd woken earlier so he went and slept in her bed) and asked him to just hold DS for maybe an hour so I could get a bit of sleep. Well the little monkey was asleep in 30 minutes! Then he started the hourly waking again lol.

I guess the point of all that is just that you're not alone. And you know, I can't pinpoint why he wakes. And why he doesn't go back to sleep when he decides it's party time instead. I've given up wondering why because I'll never know, he can't tell me. So I just do what I can to maximise sleep for all of us. Usually that's co-sleeping, but if that's not what he wants I just do whatever seems to make him happy.

I think I'm finding it easier this time because I know things change. Before I know it he'll be a big boy in his own room and who knows what his sleeping will be like. He'll do the longer stretches when he's ready and able.

I'm sorry this probably doesn't really help, but a big part of saving my sanity is just letting go of what I can't control and going with the flow.

**onthefly** · March 13th, 2014, 02:17 PM

That's rough!
Maybe you could trouble-shoot the amby hammock with Trish or someone else familiar with them to make it work for you better? Sounds like he likes it better in there?
When he's in the cot, is he next to you or far away? I found being close by didn't mean they woke any less frequently, but that it was quicker to resettle, so we got more sleep overall.
Have you tried pro-biotics or anything to help his gut? no family history of allergies or anything that might account for reflux/colic?

The sleeping pattern sounds very familiar to me! I can tell you that both of mine grew out of it with time - lots of time - but in the mean time I found the only thing that 'worked' was to go with it and do whatever was easiest and resulted in the most rest possible.

**Frangipani Lou** · March 13th, 2014, 08:52 PM

I agree with MadB about the hammock. It's adjustable so he can be tilted so his torso is higher than his feet to help with the reflux. I found having the amby right next to me was fab cause. Could rock it with 1 finger in my half sleep so she'd resettle.
Also perhaps something like the Love to Dream swaddle me up sleeping bags would be good. DD would suck her fingers through it but couldn't cover her face with it.