Sleep help

[houseofstark]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice about 4.5 month DS2's sleep. I'm so tired I can't work out what to do for the best.

He's not a good sleeper at all. My two problems are that he fights his sleep and only catnaps in the day.

I mostly hold him to sleep and then try to put him in his Moses basket, with varying success.

If I hold him he'll sleep for an hour, maybe an hour twenty. In his basket, car seat or buggy, he'll only sleep for thirty minutes. This is difficult to then get him in any kind of routine and means he's grumpy as he hasn't slept for long enough.

Night time sleep is getting worse at the moment, with wakings every couple of hours at least.

I obviously need to help him fall asleep on his own and also sleep for longer. But it feels ambitious to do both at once, so which would you concentration first?

Thanks in advance, I'd really appreciate anyone's thoughts and experiences.

I have the same problem . I read that at this age cat naps are completely normal . I try and get dd down every 1.5-2hours and bedtime at 6pm. I will try and find the link for you

Have you tried a dummy?

Babies cannot go to sleep by themselves, they need to be helped to go to sleep. Some do that by holding/cuddling to sleep, some babies like movement (rocking, pushchair, carseat), some are fed to sleep or comfort breastfeed. The dummy is by far the easiest to allow for independent sleep without needing an adult to get to sleep (aside from dummy re-insertion when waking, when young)

What about a bouncy chair for naps instead of the moses basket? This allows you to bounce back to sleep on waking, lengthening naps.

Short, frequent naps are quite normal at this age. I would aim for 90 minutes awake then 30-45 minutes asleep. I like the EASY routine:

E - Eat (full feed) - 15 minutes
A - Activity (awake time) - 90 minutes
S - Sleep (dummy & bouncy chair) - 30-45 minutes
Y - You time (while baby sleeps)

All timing are approximate and baby led, whatever works best for your baby. But EASY gives you simple structure and order to your day. I liked a 2-2.5 hour EASY structure at this age.

Thanks so much both for replying. I've just lost a post I wrote in response, so will try again now!

DS2 has always needed a lot of help to sleep. In the early days I was swaddling, shushing, swinging and using the dummy. Now it's rare to need to all at the same time but I still swaddle and use the dummy for naps at home.

We are also roughly following the EASY schedule but I find I'm going off track from it as he gets older. He only wants to feed every 3-3.5 hours now which is too long for the EASY schedule FATE has detailed in her post. As he cant go more than 1.5-2 hours awake, I thought lengthening his nap might put us back on track. I'm a bit reluctant to feed more often unless of course it helps his nighttime sleep - wishful thinking maybe!!

Thanks again for replying, it's really useful to get your perspective, particularly as your familiar with EASY.