Hello I'm new to mumsnet - this is my first post and I really hope someone can help me as I'm going out of my mind.
Firstly bit of background info.........My son is nearly 9 months old, is a good calm happy chilled out breastfed baby. Sleeps through the night from about 7.30pm-6am. Has a dummy & comforter teddy and goes pretty much straight down to sleep at nap/bed time without much or any fuss on his back in his sleep bag. He naps during the day about 2-3 hours which is split between a morning and afternoon nap.
Yesterday he only managed a 30 min nap (late morning) we had plans for the afternoon so after he had his lunch we met up with my friend and her nearly 1 year old daughter at a soft play area with a ball pool. Both babies had a great time playing in the ball pool/soft play area. My friends baby is older so she was crawling and moving around a lot etc. Towards the end of our outing my son starts to become a bit unsettled (probably due to tiredness). Normally he is quite good and will happily sit in his car seat on journey home with his dummy and either go to sleep or play with his toys. However this was not the case and the whole 15 min journey home he cried and got really worked up and there was nothing I could do as was driving. He eventually fell asleep just as I pulled up into the driveway at our house and then woke when I got him out of car into the house.
After a quick breastfeed to calm him I put him down for his afternoon nap and he would not settle at all - very unlike him. He kept turning all over the place up and down in the cot, then falling asleep on his front and waking after 5 mins from falling asleep on his front as he doesn't usually fall asleep like this (he goes to sleep on his back). He would then get upset from waking up and being in this position and I would settle him and move him back on his back etc. (He can roll over on his own btw - no idea why he's decided he can't do it in his cot!) and anyway this vicious cycle would keep happening. I tried for an hour and a half to get him to nap and finally gave up because it was getting towards 5pm and I didn't want him sleeping after that point. So I got him out and calmed him down, his cheeks were a bit red so gave him some teething gel & a dose of calpol (just in case). He was then fine and settled and had a play and a laugh and lots of smiles, had his dinner and all was good.
Then went up for his bath & bed time routine and no issues other than he was rubbing his eyes from tiredness. Put him down in his cot to sleep and the same thing happened. Would not settle, really upset, kept rolling over and wouldn't roll back, kept falling asleep on his front and waking from it and getting worked up and upset. This again went on for another hour and half before I gave in and breastfed him (thinking it would settle and calm him). Nope the breastfeeding didn't work so tried him back in his cot, gave him some more teething gel this didn't work. He kept doing the sleeping on front again and waking again from it followed by getting upset again. My husband tried cuddling and swaddling him and calming him down which worked but then when put back in his cot would kick of again. It got to the point were he could have another dose of calpol so I gave him that. He felt a bit warm but didn't fell like he had a temperature - our thermometer is broke so we gave him it as a precaution as he was so unsettled still. Still would not settle and getting very upset still. From the time we first put him down (7.15pm) it was now 2 and half hours later and he still was not asleep.
In the end I cuddled him in my arms and he fell asleep, after 5 mins I was then able to transfer him to his cot were he stayed asleep on his back. This was around 9.50pm when he fell asleep and he only slept until 11.05pm (just as I was nodding off - typical!). The same thing started up again and it's now 1am and I'm still not asleep and he's still awake - then asleep - then awake and I'm going crazy I don't know what's wrong with him!!!
I had a few thoughts on the issues he's having, over-tiredness is a definite, but some other things I thought of are:
- Overstimulation (from play area)
- Growth spurt
- Separation anxiety
- Trying to achieve crawling? Maybe after seeing his friend crawl...
- Upset due to teething or something else, tummy ache?
Or a horrible combination of the above :-(
I'm absolutely exhausted and getting emotional and upset from a lack of sleep and from hearing him crying and getting upset non stop as I'm just not used to it he is generally a very good baby. I don't know what to do anymore I'm at a loss and so fearful this is going to continue all day tomorrow and for many more days and nights to come! Everything I've tried that would usually work is not working and I'm out of ideas.
My other issue apart from him not sleeping, is the sleeping on his front - I can't let him sleep on his front can I? If I could let him then maybe we would both be able to get a little bit of sleep as he wouldn't be disturbed when I flip him back over, and I would stop worrying?!
One final thing I forgot to mention is his comforter teddy had to be washed and wasn't dry for bedtime and still isn't and so I had to give him a replacement one. As silly as this sounds, it couldn't be as simple as that? I really don't think it is that but just thought I would mention it...
Any help and advice would be really really appreciated.
Thanks for reading this very very long post!