Please help I'm at my wit's end

[AllRainbows]

Hi there,

So basically as the subject suggests I am at my absolute wit's end with my 5month old DS and his sleep. It is an absolute nightmare. When I put him in the cot for naps he will scream and scream and will not stop it went on for an hour today. This includes me picking him up trying to calm him and then putting him back down I don't ever let him cry too long as I know even if I did he wot not stop, sometimes this works and he will go to sleep other times he screams again, I give him a few minutes to see if he will settle then pick him up again to calm him and repeat until he falls asleep.

On top of that, he wakes every 2 hours at night and has to be put back to sleep by rocking, he is formula fed and not hungry as he refuses a bottle or only drinks a small bit. Even in the morning after not having a bottle for 12 hours he isn't too fussed but will drain the lunch time one.

I just don't know what to do anymore. I am so fed up and end up in tears because it is all such a nightmare and I am exhausted. Please can someone give me some advice

That sounds really tough. Will he sleep anywhere else? Does he just want to sleep on top of you? (Or was that just my kids that did that?!)

Hi HollowTalk, he's not interested in sleeping on me , I even bring him into the bed at night and it makes no difference, he's not really a cuddly baby. He will sleep in the buggy but I really want to break the habbit of him being rocked to sleep as I believe this is causing an issue with night sleep. It is a total nightmare and I cannot even enjoy the days with him because I dread every nap time as I know it will just result in screaming for ages and then bedtime knowing I'll be up constantly throughout the night.

I would let him nap however he needs to in the day as a well napped baby generally sleeps better at night in my experience. Dd only naps on my lap or the sling but is happy in her cot at night

Does he ever sleep in the buggy without you rocking it? Could you put him in the buggy, walk around the block with him and then leave him to sleep in the hallway, or does he wake up as soon as you stop moving?

Do you put him down at specific times for naps? I don't have nap time for my 4m old but she lets me know when she's tired so she naps then and quite good about going down. If i tried to get her to sleep when she's not tired she wouldn't sleep. She might not have set nap tints bit head quite a good routine within the feed-play-nap-feed cycle so easy to map out my day.

That sounds very rough, I'm sorry you're going through that.

I am mother to a now 3 year old who was a very bad sleeper for a long time (and we still have to co-sleep)

Do you drive? One thing that helped me (admittedly when was a bit older than your little one) was to take her out in the car for naps. Once she nodded off I'd pull over and read or nap myself. Getting better sleep in the day did help her to sleep better at night.

If rocking does help, maybe invest in an electric rocking crib. Go with whatever works to keep your sanity and don't worry about bad habits, everything changes eventually. Good luck

Oh yes, HollowTalk's post is also something that I did A LOT, walk walk walk.

Another suggestion is a baby sling, see if he will sleep/chill in there while you move around a bit.

So he isn’t feeding at all overnight, just being rocked back to sleep? That’s quite unusual at such a young age. Has he been checked for cows milk allergy and/or silent reflux? If all otherwise fine, get one of those devices that vibrates the pram to mimic it moving? Agree with pp that naps at any cost help night time sleep.