11 week old taking two hours to get off to sleep

[Triathlete]

I suppose I should start with a bit of gratitude - reading other people's stories on here has made us realise how lucky we are with DS. However a bit of input or advice would be gratefully received.

DS is a happy, sociable contented 11 week old. He sleeps little during the day - 2 or 3 x45 mins, but will sleep all night. THe longest he has slept was 9pm to 8am, but 9pm to 5am is more normal.

We started a bedtime routine very early, when he was a couple of weeks old. This was more for our sake than his, as we needed to know what we were doing. At the same time, we had to re-programme him as in utero he would wake up at 11pm and run around the place until about 4am, then sleep all day. He was the same after birth.

Anyway, the issue is that it is taking two hours to get him off to sleep. Routine starts at 7pm with bath, cuddles, feed, cuddles, bed. He will fall asleep for ten minutes then wake up and start whimpering. If I don't go in to pick him up, the whimper will build to an interminable shriek.

As soon as I pick him up, it stops, as if throwing a switch. He'll drift off as I hold him horizontally (good weight training) and then put him down, only for the whole thing to start again. It's a PUPD walk away routine. Last night I was on the stairs until 9.30pm. Luckily I have an interesting book to read in between episodes.

Yesterday I insisted that DS and DW go upstairs for a sleep, as DS doesn't sleep (or isn't allowed to sleep - some ownership issues with DW's mother!) downstairs. They both slept for two hours, but this didn't change the bedtime routine at all.

I repeat that it is a small problem by comparison, and I am sure many on these boards would be happy to have this issue, but I would welcome your insight and experience.

Thanks in advance

i think he is over-tired - waking a few mins after being put down is a classic sign of this

i would bring bedtime forward to 6.30 pm and i am sure you will see a difference

PU/PD can also be too over stimulating for some babies

7 pm bedtime is late if he doesn't nap brilliantly

It might help if he sleeps better during the night.

An 11 week old would 'normally' have three naps a day, and should get tired about one and a half to two hours after having woken up. Am I making sense? Basically if your baby wakes up at 5 am, he should be tired again at about 6.30 - 7 am so if you try to put him down at that time (with whatever you do to make him sleepy) it should help.

A lot of people (including myself) have figured out that a baby who sleeps well during the day sleeps better at night, as they are not over-tired.

Good luck!

Yep, more naps by whatever method you need to use - car/pram/sling/bedsharing/on you/rocking (lots of fodder for your MIL there )

Also make sure that eg wind isn't causing discomfort and be aware that the early 'light' stage of sleep can last for ages in some babies. I have to rock for a good 20-30 minutes before DS is in deep enough sleep to stay asleep after being put down (but then he's 5 months, can't self settle yet and doesn't sleep longer than 3-4 hours once or twice a week , so you might want to take advice from elsewhere ).

Hello and thanks for responses

DS got a couple of naps yesterday of an hour, and then we started the routine at 6pm. He was MUCH easier to settle and I was out of there by 7.15 and only had to go back briefly twice for a quick reassurance.

So far so good.

He woke this morning at 2am and took half an hour of rocking to settle, before waking up conclusively at 3am. At this stage we changed and fed, and I came downstairs to sleep. We're a bit frazzled this morning, and he is very grumpy upstairs, which is out of character.

So one step forward and one step backward. We'll carry on with the earlier routine and see whether things settle.

Just saw myself in the mirror and it occurs to me that my nickname should be "EX-triathlete". Oh well.

Have you tried putting him to bed at about 6.30 then waking him for a feed at around 10.30/11pm? We do that with dd - though at 11 weeks she would still have a night feed (anywhere around 3/4/5am) but she gradually dropped that herself and now sleeps from 6.30 to 10.30pm - feed - then 11pm to 7am. She is alos more unsettled if she doesn't have enough day time naps - would agree with Blueberry Pancake that babies of that age need a nap after about 1.5 hours of being awake - dd is nearly 6 months and she still naps like this!
Good luck - it will get better

Hello

Yesterday was a hellish day. DS slept all night, but DW and I woke at 2am and lay there waiting for him to wake. Eventually I got off again at 6, only to wake at 9...Kind of funny, really.

Then we went to the park and DS went ballistic - yelling to the extent that people were wondering whether we'd stolen the baby! DW upset, MiL not helping much. In the end I sent them in one direction and took DS in the other, to ease the situation. Very uncharacteristic of DS, he is normally so good outdoors.

Anyway, over-tired and over-hungry, he took a long time to get off last night, but slept until 7 this morning.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying "Thank You" for your replies and advice. It IS over-tiredness, he IS better when he gets more sleep during the day, and we're very grateful for your help.

Oscar