Child 3 Help

[beneviesam]

Our third child is now 8 months and is a real drama to get to sleep.

He goes down about 730 and now is normally awake again by 930, then midnight, 2/3, 4/6 and then up at 730.

He will not settle unless he is fed, and even then he does not want to go to sleep.

In the day he normally gets 2 or 3 45min naps. He eats a little of what we have for dinner, obviously suitable for babies things only.

We are getting to the point now that he screams rather than cries, especially the 2am waking.

We go back to work routine in February so having two knackered parents is not going to be feasible.

We would like to get him sleeping through and will dedicate the next month to it.

So wondering what methods people have had success with and how any of the Ferber type approaches work with screaming?!

How does the going down at 7. 30 happen? I did a sleep program with GP after 10 months of zero sleep. Dc need to be awake at the actual going into to the cot stage. Even just a tiny bit awake!

can you just change up what he eats and drinks?

id change his bedtime and put him there earlier

id also make sure his bowels weren’t distracting him during the night

using Ella’s kitchen fruit pouches is good to get the bowels going

Also consider giving him a dream feed around your own bedtime

730 is normally bath, change and then feed whilst having a story with sibling, then into bed. He normally drops straight off. Most of the time he does go into bed a bit awake.

I did this last night and he went through until 1150 from 8 (late to bed as we were at a family meal) but normal service resumed at 2am!

He normally has a bowel movement before bath time

He sounds overtired. 90 mins of daytime sleep isn't enough but 3 naps is probably too many. I'd stick to 2 naps and try to extend the second one to 90 mins, so he's getting 120-165 ish mins sleep in the daytime. You'll need to put some work in helping him learn to link sleep cycles - be ready the second he stirs to go in and help him resettle for the first few weeks. Schedule roughly this:

Wake 7.30
First nap 10.00 30-45 mins
Second nap 14.00 90-120 mins
Bedtime 7.30

Ok, we have been nailing the two naps, 930 for 90-120min and 1430 for 60-90min. Bed time 1930 religiously and I am pleased to say a noticeable difference in the boy... Much happier and sleeping better at night.

Still 2 or 3 feeds, but in 12hrs that's more doable than 5 or 6!

Thanks for your help

Well done! Glad things are better. Sleep is such a minefield isn't it. I swear whenever we think we've cracked it something else happens and it goes up the spout again!

Posting again as we are starting to feel like there is no end to this now. Still no further along at night, albeit daytime largely cracked.

Baby 3 routine below:

0730 wake, breakfast and breast
1000-1100/1130 nap 1
1200 lunch
1400-1500/1530 nap 2
1700 dinner
1800 bath
1900 breast
1930 bed

Wakes then typically at 2130, 0030, 0300, 0500 and screams. Not cries, but screams. Only thing that settles him is milk.

He has just started trying to stand and is babbling incessantly, so I know there's a lot going on in his head, but surely he needs rest.

We have tried reducing feed duration and amount but if he hasn't had enough he screams.

We cannot do the cry it out or put down methods as he will wake the older kids and it's not fair on them.

He is 8.5mo now.

Amazing baby in the daytime.

Help!

I'd swap breast to formula he's crying for comfort/ breast

At the moment we split the feeds breast and formula depending on which of us gets up to feed him.

What change do you think formula will bring about?