Lack of sleep getting me down

[Laylor]

My nearly 15 week old is a terrible sleeper. Always has been.

He feeds at around 10pm then again about 4ish and all the hours inbetween hes rarely still and spends most of his time thrashing about, rubbing his face and just looking really restless.

I'm so concerned hes not getting enough sleep.

He seems quite congested. Weve been using nasal drops but I dont think they are having an effect.

Any advise would be lovely

@firstimemamma thankyou I will have a look in to this.

@swaywithme not silly at all. I always wonder about his temp. He does tend to be a hot baby. We use the gro bags and strictly stick to the guide in what to wear. Obviously if he felt too hot or cold I would adjust but havent yet felt the need too. I did have gro bags and ones from mothercare. The instructions vary slightly so I just use the instructions depending on which bag I'm using.

@Letsallscreamatthesistene thanks for that. I think I'm going to try that and be more loose with the timings. Maybe I'm cramming too much in in such a short space of time. How much does your little one nap and how often?

@laylor like you during the day we feed and nap on demand, but he has a very loose routine that hes fell into himself of a longish nap midday, with 30min-1hr naps either side of this. The only time ill manipulate feedings is ill give him a feed at 4 to set up for a bedtime feed at around 6/7. Overnight he'll wake at 1/2am then again at 4/5am for feeds. Then he'll be up for the day at 6.30/7.30. He can only really manage 1-1.5hr awake times during the day at the moment.

Thanks for that. Have you heard of the little ones programme? I tried it when I was desperate when baby was about 9 weeks old and wasnt sleeping. It was hell on earth and so strict. You would hate it if your like me in no proper routine. You had to feed and nap at exact times. I was dreading the next feeding time or nap time. I understand the logic behind it but it really wasnt good for us x

It sounds like you just have a noisy sleeper. I have one too (takes after his father...) and he's constantly moving and making noise in his sleep. I thought it would be better when we moved him into his own room but now I just get woken up by the monitor instead (I'm a very light sleeper). Sadly I don't think there's much you can do other than acknowledge that, sometimes, babies are a pain in the arse. I hope you manage to get some sleep too. DS dropped his 4am feed about 4 months which was great because I used to find that last stretch very disrupted.

@laylor ive heard of it but decided it wasnt for me. I cant think of anything worse than trying to soothe a hungry baby with anything but food!

@mynameiscalypso thank god it's not just me. My husband snores on the other side of me which drives me mad. Like you said I think I need to acknowledge the fact hes noisy and hopefully I'll be able to sleep. Hes in a next to me crib attached to my bed so is literally right in my ear. I'd feed him 10 times a night if I needed to if it meant i could get some peace.

@Letsallscreamatthesistene it was awful. I dont even know why i did it. I think we lasted a week and then I gave up. The following day he napped beautifully and slept a bit better. I told the health visitor what I did and she was ballistic. She said 'do you eat at the same time every day' I said no. She said 'do you go to bed at the exact time every day' I said no and she said so why expect baby to do it.

We had a next to me as well but I moved it halfway down the side of the bed (and put DS so his head was towards my feet). I think that helped a bit although he almost always ended up squished in a corner somewhere!

That might be an option actually. It's so hard to get in and out of bed. Especially if baby in my arms xx

15 weeks old is still so so young, I know it seems like hell at the moment but they change so much each week. Don't worry your smug friends who's babies sleep through the night already will have some sort of sleep regression/nightmare toddler hurdle to come across soon
My 17 month old was a terrible sleeper until recently but an angel during the day and now I'm the smug one that doesn't have to deal with a nightmare toddler!

Thanks @peach1234 I know I need to ignore them. I read somewhere and cant think for the life of me where but it said something about 60 odd percent of parents lie about their babies night time sleeping

Little ones really worked for me when my baby was much older at about 9/10 months though.

@Laylor definitely. Someone said to me once when I was really struggling with DDs sleep "everything is just a moment in time" with babies and it was hard to understand that at the time but it is so so true. You are doing a great job, just do whatever you need to get through, next week there'll be something different!

@Russell19 I get the logic behind it and read the raving reviews but just didnt work for us.

@peach1234 thankyou. When I turn over in bed and see how pleased he is to see me makes it all worth while.

I'd say your baby was too young. It wouldn't have worked for me at that age but if you have paid for it, come back to it later. Some of it is great.

I ended up getting a refund but yes I havent completely written it off and may revisit in the future.

Really glad it worked for you.