How to deal with a newly acquired built-in alarm?

[elk4baby]

Hi,

We'd just come back from a week's holiday on Sunday, but it seems we've brought home a different baby to the one we took with us .

It seems my DS has developed a built-in alarm clock that wakes him 3-4 hours earlier than usual. It's definitely not enough sleep for him to be up for the day (6 hrs ). (This is unlikely to be due to the trip, as we were only 1 hour ahead).

Now, for 4 nights in a row he's woken at the exact same time (4 hours earlier than usual), screaming the house down. He's hysterical ! He's obviously still tired, still sleepy, but just can't go back to sleep. I spent almost four hours yesterday trying to get him back to sleep, and pretty much the same today!

Something's keeping him up and I can't figure out what it is! He's not cold, his nappy is clean (the exact same nappies he'd always slept in, even on holiday), he doesn't have a fever and doesn't seem to be in pain (he cries differently if in pain).
He tries to lie back down, falls asleep (it seems), but 2 minutes later he's bolt upright again and wailing!
I even tried feeding him (still BFing), but that hasn't done the trick . DS is miserable and wants to sleep, but can't! And these morning hours are leaving me completely exhausted , to the point that I actually shouted at DS today , and I'm feeling really guilty about it.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How do I handle this?

[teaandcakeplease]

You could try to wake to sleep if it is always the same time at night?

And today when ever he starts rubbing eyes etc just put him straight down for a nap. As he has a lot of sleep to catch up on bless him.

He is probably overtired now and full of stress hormones, as his body is trying to cope. So he will fight sleep being overtired. Make sure he's well fed, teething gel applied, clean nappy etc at each nap time and put him down when you see tired signs.

If it was me I'd do the PUPD method today at each nap and push on through until they pass out as the cycle needs to be broken.

But tonight I'd do wake to sleep. Do you know this method?

[teaandcakeplease]

See Ruby Slippers second paragraph onwards on this thread for wake to sleep.

[IMoveTheStars]

how old is he?

[elk4baby]

Hi,
Thanks for your replies.
My DS is 11 months now. He has actually slept ok over the past couple of months (6-7 hour block at least).
It was much worse tonight . He woke up with the same 'symptoms' just 3 hours after going down and has been up every 20-30min. thereafter.
I'm absolutely exhausted. We're going to see a GP today, maybe he'll find the reason for DS's restless nights. I'll let you know what he says.

[elk4baby]

Well, the GP was utterly useless!
He said that he can't see any obvious reason for the night waking, so we should wait a couple of weeks () and then if the problem doesn't resolve itself he'll try and figure out what's wrong with my DS.
Are all the GPs like this?!

[teaandcakeplease]

Well it could've been an ear infection but if his temp is normal etc. Then its not.

Its just one of this special stages our LO's go through

[teaandcakeplease]

• those

[elk4baby]

I'm just hoping it will pass... because so far it only seems to get worse

Is there anything I can do to comfort him in the middle of the night? BFing doesn't do the trick . Suggestions?

[teaandcakeplease]

tbh I'd try a dream feed at 11pm with some calpol in if it was me tonight. To see if that helped at all.

Or co-sleep for a short while for survival if couldn't face being up most of night trying to be strict on sleep.

Wake to sleep is worth a try if always the same time they first wake. I'd been tempted to look up a child's sleep expert and get an appointment if it continued though or read a child's sleep expert book like this one.

I'm really sorry I'm running out of ideas me thinks. Maybe another mumsnetter will have a plan for you x