Overtired baby i cant get to sleep. Any ideas?

[lissy]

I'm having so much trouble getting DS to sleep & stay asleep for more than 15-20mins during the day.

Bit of background, DS has reflux but up untill 2months ago when he needed a change of dose, he was sleeping really well, 2-3slerps of 45mins-2.5hrs during the day & 6pm-6am at night.

Now I'm lucky if I get him down by 8pm & he wakes anywhere from 4am & has started waking once or twice again at night . I've tried rocking, patting, walking, dummy, bouncer, swing, bath before bed & baby hammock & nothings working now. Most of the time I spend more time putting him to sleep than what he actually sleeps for! If he feeds to sleep or if I can rock him to sleep he wakes up as soon as I try to put him down.

I even tried the 'save our sleep' routines but DS is one stubborn bub & isn't one to cry himself to sleep, he just screamed the whole time & started scratching his face & head, biting down on his arm & screaming, so I stopped.

He's obviously tired, yawning, rubbing his face & pulling his ears, but as soon as he starts to relax he wakes himself up.

Any ideas? I'll try anything at this point.

[Kmn]

The first thing is that he is more aware and more interested - so getting him to sleep will be harder.
Try getting him to sleep earlier (as in a couple of hours after he wakes up) - it may help.
Do you have a sling? At least that way he may stay asleep once he is asleep.
Good luck!

[DANNIIM]

Sorry probably not what you want to hear but sounds pretty normal for his age. They change all the time and i'm not really up with wonder weeks and all that jazz but i think i remember some of the others saying they have a wonder week around the 4 month mark.

My DS2 was a shocker sleeper and has only just started sleeping through in the last couple of months and even last night he was awake asking for a drink at 3am.

[Eenee]

I still have this trouble, DD only has one 30min sleep a day. And will wake every 1-2hrs overnight so I know how frustrating it is. When I'm desperate I take her for a drive around until she's asleep then put the baby monitor in the car haha. Sorry wish I had a proper answer cos id use the strategies myself.

[lissy]

So he's only getting 9-11hrs sleep tops in 24hrs. Do I persist with the 40mins of putting him to sleep for him to sleep for 15mins or just keep trying to put him down when he nods off? I'm starting to stress out about it as I can't get anything done around the house at the moment, its actually getting really bad.

Kmn I do have a sling but haven't had much luck with it & its just too hot up here right now, I'm feeding him in ac & we are both still sweating lol.

Em.. yeah I was parking the car outside our kitchen window when he fell asleep too but again its far too hot now, 40deg most days.

I just can't get anything done at home! If he doesn't sleep, he's clingy so i cant leave him to do anything. And I can't do anything at night coz he sleeps so lightly, if we close a kitchen cupboard or unpack the dishwasher even he wakes up :'(

[Teeki]

Oh Lissy, I really feel for you DD is the same. Until yesterday, her only day naps were on me, when she was feeding. The one thing that's changed is that we now have a hammock, and she'll actually sleep in that. But seeing as you already have one and it's not working that's obviously not a solution for you.

I do believe it's an age thing. I've noticed with Annabelle that she's certainly more aware of things, and when she realises she's falling asleep she kind of tries to fight it because she doesn't want to miss out on anything. I went through the no-nap thing for about a month before getting the hammock, and it seriously started to stress me out. Like you, I just couldn't get anything done and I felt like I was completely failing - baby didn't sleep, housework didn't get done - I just felt like I wasn't doing anything right. In the end I just accepted it - Annabelle doesn't like to sleep on her own during the day.

So I'd play with her while she was awake, make sure she was happy and secure. When she showed tired or hungry signs I get myself comfy on the couch and settled in for snuggles and feeding. If she took forever and I was getting a sore butt (lol) I'd unlatch her to see what happened. If she stayed asleep I'd see if I could put her down, but usually going into the cot - where it's hard, cold and flat - woke her and she just wouldn't go back to sleep. So yeah, I generally just did what she wanted. I'd get stuff done around the house by taking her with me, on her playmat or in the pram, and I'd kind of try to play with her at the same time as doing the dishes or whatever. Not ideal, but I think keeping her with me all the time and paying a lot of attention to her kind of made her realise that it's ok to go to sleep, no one's going anywhere and she's not missing out.

I guess I haven't given any help here, except to tell you you're definitely not alone, and I'm sure hoping this is something they grow out of! There is a wonder week around now too, between weeks 18-20.

[Butterfly Dawn]

Heres hoping they grow out of it! DD has been the same. We have just finished summer with temps similar to yours. I found that if I stopped trying to put her down she became more reasonsable after about a week- maybe felt more secure? So would I put DD in just a nappy and into the sling with as many breathing spaces as poss (where as little as you can), while I did abit of stuff round the house, an hour or 2 at a time. She got use to the sling, all be it, hot. the rest of the time I practised playing with her while putting her on the couch- just so I didnt have to hold her all the time, and again after a week she got use to this. After 2 weeks Iput her into her bouncer for 5-10 mins of full-on attention and plays then take her out and over 2 weeks made it longer and longer- now I can leave her for afew mins while I go to the loo by myself.
This I have found made her use to being put down- not just when she was going to sleep.
I have put her into her cot after she has had a decent amount of sleep, so she wake s up there and would play with her in it before getting her out- so she doesnt just associate it with being "abandoned" IYKWIM. I have done this everyday, every sleep, for a month. I have fed her in her cot and she has gone to sleep in there about 5 times now. I have a moblie she loves, and another thing that plays music for about 20mins that I put on as soon as we go into the room, will put her in the cot and play alittle, feed her then, put her dummy in and put the moblie on, 20 times if need be, and stay there. If she crys too hard I lift her out cuddle and try the cot again. if too much cry then sleep in my arms but stay in the room with things as they would be for her alone. I dont let her see me looking at her in my arms etc. SLowly we are getting success.
ANother thing I have learnt, is when putting her down, to not take my hands away straight away, over afew mins slowly take a finger and another etc untill you are hands free, then after afew more mins take 1 hand out then the other so my feel or smell doesnt just disapear.

[lissy]

Doubletrouble its not really funny but LOL I know what you mean by a finger at a time. I regularly get stuck with my arm underneath his head when I try to put him down, not game to move as it will wake him up. The lengths we go to hey.

Kaytee gee I know where you're at too, Im so glad the hammock is working for you . It had been working for me as a last resort too but....oh well like everyones said it must be a stage they are going through.

Mitch is super aware of his surroundings so obviously this is affecting his sleep. I think its a bit much though that I get up to pee at night & my knee cracks & almost wakes him up lol. Ive warned DF that there'll be hell to pay if he even considers letting rip in the bedroom while bub is asleep .

So I know there are wonder weeks.....anyone point me in the direction where I can find some info on these??

All good ladies...lol I had just been wondering if there was something weird & unusual that I hadn't tried that might work.

Im slightly annoyed now though. It seems to be a fairly common stage they go through, so why did the pediatrician make it out to be such a big deal?? Its kind of made me feel like I had been doing something wrong.

[Teeki]

I think sometimes the GPs and paeds get stuck on their definition of 'normal', and unfortunately that's sometimes a young baby that sleeps through and doesn't cry, and doesn't have changes in sleep patterns. I find a lot of the things my GP says could be worrying if I hadn't already researched the matter (e.g. Belley sometime goes 7-10 days without a poop, my GP reckons she *must* do one every day).

I've gotta laugh at letting rip in the bedroom lol. My DH gets up usually once a night to go to the loo, and because our toilet is a fair way from the bedroom it's sometimes noisy, and coincidentally that's when Belley would wake up. I was certain he was waking her because the timing was always the same, and if he didn't get up then neither would she. A good reason to shift her to her own room I guess, but I'd still rather keep her with us and feed her back to sleep that one time.

And leaving your arm under his head, I got stuck like that once! The slightest movement and she'd wake, but she was so exhausted and needed the sleep, I stayed there like that til she was practically snoring lol.

As for the wonder weeks, if you just google 'wonder weeks' the first hit should be the site I use, I think it's called wonderweeks.com. It goes through when they are and what bubs is learning at that point. I actually find it really interesting to know "hey, this is what she's learning now and this is what she'll be able to do after".

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Just throwing it out there but your little man is going through a pretty big wonder week atm which tends to last from 15 to about 20 weeks of age. During this time, they generally dont (cant) sleep and will want to feed more.

It will pass

ETA - I see someone has already suggested this, sorry.

[*Belle*]

Hon Annabel wakes up either once or twice a night too, either at 2am or 4am then again at 6am. Its quite normal for their age I think, mind you my other girls were sleeping through at this stage so im not 100% sure? but every bub is different with their sleep patterns?

Annabel is having wonder week this week also, she doesnt settle at night, at the moment as im typing she is crying so will make this really short sorry. Just want to give you big hugs and hope it will get better for you soon. I find if I put A to bed when I see her first tired sign (ie, yawning) she does settle a bit better for me, saying that she actually has dropped her morning sleep (9.30am) so I find it hard to settle her at her lunchtime sleep ! big hugs mate xxx

[Butterfly Dawn]

Wonder weeks- Hmmmmm I think they are called this because its a "wonder" we manage to get through them. Every day makes you "wonder" what the H*#$ is goin on and we all "wonder" were our good baby has gone.
As for sleeping through- none of my kids have done that as babys- I thought it was a falicy
Sophie has never pooped every day, once a week for the most part.

Baths can help to calm cranky babys, singing, sometimes kids tv (Sophie loves strawberry shortcake cartoons, crys if the boys change it, I didnt even realise she had been watching it)