HELP ME. IVE BEEN TRYING TO GET MY BABY TO SLEEP FOR HOURS

[FeeFee832]

Please help me.

My partner is away. I've been trying to get my baby to sleep for 5 hours.

He won't sleep. He goes from laughing/crying hysterically.

We started bedtime at 5.30pm. He was asleep by 6.15pm. Woke up 25 mins later.

I don't know what to do.

I'm at breaking point.

Help

How old is baby?
Do you have a pram handy? Baby in pram and push up and down if you have the energy or baby in pram TV on baby TV or in the night garden on while you get yourself a cup of tea.. Won't do baby any harm they will be in a safe space and you can have 5 mins to yourself..

How old is he?

Sorry - he just turned 4 months!

Aaaaaah. Been there.

I put my hysterical baby down on the bed in front of me and just stared at him hopelessly as I was completely out of ideas. He sort of gave a dying scream, flung his arms out to each side and fell asleep immediately. The room was dark, I was no longer touching him or providing any other stimuli - I honestly think at that point he just needed it to be dark, quiet and uncomplicated. Maybe try that: feed him, then put him down in a dark room and start a timer. If he is still upset 3 minutes later then go back in. The timer is important, it'll feel like 10 million years otherwise.

Can you phone your mum or sister or friend to come round and help?

X-post - DS1 was the same age when he started needing total silence and no cuddles in order to sleep! So was DS2...

My parents have gone away, my best mates are away, my husband is away 😢

Start bedtime routine again. Bath, massage, feed, white noise, sit on edge of bed and bounce whilst stroking his eyes to close them. Good luck!

Honestly? Make yourself a toast mountain and lay in the sofa with him and watch a box set. Trying to force him to sleep when he won’t is only going to drive you mad. Give in and accept your fate- then when he does eventually drop off your BP won’t he sky high and you hopefully can too!

Loud white noise
Cuddle/bum pat
Sling

I'm feeding my 11 week old to sleep and hoping I can ninja him into his cot.

Never been so exhausted or close to breaking in my whole life. Husband has been away for 3 nights and this is the 3rd night of this. It's actually got progressively worse!

Try above suggestion first as that sounds a lot simpler!

Total darkness, walk up and down rocking, do not make a sound or react to the screaming. That’s what used to work for me and over tiredness

Thank you - will try some of these. I feel like I've tried everything under the sun!

Note - he was finally sleeping 10 hours a night.

No idea what's happened!!!

Agree that when this happened to me, what eventually helped was leaving them to it in a quiet darkened room. Trying too many different things just made mine lose the plot. Sometimes they needed to be alone to actually drift off.

4 months is a horrible time with the sleep regression! Is he teething, have you tried calpol?
If all of his needs are met he is most likely overtired by this point. I second silence, dark room, don’t touch him if you haven’t tried that.

Or as pp says, just put him down fed & changed in his cot safely and go and get yourself a glass of water and a breather for five minutes x

4 month sleep regression, they call it. Or "Babies like to mess you up" as others call it one day this will be a memory. For now, breathe and try some of the above

Been there, it’s shit.
I’d go for a reset - clothes off, nappy off, check all over for stuck fingers/toes/take temperature. Lights on everything.
Then back through bedtime routine and try again.

If you’re really losing it, put baby in cot (safely) and walk away. Phone a friend/family/even Samaritans - believe me it got that bad a couple of times.

It’s going to be ok, baby will sleep eventually

I tried to leave him in a dark room and he screamed the place down. I tried for 50 mins on and off reassuring him but I honestly couldn't take it anymore.

He's just lying on the bed next to me laughing and smiling.

I feel like crying 😢

It's the 4 month sleep regression 😬😬😬

Dummy?

I used to "hum" my baby to sleep when he was like this.

If possible, get his head on your chest. You want his ear over your heart.

Pick a simple song and hum it. Keep humming.

Hum as low as possible- you're basically vibrating your babies head over your heart beat.

Sounds insane but it worked on my teething, hysterical baby when nothing else did

I 100% feel your pain. Have been going thru something similar with my 3 month old the last few nights. The more overtired he gets, the angrier and the more he fights sleep. I really feel for you that you don't have a 2nd pair of hands to help. Do you have a car you could drive in around in for 10 mins? Or go for a quick walk outside with the buggy (mine is wide awake when inside in the buggy but tends to fall asleep when outside). Failing that- white noise on FULL blast (too quiet does nothing), room nice and dark, cuddle close and gently rock. Good luck, you've got this!

Thank you for the support AudacityOfHope - whenever I've relayed that story in RL people have smiled uneasily and edged away from the clearly unmaternal and unfit mother!!

You're exhausted. You need to just get through tonight. I'd just co-sleep for tonight.