Not sure what to try next... don't understand babys sleep!

[suzi2]

Please bear with me as this could be long...

DS is 6.5 months. Breastfed and has been on 1 small meal of solids for 2 wks.

The first few months were fraught with poor sleeping. Nothing new there then . After that he became quite predictable with his sleep for a few weeks. He would go to sleep about 9pm and wake once in the night for a feed. I thought "this isn't too bad". Anyway, between 15 & 20 wks he became awful, waking anywhere between every 20 mins and 2 hours all night. Then, aliens replaced him with a baby that suddenly started sleeping through for 10 hours at a time.

Sleeping through went on for about 3 wks. He then went back to waking a couple of times a night. Then back to waking every 20 mins for a few weeks. The last 2 wks he's woken twice a night like clockwork and wants fed before going back to sleep. I know it is habitual though. Anyhow, 2 nights ago we had another awful night and were expecting this to be the start of another few weeks of it. However, last night he woke just once.

I'm so confused. There seems to be no correlation between his sleep and his feeds, solids, what I eat, teething, room temp, etc etc. I'm not sure where to go from here. I have, at times, implemented various sleep training techniques. However, as his sleep is so variable, nothing seems to help. I go to bed at night not knowing whether he'll be screaming in 10 mns for an hour or waking for a feed in 6 hours.

He's also a dreadful daytime napper and I seem to spend most of the day fighting his grizzling and trying to get him to nap. He always wakes after 45 mins. Even if I sit in the room beside him and try and lull him through the cycle.

I feel that we should be tackling his sleep problems but can't seem to pinpoint the problem to tackle

Any ideas?

Oh, should mention that he can settle himself at night for his sleep at 7pm. Sometimes settles himself during the night (as long as I don't go in to him). And sometimes settles himself during the day if he isn't overtired.

Rarely falls asleep on the breast. Only occasionally in the middle of the night.

Needs a dummy to sleep. Unless he's in the car. Sometimes settles when dummy is replaced, sometimes not.

Any thoughts really appreciated.

I really have no idea either but judging by what you have posted I would assume this probably growth spurts.
I think you seem to be really stressed but I don't think you need to be. We all assume that growth an development is just one smooth curve but in fact it isn't.
I have a two week old now that compared to my first is a completely different kettle of fish, completely unpredictable, every day is different.
How is your breast feeding? Is there a possiblility he's hungry? It'll take a while before he's digesting the soilids properly.

Sorry, cant thing of anything profound to say that might help but do you keep a diary? It might be helpful to do it for a week or so to see if there is a pattern and you're missing it. Maybe he sleeps better at night when he's had good daytime naps or somehting like that.

my dd did that for 2 years some nights she would sleep through and other nights i would be into her every hour no pattern to eat and wakings didnt seem to be for any particular reason have resorted to phenergan on occasions when the sleep deprivation got too much then all of a sudden she just started sleeping and now get 7 til 9 without a peep i was always consistent with her never let her get up just reassured her i was there etc no big conversations think eventually the whole sleep thing just sunk in! its great i get loads of sleep and feel great for it and she is better for it as well good luck hope it doesnt take as long for you

Any chance he is teething?

We get frequent wake ups when DS is teething

xx

Agree about keeping a diary. I have just started doing that for dd and have noticed that if I put her for naps at certain times I have a much better chance of getting her to sleep. Even though she is tired sooner/later if I put her down it is a pointless excersise!

Thanks everyone. He's permenantly teething but still no teeth! Anyhow, we had another good night last night. I was up 2 or 3 times to pop his dummy back in, but was literally awake for a couple of minutes at most. I didn't feed him until 6am but was awake from about 3am with sore boobs ! Even though he had a great sleep, he seems shattered today and just wants to sleep every hour.

I'm, going to keep a diary...