MISERABLE 8mo HELP

[tiredmum1997]

My LB has just turned 8 months old. He was colic for the first 3 months and it was HELL he has always been such a Miserable baby, not very happy, never slept well, we have tried routines, we have tried every single thing under the sun and nothing works. His sleep seems to be getting worse and worse. He cannot self soothe, he cannot sleep without being next to us, he needs tickling, rocking, singing to, bouncing the lot and usually it gets him to sleep but now thats not even working, he just cries and cries and cries FOR HOURS. Now he won’t stay asleep more then 2 hours at a time and he is sat bolt upright wide awake or crying, it’s affecting my whole family, my relationship. My other child. I just can’t cope. Why is this happening and how do I help him? TIA

also, doctors are useless, he is a baby, they cry after all right? He crawls, he is standing up with furniture, he has 2 teeth, he is hitting all the milestones so has no delays in anything he can say mama, dada, nana etc. I just don’t know what coukd be wrong with him, he is tired his eyes roll but he WILL. NOT. SLEEP.

Hi tiredmum, I’m so sorry you are having such a difficult time. Just so you know there is an actual sleep board, so it might be worth posting this there. But my comments would be:

do you have a partner? If you do, could you ask him/her to look after your ds for one night (even if it’s a hellish night with no sleep you will at least know that ds is physically safe), you put in some earplugs (or go and stay with a friend?) and try and get a full nights sleep for once so you can think straight and formulate a plan of action.

consider earplugs for any other kids in the house?

if none of the usual tickling/rocking/singing is working, you could just think “what do I want to work?” And do that. If none of it is working anyway you lose nothing, and at least you won’t be trying ever more acrobatic exhausting things. We put a mattress on the floor next to my ds’s cot, then just lay on the mattress with my arm through the bars patting on his back and saying long (and hopefully soothing like a wave) ssshhhhhh sssssshhhhhhh. It didn’t work, but at least I was lying down. And eventually (after hours/nights/days??? Can’t remember my brain is fried but definitely didn’t work immediately) it worked. Then, I think for weeks, one of us slept on that mattress all night in his room, so that if he began to stir in the night we could start the patting/shushing routine again without having to get out of bed and the theory was we would start putting a hand on his back etc before he became fully awake.

the sleep board will have other ideas I imagine.

I read your post as my ds was a miserable baby too. But he is now twelve and amazing. It does get easier!

Hello it may seem like a silly question but do you reckon its possible his colic may still be affecting him ? I would normally say sometimes you have to let them cry in an attention seeking way i.e you have attended to all of their needs possible knowing there just crying for attention and leaving them to calm down obviously its hard and sometimes they can get hysterical which then you have to come back in as they say not to leave a child crying too long like but you have to know the difference of them being upset and angry I have a 9 month year old and sometimes you put him down like littro just know and he has a 5 min cry/rage where he will scream the place down and leave him in the cot on his own and ushally after 5 mins sometimes before he is asleep unless its get up time but I dont know if the space may be needed or enforcing them in their own room , we had our little boy in routine and then we moved from france back to uk and he was very tired after the trip and it was late for him arriving for the first couple of weeks it knocked his sleeping schedule to something similar to what your having and he was up every 2 hours ish I think as soon as we put him in his own room he stopped and slept the whole night the first 2 nights and then wakes up 2/3 night now just for bottle and back to sleep with dummy and blankie for comfort I dont know if its worth trying abit of space but i would recommend dad doing it and try get him in that routine as it can be very hard for women's horemoans around crying baby as you know which is why women will instantly give in to attention seeking babys but its not their fault after all its just mother nature but yeah maybe try get dad to do that it may work have a look at his colic see if that might still be an issue , and does he eat solids ? Sometimes a nice heavy ish meal for dinner can help them sleep better with a full tummy

I had a crier too so you really do have my sympathy. With mine it turned out to be Tongue Tie.

Does your DS have any of these symptoms @tiredmum1997?

Sorry the link didn't seem to work. The symptoms should be here.