Oh my god, my baby boy won't sleep! Help!

[jessicaR4bbit]

My son has always been a bad sleeper, and I have always had to either rock him and shush or feed/suck him to sleep. He will not sleep any other way. I was just barely tolerating this (hard to when he weighs almost 20lbs ) but over the past month he has gone from bad, to worse, to absolute nightmare and I am suffering badly.

I have no routine with him and I breastfeed. I basically just wait till he shows signs of tiredness and try to put him down asap. Usually he would be asleep in <5 minutes of whatever technique I decided on at the time. I have to hold him to keep him asleep longer than 30/40 minutes and have to re-rock/shush him or feed him back to sleep. This has been going on for nearly 5 months. I am immobile for hours each day holding him while he naps. If I don't do this, he becomes extremely overtired.

Well last week he had his first viral cold, and it seems since then his sleeping is just so incredibly bad. Like, worse than when he was a newborn. He is waking up every hour at times during the night and it isn't always feeding. He fights naps, and my usual techniques seem to not be working anymore. He cries when I try to rock him. He cries and pushes me away when I try to feed him. He cries in the car. In the stroller. In my baby carrier. He cries and kicks up a fuss and fights me, all day, every day, and all night as well.

I am at my wits end with this. How can I help the situation. I am thinking routine but honestly I don't know if I can adhere to a strict routine. All I do since he was born is make sure after 7pm he is kept in a dark, quiet room and interaction is kept to a minimum. What else can I do? I WILL NOT let him cry it out. I can not. But what options do I have? Help, I'm desperate and so, so tired

 

[likeaustralia]

Unfortunately (or fortunately..depending on how you look at it), all of this sounds normal. There is the four month sleep regression and colds and such can disrupt their sleep patterns. Have you considered co-sleeping? That's what I do when DS isn't sleeping well. It helps get him through whatever phase he's going through and then we transition back to independent sleeping gradually. As much as other people would like you to believe that baby sleep always "gets better," it most certainly has its ups and downs.

 

[1stTimeOct.12]

I feel your pain. I just keep telling myself this will not last forever. My lo will not be a two year old sleeping in my lap. My lo is almost four months now. And yes sometimes I have to let him sleep in my lap especially if he's not feeling well. But normally what I do is wrap Eli in his favorite blanket for each nap time and bed time routine. He now associates his blanket with sleep. Then rock, bounce, or whatever he needs to sleep. Eli just got into his own routine really. And sometimes he does miss naps but I don't stress over it. Right now we are working on crib training which has helped the not sleeping in my lap bit.

Have you tried laying you lo to sleep some place that he's comfy in?

 

[jessicaR4bbit]

I feel your pain. I just keep telling myself this will not last forever. My lo will not be a two year old sleeping in my lap. My lo is almost four months now. And yes sometimes I have to let him sleep in my lap especially if he's not feeling well. But normally what I do is wrap Eli in his favorite blanket for each nap time and bed time routine. He now associates his blanket with sleep. Then rock, bounce, or whatever he needs to sleep. Eli just got into his own routine really. And sometimes he does miss naps but I don't stress over it. Right now we are working on crib training which has helped the not sleeping in my lap bit.

Have you tried laying you lo to sleep some place that he's comfy in?

Thanks for the replies guys.

I don't have a blanket that I wrap him in, although I was considering doing that lately because he's always sticking his hands in his mouth with distracts him. I use a musical seahorse every time I put him to sleep in the hopes he will associate it with that. Sometimes after a while on my lap he will be in a deep enough sleep that I can put him down on his own, but every time this happens he wakes up not long after I do. I think he can tell that I am not holding him anymore. I have tried warming up the spot where I put him down so that it may trick him but it never works. I co-sleep with him all the time. It is easier for me since I breastfeed and get more sleep that way.

I am moving into a new flat soon and will set up the crib when we do (in about 5/6 weeks), so he will be 6 months (ish) by then I may start crib training. Any tips on how to do this? I think I will try the pick up, put down technique but considering how 'well' sleep has gone thus far I'm not even sure if sleep training is worth trying.

 

[1stTimeOct.12]

I was reading that some people let their babies sleep in their car seat in their crib. I wonder if that would work for you since your lo would be in a close space but yet on his own in a crib. I don't really know babies are like learning a foreign language. With my lo it's bit a process of letting Eli play in the crib, to taking short 20 min naps in the crib to now I put him into the bassinet at first, then when he wakes up again he goes into the crib. Hasn't been easly and lots of sleepless nights. But we're getting better.

Hope you find something to work for you!