Hello
I know that babies are not good sleepers, but I think mine is particularly bad and I guess I wanted opinions from others.
My little boy will be 6 months old next week. Although he's never been a good day time mapper, we were doing well at nights, with 2-3 wake ups only. Then he hit the 4 month sleep regression nice and early at 3 months and it has been torture ever since. He gets less than 11 hours sleep total in 24 hours, which is so stressful when I think about how overtired he must be, and what it's doing to his development.
His day time naps in his cot last 25 minutes tops, and that's a good one. I'd celebrate 25 mins. Usually they are 15. He might sleep longer in the carrier, pram or car but not always. I try so hard to get him to nap because I believe it is sleep deficit that is the problem, but the frustrating thing is that on the very rare occasion I can get him to sleep for an hour (this is so rare I can't tell you) his night time sleep is worse.
I watch for sleep cues. I am obsessive about awake windows. He sleeps in a totally dark room with white noise. When he wakes it's like a switch, he's just totally awake. he's rarely upset, just babbles to himself and kicks about, but I've waited 30 minutes before and he never goes back to sleep.
He used to let us rock him to sleep but now only breastfeeding does the job. This means that it's all on me and I'm so stressed and upset that I've made him so dependent on being fed to sleep. I have tried and tried other ways but it gets to the point where he has been screaming for 45 minutes and I feel cruel not letting him feed, so I give in.
At night we have a solid bedtime routine. He goes down between 6.30 and 7.30. Often he wakes after 30/40 mins and needs resettling, and then he does his longest stretch. This used to be 5 hours, but now is 3.5 absolute maximum. After the first wake up he is then up all night every hour, sometimes every half hour. Again I feed him back to sleep because I am desperate. Sometimes this won't work and he is just totally awake for 2 hours in the middle of the night.
This has been going on for 10 weeks now and I am exhausted and so anxious. I feel like I have failed him. I almost regret breastfeeding him (and I am so pro breastfeeding!). I don't know what to do. I can't read 'put him down drowsy but awake' one more time!!!
Advice and opinions very very welcome x