Hi,
I'm hoping someone out there can help me, as I'm getting quite stressed and desperate .
My DS has been pretty good at night from about 6 weeks, doing 3-5 hour stretches. I'm assuming he wakes up during these, but somehow puts himself back to sleep. His naps are often very short (and have been from the start), never more than 45 min. to an hour - most are actually 15-30 minutes. At night, settling him used to be a bit difficult, but he went down in about half an hour of nursing, burping and me rocking him to sleep; rarely, he'd need a dummy to calm down after he woke up 10 minutes later. During the day it took a dummy and some rocking.
The problem now is that it seems it's getting progressively (and I mean geometric progression) more difficult to settle him at night and during the day. I put him down awake (tired, as he's yawning and everything) and leave him in the room, five minutes later he starts crying. And this crying is not the winding down type of crying, it's escalating into a very loud howl. During the day, it takes rocking and literally slowly breathing into his ear. He now refuses to take the dummy (seems he knows that I'm trying to get him to sleep).
At night, it takes 2 to 3 hours to finally see him asleep. I put him down awake in the dark and leave the room, 2-5 min. later he starts screaming (not crying, screaming!!), so I go in try to rock him and shush him. This no longer seems to do much, so I give him the breast (he's exclusively BF). He settles happily and falls asleep with mummy in his mouth. I manage to wind him without fully waking him and put him down half-asleep. He screams again as soon as his head touches the pillow (even though I lower him down VERY slowly and carefully). If I do manage to get him to fall asleep once he's in the cot, he cries again 5-10 minutes later. So I go in again and try to rock, give him the dummy (which he now refuses), nurse and put him down half-asleep or fully asleep, then 5-10 minutes later.... and the dance continues for 2-3 hours.
He cries from being overtired and even though I manage to get him to sleep, he doesn't stay alseep and each time cries harder and harder . I tried leaving him to 'cry it out', but he doesn't wind down like this, only gets angrier and more difficult to settle when I go in. I cannot bear to leave him to cry himself to sleep/crash .
Sorry for the long post, but I'm really desperate to make things better for my LO. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice?
Is it possible that he's bored in his cot? Because during the day, when I put him down, he seems bored that there's nothing interesting to look at (I take the mobile off, as it's very colourful and I don't want ot over-stimulate him). Is there anything that I can leave for him to look at that would not get him wound up yet would keep him amuzed until he's ready to drift off? (or am I loosing my mind thinking that he needs 'entertainment' to fall asleep ?)
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10 weeks old - sleep habits worsening (not improving like all the books say) with time!
22 replies
elk4baby · 23/06/2009 14:06
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