HELP! My baby does not sleep!

[bakerh518]

Hello out there mommas!

I am mother to a beautiful nearly 8 month old boy who is perfect in every way EXCEPT... He does not sleep... Like, At All...

Our daily routine:

Awake: 430-6am
Up 7am (we get out of bed together)
Nurses on demand throughout the morning
By 730-8 he is showing signs of tiredness, staring, yawning, putting his head down. Back into our bed, sometimes he shows me he wants me to lay with him, other times we rock in bed but regardless of how peacefully it starts after about 20 mins of NEARLY sleeping, the screaming starts. Not just crying, screaming, eye screwed up tight, tears, blood curdling screaming, that lasts from anywhere from 20 mins to 2 hours (that's the longest I've gone still trying to salvage the nap) if he gives up quickly he will sleep (only if held) for an hour, (if I put him down 15mins-25mins)
Then he wakes, if he has slept the hr he wakes bubbly and happy, if less than 45 mins he cries and is clingy, then we usually nurse again. He is ready to play, crawls, and does his own thing really for about an hr and a half before showing tired signs again, this is the same routine except he does not give in for other naps during the day, I've recetly tried using a pack and play to do naps as we cosleep and he can crawl off the bed, however the little bugger will lay in his pack and play and stare off or play by himself until I get him back up! (No matter how long! I've tried leaving him in there until he sleeps, however then he misses lunch) he is exploring with table food, eats quite a bit of it. This routine continues until he is so overtired by 4-5 that he crashes hard, screams himself to sleep usually in a wrap or ergo, and sleeps for about an hr. Dinner, bath and then bed by 7pm... Heres the insane thing: bed time is perfect! He reads two stories with daddy, nurses (before story) and then two songs from mumma, he is placed in his little area of the bed and zonk... He is asleep NO CRYING, no screaming, and never longer than 20mins and he is out! He sleeps until 10-11pm has a second feeding and then is good until 1-2am when the waking routine starts up again...


We have tried some gentle sleep training and actually made our nights better for about a week and a half, then he stopped sleeping well at all....

Mumma is tired and frustrated! Im afraid there is something wrong and at best he is not even getting half the reccomended sleep for his age!

He has never been a GREAT sleeper but I feel it has gotten to a point that is unhealthy (could be my own paranoia, he is healthy in weight/height and on target for milestones)

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[bakerh518]

Any takers?

 

[mystica]

I read online that babies who have always been put to sleep may not develop the skills necessary to put themselves back to sleep once they've woken in the middle of the night sometimes sleep patterns signal some underlying problem as well .My LO suffers from asthma and that keeps him awake in the middle of the night .Initially we couldn't figure out why he was waking up crying an hour after we placed him in the crib but when we took him to the pd we figured out he was suffering from Asthma . Its better you consult his pd as well just to rule out any underlying medical condition .

 

[Snufflepop]

Have you heard of wonder weeks? Your son is two weeks older than my dd and our sleep is a total nightmare at the moment. She had been pretty good up until the last week or so when it seemed like all hell broke loose overnight. She point blank refuses to nap in the day despite being exhausted and night time sleep has become a battle too whereas she had previously been fine.

Anyway if you google wonder weeks there is a big leap at this age and it can cause a huge sleep regression. I'm just hoping we come out the other side with some new skills to make up for it!

 

[bakerh518]

R

I read online that babies who have always been put to sleep may not develop the skills necessary to put themselves back to sleep once they've woken in the middle of the night sometimes sleep patterns signal some underlying problem as well .My LO suffers from asthma and that keeps him awake in the middle of the night .Initially we couldn't figure out why he was waking up crying an hour after we placed him in the crib but when we took him to the pd we figured out he was suffering from Asthma . Its better you consult his pd as well just to rule out any underlying medical condition .

Thank you for your advice!

His PED only offered the advice of CIO or the Ferber method (which we did a version of the gentle sleep training that eventjy blew up) and cio is not something we are willing to do... Poor thing with asthma so young! hopefully they grow out of it!

Have you heard of wonder weeks? Your son is two weeks older than my dd and our sleep is a total nightmare at the moment. She had been pretty good up until the last week or so when it seemed like all hell broke loose overnight. She point blank refuses to nap in the day despite being exhausted and night time sleep has become a battle too whereas she had previously been fine.

Anyway if you google wonder weeks there is a big leap at this age and it can cause a huge sleep regression. I'm just hoping we come out the other side with some new skills to make up for it!

Thank you for your advice!

I did see the wonder weeks, however I thought it was much earlier? We went through a pretty sever sleep regression during the 4 month sleep regression but maybe that's what this again? I just feel so bad as he is exhausted a the time

Last night I did try not doing solids in the evening and just nursing more. he passes a lot of undigested food still so my thinking was maybe his belly feels full when he nurses before bed bc of the solids but then it's really not and he might be waking up starving so we tired that last night and he did sleep better, still multiple wakings but he didn't scream or stay awake for several hours at a time... I think we will try it again tonight..

Right now we're in the parking lot of the grocery store while he's asleep in the car seat... He screamed and screamed until we left the house