15 Week Old Not Sleeping! It's Effecting Our Bond!

[Stanford1989]

My 2nd child doesn't like to sleep... Ever!

He'll happily go down about 9pm after a bottle and a cuddle - but EVERY night without fail he will wake at 00:50.

Since he's been born we've had 3 nights where he's not fully woken at night however he did stir a lot through the night every hour.

He doesn't seem comfy in his bed and wriggles around a lot. We've tried raising his cot so he's not flat, we've tried a pillow under the sheet (my first born slept through once he had a pillow) we've tried early nights, putting him to bed later, letting him sleep through the day, not letting him sleep through the day as much, letting him settle himself, giving him a bigger feed at night, bathing him every night, baby massage, long walks keeping him awake before bed, mobiles, not changing him when he wakes.

I hugely struggle when I don't get enough sleep as most do and I feel it's effecting my bond with my lo. My eldest is now starting to be effected as I'm irritable all of the time.

How do I get my lo to sleep? Help!!

What's he doing when he wakes at 00.50? If he's awake all night after that, then maybe worth getting GP to check him over and make sure nothing's wrong.

If he's going back to sleep but just unsettled for the rest of the night, probably standard 4mo sleep regression. Horrible but will pass! Can you go to bed at 9 and at least get those 4+ hours as an unbroken stretch? Not great for getting evening downtime, but you need to prioritise sleep when you're really struggling. Mine woke every 45 mins for weeks during that regression, I nearly threw myself out of a window - getting sleep when I could (DH took her in early mornings to give me an unbroken chunk) was the only thing that kept me going.

He goes back to sleep - eventually. Some nights straight away some nights about half hour later.

I'm hoping it does pass - I'm returning to work soon so the lack of sleep is very soon going to be even harder!

Thank you for your reply :-) xx

So he's only waking once?

Sounds perfectly normal.

In fact, I'd have happily swapped DD and DS at that age for your DS because they were fucking atrocious sleepers.

15 weeks and he's sleeping from 9pm until
the morning with one wake of up to half an hour. Please tell me you're joking about this being an issue?!

Isn't it normal for a 15 week old to still wake in the night? My 12 week old wakes for a feed at least twice a night. It sounds pretty good if lo is sleeping 9-1 then sleeping until morning after a short wake up.

Maybe I didn't explain enough - once he's awake at 00:50 he's fed and put back to bed but he will not fall back to sleep at this point and if he does its for no more than an hour at most.

It's not the fact he wakes for a feed that's the issue - it's the fact he then won't sleep after

So he sleeps 9-1, then maybe 2-3, then awake for the rest of the night? When does he next fall asleep?

Yeah - we might then get an hour from 4-5 some nights or if we're really lucky 4-6 - but that's not without him waking about 3 times in between where I get up to give him his dummy and out his dream sheep back on.

Some nights he will go back to sleep after his feed but he's so unsettled - moaning and whining waking himself up more and more.

Just don't know how to get him to stay settled and try and reduce the stirring he does.

He has a good morning nap after the school run (being in the car) from about 08:30-10:00/11:00 some days.

No advice on getting your DS to stay asleep but if I was you I would definitely be going to bed at 9pm when he goes down. Then I would be taking it in turns with DP so at least one of us could sleep.
In your situation we would probably both go to bed at 9. One of us would get up at 1 with DS then swap after a few hours. Not ideal but for me sleep is definitely a priority so we do whatever we can to get the most. If I wasn't at work I'd also get back into bed during his first nap!
Most things are phases and hopefully your DS will become a better sleeper as he gets older.