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19 week old, sleeping badly

6 replies

kerrielovesnoah · 05/06/2014 20:52

Hello,

Any advice from some experienced mums would be lovely...

My son is 19 wks old, exclusively breastfed. He used to do a 5-6 hour stretch at night from about 5-10 weeks old, then it would be the usually 2hrs there after which I was fine with.

Since about week 10 however, he now goes 2-4 hours max, usually about 2 and a half for his first stretch, then as much as hourly there after! Sometimes it will be every 1.5-2 hrs but even that is exhausting!

To add to my woes...he is now usually wide awake for about an hour, usually sometime between 4-5.30. Most of the time he'll eventually sleep again until 6.30-7.

His daytime sleep is normally 4-5 naps a day of 30-45 minutes each! So pretty much every two hours give or take. I close the curtains, put on an ocean sounds cd, wind him, bounce on my shoulder and walk around, shush him etc and he's away within minutes. I then put him on the sofa. He often wakes every few minutes and I have to repeat the process. He usually still seems tired, or becomes tired quickly after. I've tried holding him which will help him sleep longer but this created an issue at night - he didn't want to be away from me. For s couple of weeks I had to co-sleep, though thankfully he's back in his cot now.

He has reflux and was very colicky until recently. He's still very windy at night, making lots of bum noises! He's also teething. He also seems to still have the startle reflex?! He's swaddled at nights too, and still wakes often! I also play the ocean sounds at night too.

Any advice? What am I doing wrong?? Please help!

Thank you :)

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Elednor · 10/06/2014 15:13

Hi Kerrie

Sorry, no advice to give but this will hopefully bump it to the top for someone more experienced to answer Smile Just know that you're not alone though - there are lots of us on here and I'm sure someone can give you some advice to get you through this Thanks

drbartlet · 11/06/2014 09:14

I was just about to start my own thread about the same thing!

Sorry I've no advice but my 16 week old is the same. Has never been much of a sleeper but did do a couple of 3 hour stretches once. Now he's up sometimes every half hour.
I feel like I haven't really been properly asleep for weeks.

He's never deeply enough asleep to be transferred so I feed him to sleep in my bed and he sleeps there or I rock him to sleep in the carrier or my arms and he sleeps there.

Why didn't I get one of these " put down sleepy but awake" babies? I'm starting to feel very bitter!

I will say that my first slept badly, not this badly, but woke severals times a night until around 18 months. There were many occasions that I thought I would die of sleep deprivation, but I didn't. And now she sleeps 12 hours unbroken every night. She's nearly 4.

kerrielovesnoah · 11/06/2014 20:45

Thanks for the replies Smile I'm still trying with him. He's not fully asleep yet... We're on three pick ups to rock to sleep again since 7.30, so far! Seems to be having a really bad couple of days. Although he is teething pretty bad. Poor bunny, it's a good thing he's so handsome Wink

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KLou1105 · 14/06/2014 15:21

Maybe he's having too many naps during the day my LO is 10weeks and she usually naps 3times a day first nap is always about 1.5 hours at about 10:30am then she will nap for about 30mins-45mins at about 3pm and 5:30pm then plays for a bit bath then bottle and bed at 7:30pm. Also with this warm weather atm maybe he's getting too hot being swaddled? Dd loved to b swaddled for the first 6weeks but she was getting sooo hot i used to have to strip her off in the middle of the night! I also use white noise just for bedtime not during the day so then she knows the difference between nap time and bedtime. Hope u find a solution soon x

rootypig · 14/06/2014 15:24

A sleep cycle at this age is 45 minutes. So he's waking up virtually every sleep cycle (normal - to rouse, anyway) and not putting himself back to sleep ever (this is what you need to teach him).

What do you do when he wakes up in the night?
Why doesn't he sleep in his cot in the day?

^^friendly questions Smile

kerrielovesnoah · 16/06/2014 10:02

When he wakes in the night, I used to bounce him gently in my arms, or feed if he was hungry then he'd go back in.

This past week though, he just cries hysterically when I put him back in and just want to be cuddled! I'm on my own with him so cuddling and co sleeping isn't a big deal but I don't want him to be sleeping with me as I want him to have healthy habits as soon as he can.

He doesn't sleep upstairs in the day, as I had a horrible 3 days where I tried to encourage that - resulted in 3 days of an over tired, sad baby and a sad, worried mummy. He also then hated his cot for a few days and it took me a while of persisting to get him back in. That was around 10 weeks, he now is putting up a bigger fuss about his cot than he did then!

Sleep for more than 2 hours is a distant memory!

Yes - I figured it was rousing after a sleep cycle, but rocking, sshhing or rubbing his belly etc, almost never works to get him back to sleep again in the day, if he wakes after maybe 30-40 mins, that's it, he's awake but tired still.

Feeding to sleep works sometimes too but again, I've read that's a hard habit to break? Also defeats the object of trying to put him down awake - a skill I've yet to master ??

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