(blatant use of my name in thread title to elicit responses from regulars...): HELP pretty please Tutter is at the end of her tether. i know there's a magic answer out there just waiting to be discovered [desperate]

[Tutter]

ds2

5.5mo

bfed plus formula at bedtime, weaned a bit early a couple of weeks ago - now has a couple of smallish meals each day

have tried tummy, back and side to sleep

have tried co-sleeping and in his own room

is usually swaddled, on his back, with dummy

he might be teething, but no teeth have yet appeared. he drools and has his fingers in his mouth, but babies do that don't they, so who the chuff knows

gp has checked him over - all seems to be fine

has been "cranial-osteopathed"

SO WHY DOES HE WAKE ALL THE FECKING TIME???

cat naps of 30 mins in the day

wakes 5-10 times in the night. last night worst ever - didn't make an hour at a go once

the bottle of medised looms temptingly, but i have to resist - ha had it 10 nights in a row until recently - to start with due to a cold, then because i couldn't bear not to give it

am bloody shattered

have you tried teething powders?

(have even cancelled NYE plans)

(and it's my birthday and everything)

has he always been a poor sleeper? Have you ruled out mild acidic reflux?

yes

tried ashtons and kutchers or whatvere they're called

and homeopathic chamomile granules

i would try weaning him off the dummy. If he sucks his fingers instead he'll do that to help himself go back to sleep when he wkaes.

is he uncomfortable? tummy ache or anything?
My first was like this. Wont tell you how long for cos you might five into the gin...

has always been a bad sleeper, but it's been particulalry awful for the last 6 weeks or so

yes he's reflux-y, but a couple of days of gaviscon appeared to make no difference

I think the first thing to tackle is the daytime naps.

How many does he have? Are they always for 30 mins? Some babies have a sleep cycle - eg they'll sleep for 30 mins, 1 hour, 1½ hours, but never 45 mins, or 1 hour 20 mins.

How long does he take to settle when he wakes in the night?

tried it califrau

had ds1 in a grobag by 4 weeks old but ds2 hates them

flappy arms

have even tried arms inside grobag

in fact atm he's swaddled in thin sheet, inside a 1 tog grobag

that's for the first chunk of night

then we try anything - on his side, next to me, no blankets/grobag, on his tummy next to me

etc etc etc

agree ditch the dummy let him find his fingers or use a comforter (mothercare sell machine washable animals suitable from birth - buy 2, take 1 back if he doesn't het attached to it) - lay it on his face (I jest) to accept it. I would revisit gaviscon and try for at least 4 days to see if it helps

i think he's going to have to have medised again tongith lapin

otherwise i'm going to keel over

it gives me a break of 3-4 hours

wandering, he normally has 30ish mins. he's in his cot. occasionally he'll do a longer one (last week he had 2hrs in his pram one day)

ds1 always had cycles of 40ish mins, but ds2's are shorter

but for him to find his fingers i'll have to quit swaddling

without a swaddle if he's on his back his arms and legs are all over the shop - flapping, scratching etc

wakes all the time

or shoudl i try it and view it as Controlled Flapping?

Dare I say it... have you tried a tiny bit of solids?

done it lapin

early, at 20 weeks, in desperation

has of course made no difference

At some point you're going to have to stop swaddling so perhaps just face it now?

is there any chance you are responding too early tutter?

do you wait a few minutes to see if it's just whinging in light sleep and he can settle himself a little

sometimes these things are just phases you have to live through ...

I've never used medised but have used calpol / nurofen for the pain of teething .. can you try an alternative analgesic (if the medised worries you that is?)

Might have zero effect but what about moving the formula feed to a daytime session and breastfed in the evening. As formula is harder to digest and might be partly responsible for the night wakening.

Worth a try ?

I've never swaddled, mine didn't like it ..so can't help there

BE, i shall try it tongiht - will give his bottle at his next feed and do a bfeed at bedtime

twig - yes, probably, for fear of him wakin ds1. also, the longer he whinges, the more he unwriggles from his swaddle, and therefore is less likely to settle

Do you put him down awake?

no advice but sympathy, Tutter. You could try the Controlled Flapping?

ds2 is a fair sleeper but beginning to get hungrier and more wakeful (at night. He doesn't do sleep in the day, unless he's in the sling). So I Feel Your Tiredness.

I have found that older children sleep a lot heavier than you realise and you may just have to let him cry a little more

basically at the moment he might not even be really awake .. and he's bugger all chance of learning to resettle if the second he lets out a mew you respond .. not to say you should go to controlled crying or the like .. just that there's a big difference

Can you pop him in a grobag instead of the swaddle and let him find his fingers as suggested before .. I don't know about swaddling, as said before, but thought it was only for newborns anyway

he'll cry if i put him down awake

not ready for cc yet (i think)

pu/pd a mahoosive faff ime

i hold/rock him til he's asleep

(he's a 20lb whopper)