This is my first ever post. I’m going to try to put in as much detail as possible in the hope that someone out there can help me 🙏🏻 I’m sorry if it’s as dull as dishwater to read!
Baby has just turned 6mo, breastfed apart from one bottle of expressed milk at bedtime. Just started weaning but only really plays with the food at this point.
At about 6/8 weeks I started to express for a bottle at bedtime to try and start a bit of of a routine. At that point he would be fed to sleep and be transferred into his next to me crib. He might sleep for 3 hours or occasionally 4 and then after that would be up every 1 or 2 hours until morning. This I could cope with as he was still newborn and I was getting a bit of sleep earlier in the night.
Once he got to about 12/14 weeks the initial 3/4 hour stretch completely stopped. And it hasn’t ever come back. So at 6 months he is now waking after every sleep cycle. First wake up 45 mins after going to bed and then after that he will wake up anything from 30m to 2h. It’s very rare he will make it past 1.5h.
He has a dummy, he’s still in the next to me crib, his bedtime routine is good and consistent I think. He has his bottle and tends to fall asleep without much of a problem.
Things I have tried;
- working on day sleep (naps have always been difficult but they are fairly predictable now - he has 3 naps totalling around 2.5h)
- stopping feeding to sleep, I try and make sure he is awake when he goes in his cot, even if he is very sleepy
- white noise
- no noise
- blackout blind
- pillow mist (lol)
- making a slight noise before the end of his sleep cycle to send him into the next (can’t remember the name of the technique)
- earlier bedtime/later bedtime
- last nap finishing at 3.30/4 for 7pm bedtime, last nap finishing at 4.30/5 for 7pm bedtime
- dream feeds when I go to bed about 10pm
- formula in bedtime bottle
- comforter (still working on this)
- putting my top over his mattress so he can smell me
- sleepyhead (swore I wouldn’t get sucked into that craze!)
- consultation with a sleep consultant who suggested a lot of things I had already tried
I’m sure there are other things...
Around 4am when I get to my wits end i put him in bed with me, he settles down a bit but will still wake just as much as if he were in his crib. I don’t want to co-sleep full time because I know it will be too hard to get him out of my bed and believe it or not, he hasn’t put me off wanting more babies!
I’m sure people think I’m exaggerating when I tell them how frequently he wakes. His dad is supportive but he won’t settle for him at all. Health visitor suggested trying him in his own room but i don’t fancy having to get up every 30mins to see to him in another room. As soon as he starts to go for maybe 2/3 hours at a time I’ll move him out. I don’t mind him being in my room until his sleep improves.
When he wakes he usually wants; a cuddle, his dummy putting in and settling or a feed. I used to feed every time but now it’s more like every other time, and sometimes i do it just for the quickest way to get him back to sleep.
Does anyone have any tips they think might help us to link his sleep cycles together so we can at least get more than an hour and a half at a time. I really worry about his growth and development being affected. He seems to have a very active mind, constantly on the go, impatient, wants to sit/stand/bounce/play all day.
Anyone else had similar experiences? How long did it take for your little one to start linking the cycles together? I keep reading horror stories about kids who wake every 45 mins until they’re 5!!
Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading would love to hear if anyone has any suggestions!